Houston Wedding Photographer – Kelly Urban Photography

The step-by-step guide (and worksheet) to your first few steps in your wedding planning process.

Wedding planning can be one of the most stressful events you will ever have to plan. Luckily, there are vendors to help and helpful guides to show you the way. This particular guide will help you with the first chunk of planning. I like to break planning up into chunks to make it easier to handle.

You’ve been engaged for 0-6 months now. What are your first steps?

#1 Pick your wedding aesthetic. Are you a free-flowing hippy, or a city-slicker? When you think about that moment you say “I Do” what do you see?

#2 Pick your ideal wedding city. Maybe you want to get married in your hometown, maybe you want to have a destination wedding. Either way, figure out the location that would best suit you and your fiance.

#3 What season are you wanting to get married? Be conscious of the weather, temperature and seasonal natural disasters of the city you chose.

#4 Research venues that will help define your wedding style. There are, of course sites like The Knot and Wedding Wire to help you do your research. However, one of my favorite sites to research wedding venues is Here Comes the Guide. If you are a spreadsheet kind of person (I know I am) make sure to include the average cost of the venues. Then, when you’re done researching venues, you can calculate the average cost of a venue based on your research. Make sure to read the reviews of the venues on those sites and sites like Facebook (and not their website).

#5 After you’ve researched venues and the average cost, you now have an idea of where to start with your wedding budget. A wedding venue should be about 40% of your total budget. Take your average cost and divide it by 0.4 to get your total budget starting point. Please note, this is a guide and nothing is set in stone. If you have family property that you will be getting married on and you’re not paying for it, then you can’t base your budget off of that…

#6 Reach out to your top 5-10 venues. Take tours of the facilities (because photos don’t always do them justice).

#7 Book THE VENUE!! Don’t second guess yourself. Your first decision is almost always the right one.

#8 Take a break. Give yourself a pat on the back or go out to eat for a celebratory dinner & drinks! You’ve done a great deal of work for your wedding and you deserve it.

Download the worksheet. Click on this link — So you’re engaged, what’s next.pdf

 

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Want to know more? Click here to continue onto part two.