So, you’ve decided on the basics of your wedding, and locked in the date & venue, YAY!
Time to choose your bridal party… if you want a bridal party that is! There can be a lot of pressure and stress around choosing a bridal party, and my biggest recommendation is to surround yourself with loving & useful people who will be there for you and help you throughout the wedding planning process as well as the wedding day. Don’t stress about needing to include your partner’s sibling or friends that had you in their bridal party 7 years ago, or adding someone purely for the sake of having even numbers. It all boils down to just having your ride or die people! And if it’s all too hard, don’t have any… it’s actually really trendy in 2021 to have very informal weddings with minimal fuss. On our wedding day, I had 3 bridesmaids and my husband had 2 groomsmen, and do you know how many people cared that we had uneven numbers?… NONE.
Now it’s time to start looking at vendors, and all of the little details that go into making your dream a reality. There is no rule on how far out from your wedding you need to book in your vendors. My advice is, that if you have the money to leave a deposit, just book it in. Some people plan a wedding over 2 years, others in 3 months, but the sooner you book things in, the more likely you are to secure your preferred vendors. Proiritise your vendors according to how popular they are, and whether they are a solo business or a part of a big company. Eg, if your videographer is a sole trader, chances are, they will only book one wedding per day (or weekend) so once they are booked, they are gone, and you’ll have to go with your second or third choice. If your catering company has multiple staff and can take on more than one wedding per day, then you can probably get away with booking them a little later.
I prioritised our vendors and booked in our absolute must-haves first; our celebrant, videographer, photographer, hair/ makeup artist, and caravan bar. The rest of the vendors I had multiple options for, so I had time to save some more money to pay them at a later date. Everyone is different, so there is no real rule around who you need to book first! Don’t be afraid to ask your vendors for their minimum deposit required, the further you can stretch your money in the early days of wedding planning, the more amazing vendors you can lock-in. For example, I used to take a 50% deposit to secure a wedding date, however, there were plenty of times I dropped it down to 25% for bigger weddings or brides who didn’t quite have the funds but didn’t want to miss out. Vendors are always happy to be flexible if it means we have your wedding locked in.
Once you start locking in vendors, it’s helpful to create a spreadsheet to keep track of vendor details, deposits paid, balances owing and the dates that payments are due. It’s also very important to save original quotes and contracts between you and your vendors. incase you need to review them down the track. It’s easy to lose emails and correspondence in the 12+ months between engagement and wedding date, and it’s handy to have your ducks in a row in case something goes wrong. And although it’s not the quickest way to communicate, I always prefer to communicate via email so that I have all details in writing.