Couples get engaged year-round, but something about January really kicks everything up a notch.  “I’m getting married next year” turns into “OH-MY-GOODNESS I’m getting married THIS year!” and suddenly you find yourself having to make decisions about every single detail.  The fun wedding planning turns into crunch time and it’s a lot of pressure!

We’re here to help!  Sure, we won’t solve all your problems, but brides ask us a lot of questions so we’ll be answering those here on the blog over the next few weeks.

We’ll start at the beginning.  Ask yourself this one question: What is most important to me on my wedding day?  There are no right or wrong answers, so don’t worry about being silly or selfish.  We know you love your fiance & so long as you’re married that’s all that matters… but after that, what are the first things that pop into your head when you think of a wedding?  What items do you find yourself pinning the most on Pinterest?

When we got married 8.5 years ago, my first thought was I need to book the church and get a dress!  My groom, the church I grew up in, and a big white fluffy dress with a train were all I really cared about.  I didn’t care at all about the colors of the wedding, where the reception would be, or any of the music.  The groomsmen could have shown up in jeans and I would have been perfectly fine with it.  As I started to plan, I also realized that I wanted to invite everyone I knew.

Once you figure out your top priorities, then you can start to plan accordingly.  There are a lot of budget planners for weddings that tell you what percentage of your budget should go to each area– those are fantastic and so super helpful!  But then always keep in mind those things that you said were really important to you.  The budget planner may not leave as much in that category as you’d like– so start looking at areas that aren’t as important to you and see if you can pull money from there.

For us, I couldn’t have cared less about ceremony decorations.  I didn’t want candles, bows, etc.  The church was pretty and that’s all I needed.  I did a few small DIY decorations and that was it.  We chose to have our reception outside in a field.  It was a money saver for us, but it meant we needed tables, chairs, and tents.  Those were things my family had connections with, and we ended up not having to spend a dime on any of that– just a lot of manual labor moving 300+ chairs and such around!  And we had a gigantic blue tent, which didn’t match anything.  But again, that wasn’t something I cared about.

Today?  My priorities would be so different. I’m a different person and have different like.  Back then I had fake flowers.  Now?  I’d do anything to avoid them!  I’d rather go without flowers than have fake ones.  But I’d still choose to have tons of guests– that’s still very important to me.  And… I’d totally choose the same groom.  😉

Bottom Line: Choose what is most important to you and what is least important to you… then plan your budget accordingly!