We’ve spoken to a lot of newly engaged couples recently who’re excited to start making plans for their big day, but don’t really know where to start. So today we’re giving you everything you need to know about how to plan a wedding in Yorkshire.
The First Steps
Congratulations – You’re Engaged!
You’ve just had the most perfect engagement. Now what?
The very first thing you’ll need to do is tell people. We’d always suggest starting with your closest family members; This usually includes your parents, siblings, and any grandparents/aunts and uncles you’re close to. After that – tell everyone! Your friends, extended family, your hairdresser, the cashier at the supermarket…it’s an exciting moment that (almost) everyone will want to share.
When you’ve had a week or two for the engagement to sink in, dust off your old Pinterest account and start a wedding board. Pinterest is an amazing place to gather all your ideas and easily visualise your day.
Start Planning
Next, make a rough guest list for the day. This should include anyone you and your partner would like to attend the day and evening reception. It doesn’t have to be a final list – no save the dates are going out just yet – but you’ll need to know how many people you’d like at your wedding when choosing your venue.
Decide your budget. We never advise anyone to get into debt for a wedding. Take a look at your current finances and see what is a feasible wedding budget for you as a couple. If you are going to save for your day make sure your savings goal is realistic. The same goes for any credit cards – make sure you have enough money to pay the bill when it’s due. It’s very easy to get wrapped up in the dream wedding and costs can spiral, so creating a budget and sticking to it is a hugely important step.
Choose a wedding planning method to keep track of everything. Some couples have a joint spreadsheet with supplier details, pricing and deadlines. Others have a physical wedding planner, and there are lots of apps out there too. Go with whatever works best for you.
Finally, set up a wedding email address. This makes keeping track of all things wedding incredibly easy and comes in handy at places like wedding fayres!
Start Booking
Choose A Venue
The next step is to choose a wedding venue. This will dictate your wedding date, so there’s not much else you can do until this is booked.
You’ll need to decide what sort of ceremony you’d like. Would you like a religious ceremony, a non-religious registrar or a celebrant led ceremony? Will your ceremony take place in the same place as your reception?
If you’re choosing to have two different venues, you’ll need to consider the distance between them time-wise. A 2 hour drive on your wedding day isn’t ideal for anyone.
When you’ve decided on your ceremony arrangements, it’s time to look at venue options. You’ll need to make sure the venue can hold all your guests, is within budget, and fits your style. Make a list of places you’d like to view (that fit your requirements) and make some appointments to speak to their wedding team and have a look around.
Take a look at our Wedding Venue Finder to create your shortlist.
Book Your Ceremony
Booking your wedding ceremony comes after choosing your wedding venue. Here’s how it works.
1. Find a venue you love. They’ll usually hold a wedding date for you for a set amount of time so you can organise your ceremony.
2.Get in touch with your local council for a registrar, or the relevant person to organise your religious ceremony. Check they have your reserved date available. You’ll need to book this asap, and payment is usually needed at the time of booking, so it’s useful to have your payment card handy.
3.Confirm the date and ceremony time if applicable with your chosen venue. Sign the venue contract and pay the booking fee.
If the ceremony can’t take place on your reserved date, check other availability before going back to the venue and finding dates that match up.
It’s up to you to book your wedding ceremony – not the venue.
Plan The Details
Get Inspiration
There are lots of options when it comes to the details of your day. From your colour scheme to the centrepieces, the options are endless. If you’re at a loss, get yourself back on track with your Pinterest board. We find it sometimes helps to make a board full of things you definitely don’t want, as well as one with ideas you love.
Wedding fayres are also a great way to get ideas, see what’s possible and speak to wedding suppliers. You can get an idea of what different items and styles cost, and how things usually work on a wedding day. You can see a full list of fayres we’ll be standing at here.
Finally, decide what extras you’d like to include in your day and put them in order of importance. Things some of our couples choose to include are:
Wedding favours
Arrival drink/canapes
Daytime entertainment (magicians, bouncy castles etc.)
Evening entertainment (Live band, photo booth etc.)
Appoint Your Wedding Party
Choosing your wedding party is a huge step in the early stages of planning. These are the people who’ll be next to you throughout the whole wedding planning process, helping make decisions and being a sounding board for your ideas.
Your wedding party will also be in charge of your hen or stag do, so make sure they’re people you can trust and who’ll give you the best party you could ask for!
When you’ve decided who’s going to be in your wedding party, the next task is to ask them. There are lots of ways to do this, from saying “will you be my bridesmaid/groomsman” to elaborate gifts and gestures (find out more about that here). However you ask them, make sure they’re aware of your expectations. This includes any tasks you’d like them to carry out up to and on the day of the wedding, as well as any financial contributions towards their dress, suits, hair and makeup etc.
Your Suppliers
Choosing your wedding suppliers is worthy of a whole other blog post, but it is something you should start to think about in the early stages of planning.
Why?
Because most wedding suppliers can only accommodate one wedding a day. This means if there’s a supplier you’d like to use for your day, you need to get in touch sooner rather than later.
We’re not saying you must choose everything immediately, but be aware that two years in advance isn’t a crazy amount of time to book.
Here’s a list of suppliers you might want to include in your wedding, along with some questions you may want to ask each one.
Photographer – How to choose your wedding photographer
Videographer
Florist – 11 questions to ask your wedding florist
Cake
Catering
Venue Styling
Entertainment (DJ/Photobooth/Magicians etc.)
Wedding Favours – Wedding favour ideas from real couples
Stationery (Save the dates/Invitations/Table plan etc.)
Wedding Party Gifts
Wedding Dress – Tips for wedding dress shopping
Wedding Suit
Bridesmaid/Groomsmen Outfits – A guide to bridesmaid dress shopping
Shoes & Accessories
Hairdresser
Makeup Artist – Tips for choosing a makeup artist
Be Excited!
The process of planning your wedding is meant to be fun, exciting and overall a happy time. Talk to your friends about your day, share your plans and the frustrations (you’ll never know how much you care about table runners until your own wedding!).
It can feel like weddings is all you talk about but honestly – your friends will be happy to share the excitement with you.
If you’d like to get wedding planning tips straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list here. And if you have any questions about anything wedding related, we’re always happy to answer them. Get in touch here.