Wedding planning tips for couples.

Congratulations on your engagement! So what do you do now you're engaged? The ultimate guide to starting wedding planning and considering your wedding budget.

First of all – huge congratulations! You are engaged! What a moment! This may have been something that you have been waiting for, for quite some time, and now it’s finally here or perhaps it was more of a shock.

Now, you may be left wondering what the next stages are after your engagement and in what order. But before you start to stress, don’t worry you are in the right place and we are here to help!

Planning a wedding is a timely process –so you don’t need to start planning the moment you say “yes” to your significant other. Every couple’s timeline is different and you don’t need to compare how quickly or slowly you decide to get down to the planning process. When it comes to the timings of everything, it can be confusing – Who do you tell? When do you plan the engagement party for? What planning tasks do you need to tackle first? These are common questions that many engaged couples wonder; luckily I have the answers for you.

Here we break down what to do now the proposal has happened…

Break the news:

One of the first steps after you’ve got engaged is to share your happy news. Take as much or as little time as you like! Some couples want to tell everyone as soon as possible and have the Instagram announcement posted before their partners have time to get up from their knees, while others may like to keep it a secret for a little longer. When you are ready to tell people make sure you’ve told immediate family and friends before posting to social media. Once your immediate family and closest friends are in on the news – you can go public and get your relationship status changed on Facebook.

Enjoy being engaged:

Once you have shared the news take as long as you can to just enjoy the experience with your fiancé. Relax, don’t jump straight into the planning and just enjoy being engaged for a little while. You may decide to have a party or arrange an engagement shoot.

Of course, if you are planning a shorter engagement or you just want to get straight into the planning then you may not want to delay the planning for too long – do whatever feels right for the two of you.

It’s also worth mentioning in this section that you may want to get your ring insured. It’s a pretty sentimental piece of jewelry after all.

Get organized:

When you are ready to get down to the wedding planning – I'd suggest getting an organizer or a planner to keep everything in one place. There will be a lot to coordinate over the next few months. Get into the habit of keeping important information in a specific place – there's nothing more frustrating than trying to hunt out a contract or RSVP when you need it.

Start to think about what kind of wedding you want to have. A formal gathering? or a relaxed outdoor wedding? Do you want a church? If you have no idea where to start think about what kind of personalities you have as people, do you enjoy a good party or are you happier at smaller, more intimate gatherings? The Internet is a great help when it comes to planning a wedding. Pinterest and Instagram are great places to start. Create your mood board and pin things that appeal to you, it’ll be handy when showing your supplier’s colors, the atmosphere, and the mood you want to recreate for your day.

Next, it’s time to think about what’s important to you as a couple. You may have always wanted a hog roast at your wedding or to arrive by horse and cart, if you have something that you have always had your heart on then you should have it – and if you have a budget, make savings elsewhere.

Set aside some time to plan:

Once you have chosen a wedding date, start a list of tasks that need planning. I would recommend setting aside some time with your significant other to go through those plans between now and the wedding. Planning is best done in stages so as not to get overwhelming. Don’t let wedding planning take over date night, as it’s still important to set time away from planning as a couple. By allotting time specifically to tackle your wedding to-dos you’ll accomplish so much more than just getting around to it whenever.

Make a list of what each of you is going to do and split the tasks so that you can both be involved. This will keep both of you involved, every step of the way. Keep communicating too so that you don’t end up contacting the caterer twice or booking two florists! Your partner may not want to be so involved in choosing the decorations for the tables and so that can go on your list and you may decide that you are happy for them to choose the evening entertainment so that’ll go on theirs. Have some tasks that you’ll do together too and you’ll soon get into the swing of wedding planning.

When the planning gets tough, take a break from it all. It will wait. Spend the time to reconnect as a couple and get excited about the day ahead.

And there you have my top tips on what to do now you are engaged! Welcome to wedding planning, we know you are going to love it, and remember I’m here to answer any questions you may have.

I hope that this blog post inspires you and supports you in your wedding planning.

Love and light, Victoria.

Victoria Fenix

You’re Engaged! Now let’s talk about the budget!

You’re finally engaged and ready to hit the ground running with your wedding planning. You may have been dreaming of your perfect wedding for years, but don’t let ideas get ahead of your finances! While setting a budget can seem like a dull task – especially when there are much more exciting tasks to be getting on with – hello engagement party – it’s a necessary task. Your budget is arguably one of the most important parts of planning your wedding.

