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First steps towards planning your wedding

Planning your wedding

As we enter prime engagement season between Christmas and Valentine’s Day, one husband and wife team of Celebrants takes a look at what to consider when planning your wedding.

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Step one is getting engaged

Congratulations, you are engaged! Well done, you’ve already taken the first step towards your wedding day.

It is not always an easy journey planning your big day, and it’s possible that you may need to make a few tough decisions along the way, so let’s consider some of your options.

Work within your wedding budget

To avoid stress, work within an affordable wedding budget. Rather than having a celebrity show-stopping wedding, opt for decisions that reflect your personalities.

Your wedding finances may not stretch to include some of your preferred choices, indeed some decisions may be harder because of all of the mind boggling choice of wonderful suppliers available.

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Consider a wedding planner

You can of course, use the services of a wedding planner. This is an excellent way of bringing preferred, trusted suppliers together, saving you a lot of time and effort, but will undoubtedly will have a cost attached to it.

Weigh up the time and stress that a wedding planner can save you, against organising everything yourself.

Possibly, using the full services of a wedding planner may exceed your wedding budget, but how about just bringing one in to make sure that everything runs smoothly on The Day?

If a wedding planner is totally out of the picture, where do you start with organising your wedding yourself?

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What can you do yourself?

Our advice, is keep it simple. If you have made the decision to organise your wedding yourself don’t rush. More importantly, enjoy planning your wedding ceremony!

You can always change and adjust your plans later on, but in the first instance, it’s a good idea to start with the basics.

You’ve already made your most important decision, you’ve chosen the person you love, to become your partner for life, to show and declare your love and commitment to each other, in front of all of those people who you hold in the highest regard.

Well done, the hard bit is over, let’s start with the practical part of the day itself.

Plan a wedding contingency

Back to basics, set that budget. Write a realistic figure down, that you are comfortable with, and that you can afford.

Preferably, add in a ‘Plan B’ contingency fund, about ten percent, as a rough idea, to be available for those little emergencies or forgotten items, (and however careful you are, there will always be some of those!)

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Book a wedding venue

Next, it is a good idea to choose your venue – save the date! It might be somewhere that holds special memories, or simply a place that is particularly pretty or attractive.

Remember, when choosing your venue, that if you are having a symbolic celebrant-led wedding, your location doesn’t need to be licenced for a ‘legal’ ceremony in the same way as for contracting your marriage with a registrar [in the UK]. This gives you the wonderful opportunity to have your ceremony almost anywhere, a hotel or pub you enjoyed visiting, a field full of hay for example, or even your back garden.

And that brings us nicely on to your choice of celebrants.

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Photo credit: Special Day Ceremonies

Choose who to officiate your ceremony

Check the information relevant to the country and area where you live. In essence a registrar contracts a legal marriage and a Celebrant officiates a symbolic wedding ceremony – though there are some wonderful places in the world where a Celebrant can officiate a legal marriage as well as your wedding ceremony.

You will find a wide and interesting selection of Celebrants and Officiants here totally searchable by country and location. Read through the profiles to see each Celebrant’s niche or specialist area…. and if you want a husband and wife team, of course check out our Featured Celebrant profile below!

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Where to find wedding suppliers

Why not join some of the bridal and wedding groups on Facebook to discover personal recommendations for where to find the best wedding suppliers in your area.

There are also some great groups and forums online for sharing information and advice for creating your own DIY wedding.

Good luck and have lots of fun planning your perfect wedding day!

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