Planning your own wedding is the ultimate ‘do it yourself” project.  The entire event comes from your hard work and coordination.  All of the information available to you on the internet can be very overwhelming and you just don’t know where to start.  Here are a few ways to help make this process as smooth as possible.

Example of The Bridal Dish's Planning Binder

We would suggest starting with a binder to help organize all of the information you gather.  You want to be able to spend your time looking at your information rather than looking for it!

Set your budget.  Everyone has a price they absolutely can not go over.  Use this as your baseline, divide out the categories where your budget will go, and figure out how much can be spent in each area.  If you aren’t quite sure of where your budget should go, we can get you a budget guideline based on percentages of the total funds available.

Make a planning checklist by writing down everything that needs to be done before the wedding.   Walk yourself through the wedding day starting the morning of.  Work through the day noting everything that needs to be planned(not the details, just the overall).  Give a timeline for each area so you know when these things need to be completed.  If you feel that you are missing ‘to do’ items, we have a tailored planning checklist available for our brides.

Picture how you want the event to feel.  Everyone has a different idea of the perfect wedding.  Envision yours.  This can help when choosing your vendors.  The internet is a great resource, but it can be really hard to distinguish one from another.  If you are feeling lost, check out our vendor binders here in the studio.  They give you examples, price ranges and contact information for vendors that we know will take excellent care of you.  If you are unable to visit the studio, you can always make an appointment with a consultant.

The Bridal Dish Invitation Center

Once you have your big vendors booked(ie. venue, church or officiant, caterer, photographer…) you can order your invitations/save the date cards.  If you are expecting people to travel, it is essential that you send a ‘save the date card’ so they can make arrangements.  Extremely busy people appreciate the advance notice, as well, so they don’t double book that day.

Go through your checklist items, one at a time, and start making notes on the details. This is where the overall feel for the wedding will start coming into play.   Many times, this will add items to your checklist that happen the weekend of the wedding(ie. welcome gifts for out of town guests placed in their hotel room).  These are all details that need to be thought through or discussed with a consultant.  Having them on your checklist will ensure that you don’t forget them or neglect to complete them on time.

Many times brides that want to do it all on their own find they still need some guidance and references.  Talk it through with people you trust or utilize the wedding planning studio to give you the direction you need.

Happy Planning!