Wedding Planning 101: Phase 1

As y’all know, I’m approaching the final stretch of planning a wedding and actually kind of loving it! We are quickly approaching the two (!!!) month mark. As I mentioned in this post, I want to share what I’ve learned with y’all over the past ten months. Just so ya know.. there are a million ways to plan a wedding. This “Wedding Planning 101” schedule has worked (almost) seamlessly for us, but take every step with a grain of salt!

Anyways, lets dive into..

Phase 1:

Make a prelim guest list. Determine a budget and who’s paying for what. Find your perfect venue.

Step 1:  Make a prelim guest list.  This number will determine where and when you can get married. This can be a tricky aspect of planning, but simply writing down everyone who has to be there will a huge help down the road! Contact your parents and ask them to make a quick list of their close friend that they’d like to invite. Don’t overthink this part. Just document who you want to be there when you tie the knot! 

Now that you’ve listed all your must-have people, you have an “A List.” Eliminate any venue that has a capacity less than 80% of that that number. A rule of thumb that I’ve heard is 80% of invited guests will show up. For example, if you invite 200 people, 160 people will actually attend. 

Step 2: Determine a budget. Are you parents going to help out? Are his? How much are you actually willing to spend on the celebration? It can be an awkward conversation, especially if you’re the first to get married in the family. I don’t think this is typical, but in all the marriages in my family, the grooms parents paid for the alcohol. It’s just something to bring up so there are no surprises later.

Step 3:  Find your perfect venue. I honestly hesitated to put the word “perfect” in that sentence, because nothing is perfect… but find a place that makes you both get butterflies. <3

1. Research venues in the area. Create a list of questions to help you narrow down the selection.
   • How much does it cost?
   • What’s the capacity?
   • If you want to have your wedding and reception at the same location, is that possible? 
   • Do they offer a day of wedding planner?
   • If you’ve been dreaming of an outdoor wedding, do they have a backup plan if it rains?
2. Schedule visits with potential venues. Seeing where you’ll actually get married is so exciting, and venues can look so different in pictures than in person! 
3. Think about the time of year that you’ll be getting married. We considered one venue with trees as the ceremony backdrop, which was beautiful! However, the available date was in October, and all the leaves would have already fallen. The backdrop would have been dead and brown instead of leafy and green… not quite the look we were going for!

Literally, when we realized there was a wedding happening on this lake, we knew that we had to get married here. It was a perfect summer day, the water was glistening in the sunlight, and everyone looked SO happy. The lake house just felt so right! Find a place that makes you wanna get married right now.  And then just learn to be patient haha.

It sounds like three simple steps, but don’t take them lightly! Take one step at a time. Remember this day is about you and your man. Go with your gut!

Thank you so much for reading! Happy wedding planning!

P.S. If you missed it, check out Ryan and I’s engagement story HERE!