In all of the excitement of wedding planning, it can be easy to just start looking without knowing how much you have to spend. No matter your wedding plans – having a wedding budget means you’ll be able to make informed decisions at the right time and stop your finances from working against you. If you’ve got an overall budget in mind – great – research options, get some quotes, and start to allocate parts of your budget to areas within your wedding that the two of you wish to have. If you haven’t got a figure in mind yet – don’t worry there’s time to figure it all out – this guide will help you!

Whatever your situation, there are some general guidelines for setting your wedding budget:

Step One – Figure Out Who Is Contributing To The Budget

You may already know that it’s just you and your partner who will be solely paying for your entire wedding – in which case this step will be a really easy one! However, it may be that parents or other family members wish to chip in and contribute to your budget. Finding out who is willing to contribute is going to ease decisions further down the line and give you an idea on just how much you have to spend. Of course, this can be a tricky conversation to have. We’ve come a long way from expecting the bride’s family to pay for the entire wedding but it is worth knowing whether either family wishes to help with a specific cost. For example, if your family wishes to pay for the transport or flowers – you can remove it from the budget.

It’s worth noting that contributions come not only in the form of money. Being a wedding supplier myself I know the amount of time, effort and cost that go into areas of bringing a wedding together. Having a talented friend or family member make your wedding stationery for example will free up costs for you to spend in other areas. Just make sure that whoever volunteers to help out in this way is open to having conversations with you about your theme and ideas and knows just how much work they are taking on! Depending on the job they have been tasked with – it may include them missing moments throughout the day or mean a very early start on the day of the wedding.

Step Two – Decide What You Can Afford

Once you know whether you are receiving any help from your family you are then able to focus on what you are both able to comfortably afford. You will need to comfortably afford to spend. First, look at your savings and how much you are willing to allocate from your savings fund towards your wedding. You should always keep an emergency fund to cover unforeseen costs that could arise in day-to-day life – such as an emergency repair. Plus it may not be the best idea to dip into a special saving fund – such as a house deposit.

Then write down exactly how much income you both receive per month. Deduct all of your consistent financial commitments such as your rent or mortgage, insurance, transport costs, and food budget per month. On top of the bills that come out each month, you’ll have extra expenses such as birthday and Christmas presents to budget for, days out with friends, new clothes, haircuts etc.. So set a realistic amount for those extras. After you’ve taken it all away, what is left is the amount you have to spend or to save for your wedding. You may decide you are going to sacrifice some of your normal monthly spending to save for the wedding. It’s perfectly normal to do this – however, be realistic! It’s unrealistic to think you won’t have a haircut for the next two years until the wedding comes around or that you’ll get public transport every single day to and back from work rather than drive. You’ve got to live after all – there’ll usually be easy ways to manage savings for a wedding. Could you skip your twice-monthly blow-dry and go a few weeks between salon visits? Do you need a takeaway every single week? Do you use your gym membership as much as you intended to when you first signed up? Could you switch some of your bills to cheaper providers or negotiate a better rate on your phone contract and Internet?

Set up your banking to automatically round up your purchases and to save the change, all of these little changes will add up and won’t make a massive difference to your standard of living.

Step 3 – Estimate Your Guest Numbers

The cost of a wedding is generally based on just a couple of things: the guest list and the level of luxury you want. The number of guests will determine the size of the venue you need, catering costs, stationery orders, the size of your cake, and favors. The number of guests you have at your wedding will hugely influence the cost and the amount you’ll need to save for your wedding. Larger guest lists may mean you need more time to save for everything you both want, or you may decide to cut down the all-day guest list and have a larger evening reception. As a usual rule of thumb just under half of the budget is spent on the wedding venue (or marquee) and the catering. Once you start to collect quotes from venues and caterers they’ll be able to give you an accurate cost per head of each of your guests.

Step 4 – Work Out Your Biggest Cost

Your wedding venue is usually your biggest cost and one of the first things you’ll book for your wedding. So, it makes sense to have a realistic idea of the cost for this element. Work out the cost of your venue hire plus your food and drink charges and see whether this is affordable for you. Not every venue will offer the same pricing model, so enquire early about the costs and ask for any extra charges such as corkage so that they won’t be an unaccounted cost further down the line.

Although it may not be the most exciting task taking the time to create a wedding budget will be absolutely vital in the long run. Not only does it ensure that you hire the vendors that you can afford and budget for the luxuries that you want it also ensures you aren’t hit with unexpected bills and costs during the planning process. Over half of brides report that they had forgotten to include something in their original wedding budget, so don’t be afraid to chop and change and add to your budget as you go along. In fact I would highly recommend that you do.