I'm extremely pleased to say that on the 28th of March 2015 I married my highschool sweetheart, Hayely. I proposed on the 20th of September 2014 which means we planned the wedding in just over 6 months. Now I'm not saying that this is particularly impressive. I'm sure lots of people get engaged then married very quickly (not counting the drunk marriages like you see on episodes of Friends). But a lot of people these days seem to get engaged and then don't finally tie the know for a few years. Now before anyone kicks up a fuss, there's nothing wrong with this and I fully support anyones choice to do this. But because I'm a fairly productive person, friends of mine weren't surprised when we announced we'd be getting married just a few months after getting engaged. This is a brief post of my main tips for planning a wedding efficiently.
1. Know What You Want
The best place to start when planning your wedding is to know what you want and get clear about what kind of wedding you'd like to have. Think about:
- How much money would you like to spend? Ultimately your venue is going to play a huge role in determining the final cost, but get some rough numbers in place to help make this decision (more on this below).
- What kind of venue are you looking for? Are you going for a fancy hotel or rustic barn?
- How many people would you like to invite? Do you even have a limit? Be realistic here – we thought we'd have around 70 guests but once we made a list of the people we knew we absolutely had to invite, it quickly surpassed this.
- Are you going to get married in a church, outside somewhere or on a boat? How does this fit in with your ideal venue?
- Who would you like in your wedding party?
By clarifying these initial ideas you can make decisions quickly further down the line.
2. Pick a Venue – FAST
Picking and booking a venue should be your highest priority. Once you have this locked in, everything else will naturally fall into place. If you're lucky like we were, the venue will come with a dedicated event planner who will take a tonne of the work off your shoulders.
The other great thing about booking the venue quickly is that you're forced to commit to a wedding date. Once you have an actual deadline in place you have to make things happen and it really motivates you to get things done.
3. Limit the Number of Choices You Need to Make
There are thousands of great invitation designs out there. So when it comes to choosing an invite to send out for your engagement party and wedding, limit the number of designs you look at. There are tonnes of great designs, but at the end of the day the final design you choose has zero impact on your happiness on the day.
I'm not saying you should pick a crummy design, just don't get caught up looking at too many. If you do, it's only going to make the final decision harder.
This same idea goes for picking other things as well. Don't get caught up in the little things and instead dedicate your time to the much more important decisions. For example, finding a good venue and a great photographer are much more important.
4. Delegate Like a Boss
In the lead up to the wedding, delegate as much as you can. Turn to your groomsman or bridesmaids when you need to get things done (that's what they're there for). Other people are going to want your attention so you can deal with last minute decisions or issues and you're not going to be much use if you're off fiddling with decorations somewhere. Family and friends will be all too grateful to be given the chance to help, so rope in as many people as you can.
If you're currently planning a wedding I wish you the best of luck. As well as being efficient and smart with your planning, make sure you enjoy the process – it's heaps of fun and it'll only happen once (I hope).