Covid-19 has made this quite an unnerving time for all of us, not least if you are planning your wedding! You might have decided to postpone your wedding to a later date, or perhaps you only just got engaged when the world turned upside down. Either way, don't be disheartened. Instead spend this time getting organised and also working on the design elements of your wedding, taking your time to decide on those all-important wedding decisions and details.
If you've just started planning your wedding and you feel that lockdown means you can’t make a start on your wedding planning journey, then think again. Now is just as good a time as ever to start planning. So many hours go into planning a wedding and if you are planning the celebrations yourselves, getting a head start and taking your time to establish exactly what you want from your day will all be to your advantage.
Tip 1: Venue Visits
You might not be able to visit venues at the moment, but many are providing virtual tours that can provide you with a great sense of what the venue can offer, its areas for ceremonies and receptions, and the grounds for those all-important photography shots. Think about what you are looking for in a venue – do you want a country manor house with period charm and formal gardens, or a contemporary party pad with a late licence for dancing? Start making a spreadsheet list and comparing venues and prices.
Tip 2: Looking for Suppliers Now is a great time to investigate which suppliers you want to form your A-team that will pull together all of the elements to help create your ideal day. Instagram is the perfect place to start to get the best idea of the style and personality of caterers, florists, stylists, and stationers to enable you to make a shortlist. Photography, for instance, is the perfect example of where taking time to explore all the options is really beneficial. There are so many different styles of photography, from fine art, to reportage, and they won't all suit your tastes. You’ll also be spending a great deal of time with your photographer on the day, so it's really important that you get on with them. Take the time to organise a phone or video call to chat through options, and ensure you all will get on together.
Tip 3: Wedding Admin
Spend your time getting organised. You could work on that all-important wedding budget, create a spreadsheet action list of what you need to do with planning, make a start on a potential guest list, and you might also want to consider setting up a wedding website – this is one of the best and easiest ways of keeping your guests updated going forward.
Tip 4: Design Planning
Behind every wedding are the design elements of the celebration and a reason why planners describe themselves as event designers. You might not necessarily think it, but with every element of your wedding you are making design decisions; from the choice of ceremony and reception venue, the colour of the flowers you choose, what your table decor will look like, to the colour of the bridesmaids dresses…etc. The decisions are never-ending, and often a reason why it helps to have a wedding planner on board to help you create a cohesive design look for your wedding day. As part of my services, I create a design presentation featuring hand-picked suppliers suited to your requirements.
With the abundance of information on the internet and this newfound time at home, you can spend the time pulling together your design ideas and developing the overall ‘look’ of your wedding. If you have sadly had to postpone your wedding to later in the year, perhaps now holding it in autumn or winter, you might want to revisit some of the options to reflect the time of year and season.
Tip 5: Plan Those Personal Touches
I’m always keen to stress to my couples that weddings are all about your personality as a couple. I’m therefore a huge advocate for making the day unique to the couple and bringing in personal touches. Use this time to think about what personal touches you could apply to your day. A practical example of creating a personal touch is to design your own wedding bands with the aide of an independent jeweller (a personal favourite of mine is Alex Appleton based in Wincanton).
Tip 6: Put Pen to Paper
Another perfect activity is to start writing your wedding vows if you are choosing to do so! You would be surprised how long they can take unless you are a skilled wordsmith. Speak from the heart, and don’t overthink what you are writing.
Tip 7: Plan Your Honeymoon
None of us can dream about jetting off someplace exotic and warm anytime soon, but hopefully by the time your wedding arrives life will be back to normality and you’ll be able to look forward to your post-wedding holiday. You could start investigating certain ideas whether you want non-stop sun, or something a little more adventurous.
Not Married Yet?
Tip 8: Perfect Time to Perfect that Proposal Once things improve with regards to social distancing, then why not seize the moment by popping the question to your loved one. Use this time to source a ring (or you could design your own…!), decide the perfect venue and how you might propose. (Hint - I absolutely love to help with planning proposals!)
Tip 9: Get Inspired Pinterest is a great starting point for inspiration on style and colours and you can start your own boards to keep track of ideas. Instagram is another obvious suggestion and a constant source of inspiration, especially when searching by hashtags. Wedding blogs are another place that provides real-life wedding inspiration from all over the globe. A few of my favourite blogs are Wedding Sparrow, The English Wedding Blog, Love My Dress, B.Loved, and the wedding magazine/ blog Wed Magazine focusing specifically on West Country weddings. When helping to design clients' events, I also spend a lot of time reading interior magazines for inspiration.
Tip 10: Enjoy Your Engagement
This might be one of my most important tips. In my role as a wedding planner, one of my overarching aims is to alleviate stress to enable you as a couple to enjoy your engagement. It’s a very frustrating time but make sure to take time out for yourself and each other, whether that’s enjoying an evening together watching a show from the National Theatre Live, or taking long walks in the countryside. Take those moments to relax when you can.
A Note for 2021/2 Couples If you have recently got engaged and are holding off making any decisions, a word of caution - 2021 and especially 2022 are going to be very busy with many couples having postponed or moved their wedding date. Prime dates and suppliers are being booked up and therefore now would be the time to secure those all-important elements such as the date, venue, and key suppliers otherwise you may find that you have very limited options. You may have to approach the planning with a degree of flexibility in case your plans in the future need to change.
Whatever your stage in wedding planning, when you do finally manage to get together with loved ones, you are guaranteed that after the unprecedented year we had in 2020, everyone will be ready for a rip-roaring party!
If you want advice about your wedding planning, I’m offering free consultancy calls to chat through advice during these challenging times. Just email me to arrange a time. And if the above suggested tasks all seem a bit daunting then maybe you might want to check out if hiring a wedding planner might be a good choice for you.