Help! i don't know what I'm doing!

The big three:

budget

guest list

venue

weddingwire has a nice checklist you can refer to as well

Budget and Guest List are number 1!

Then date/venue.

Figure out a date you want to be married by.
Figure out how much you can comfortably save each month. Multiply that monthly savings amount by the number of months up until your wedding date. Keep in mind, many venues require the remainder balance amount a month prior to your actual wedding date. That will determine your total budget.


Next: find a venue. Depending on the venue you choose, some will actually even provide you with a wedding planner and a day of coordinator included in your venue price.
Ways to save: off season weddings and weekday weddings are always much cheaper and even the most exclusive venues offer major discounts to have your wedding on a Thursday or Friday VS Saturday.

For less expensive venues look at local and state parks, some AirBNBs will allow weddings, and choose a non-wedding season date.

Generally speaking, and other brides and grooms can correct me if they disagree, the most costly things are the venue and the food. It looks like you're tentative for an August date in 2021, which works for things like silk floral arrangements and centerpieces (if you want to have all that) because you can take advantage of this years end of season sales on some items or buy off of someone with a similar theme for 2020 (so reusing).

Choose your date.

Set your guest list.

Venue. Depending on when you want to have your ceremony, you can look into local parks. We are getting a whole day at a county park with a pavilion beside a lake for $40.

Food. Choose a style and start searching. Decide what you want to spend in whole, then divide that by your guestlist/ headcount to get the price per person you're willing to pay.

Pick your color scheme so you can work off of that for any decor items you're interested in. Not to specifically plug anyone, but I saw premade silk floral bouquets at Michael's yesterday for 70% off - and they were originally $15, so $4.50 for something you could potentially use as is or disassemble into centerpieces or other decor. They also had other spring and summer silk floral for 70% off, so the giant stems I bought, which are usually $6.99 or $9.99, were a lot less.

Remember, all these fancy things can be beautiful, but that doesn't mean they're necessary. Setting a budget early on is good, but be reasonable and don't strap yourself so tight that 1 thing going wrong is going to derail your whole plan.

Most importantly: BREATHE. Planning can be stressful, so know your limits and be ok with taking it in small steps. You do not have to conquer your entire wedding plan in a month.

Pick your date
Pick your guest list (most weddings - budget $75 pp if you’re including alcohol)
Budget and budget may have to go to number one based on who’s paying
Download or create your own checklists and follow it. Use it as your guide

Use the wedding wire app for your checklist! Start researching venues and your other vendors now. Look for deals of wedding wire as you search for vendors. I was able to get a Saturday rental half off at my venue! Also pay attention to venues who have a minimum for food and beverage. Almost everywhere I looked, the venues had a $10,000+ food and beverage minimum with the cost of the rental fee. My venue didn’t have a minimum and saved me a ton!

Not sure what your budget is but we found an all inclusive wedding and was the best option for us the company has so many options and you can customize it take things off or add things as needed. The name of the compost is Wedgwood weddings they have venues all over the US. Hope this helps and you find what your looking for and we are under our budget

For me I didn’t want to spend so much as well try to see if you can an outdoor wedding like a backyard or a park..also look at Etsy for wedding ideas and things

How many guest you want controls a lot..... I highly suggest thinking do you want a big wedding or small wedding.


I also suggest being creative when it comes to venue. You do not have to go with traditional wedding venues. Think backyards, renting air bnbs for a day, a room in a restaurant, park for ceremony etc
I personally think having a good photographer is a must because this is a moment you want to capture no matter how big or small your wedding. Even if you elope you should have a photographer

1. How many guests?

2. Budget

3. Invitations

4. Venue

5. Catering/Food

6. Photographer

7. Decoration

8. Favors

Absolutely start with a budget. Then, make your first rough draft your guest list. That’ll give you a good starting point. After that will be venue since you can really book anything else until you have a date.
I highly, highly recommend watching Jamie Wolfer’s YouTube videos. She’s a wedding planner with super helpful content!

View Quoted Comment I agree with Alex. You seriously can't go wrong if you start with a budget, date/time, & location.