i have no idea what I'm doing!

Start with these three big ones: guest list, venue and budget

Budget. A realistic budget.

Research cost of things in your area and set a realistic budget based on that.

Research, research, research.

Use the "Vendors" and "Planning" tools at the top of the page, and cross-reference with Yelp and Google and other wedding websites.

Once you know what things cost in your region, you can set a realistic guestlist and budget.

Wedding Wire and other wedding websites also offer checklists and advice, but a lot of us also relied on a physical book, as well.

Good luck!

Planning a wedding is fun yet can get a bit time consuming and overwhelming depending on your want and needs.
First off always start with a min to a max of a budget. Like for example spending wise :****...
What vision you both looking for! Outdoors indoors beach wedding, destination etc and then go check that location outColors you both desire and style such as theme (if you want)Guest count Everything else will naturally come once the major points are taking care of. Congrats and happy planning.

Hi Dianna!
That is completely understandable. I believe most of us didn't have a clue where to start haha, but I agree with other brides here. One of the main/first things you need to set is a realistic budget. From there you can decide when to get married to make sure you save enough to cover everything in your budget.

I'm a spreadsheet type of person 🤦🏼‍♀️ so if you'd like, I could send you what I have and you can play around with it 😊

View Quoted Comment Thank you
I really appreciate it.

View Quoted Comment Patricia,
Thank you so much and yes I would appreciate it if you send me your spreadsheet! 😊

View Quoted Comment Lol thank you!

View Quoted Comment I will, thank you!

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much!

View Quoted Comment You’ve given me a lot to think about. Thank you!

I started by making a guest list and then booking a venue. Those two things will determine a lot for you.

I would recommend starting with creating a budget. My husband created our budget. He used an Excel spreadsheet to do so. It included line items for everything we knew we would need for the wedding. Next, I would recommend creating a guest list then locating a venue. I would create a guest list first before you look for a venue because you will need to make sure you are looking at venues that can accommodate the number of people you plan on inviting. I would also recommend creating a guest list first because a lot of venues offer catering onsite and this is something that is usually calculated per person so you need to make sure the venue you decide on is within your budget. After you have a draft guest list, then I would start looking at venues. It is always a good idea to have an idea of when you want to get married. We knew we wanted to get married in either June or July on a Saturday. We did not have a specific date so that gave us more options. If you have a specific date in mind that might limit what is available depending how soon your wedding is because venues are often booked well in advance. Once you have a venue, then I would move onto booking other vendors. You can't very well book other vendors until you have a venue because those vendors will need to know when and where you wedding is and if you don't have a venue then you can't provide that information so just keep that in mind. When I got engaged, my mom gave me a wedding planning book which I found very helpful. I have linked it below. I also created a folder within my email for all emails relating to the wedding so I could quickly go to that folder to find anything I needed to know. I also saved all of my contracts with vendors in a folder on my computer so I could quickly access those contracts should I have a question. I found Pinterest helpful for deciding on things I liked. I had a wedding board with subcategories for different things like shoes, hair & makeup, flowers, cake, etc. This way when I met with the bakery that was making our cake I had an idea of what I wanted or when my sister-in-law wanted to know if I had any idea of what shoes I wanted her daughters (our flowers girls to wear) I had some cute shoe ideas I liked that I shared with her so she could find something similar for them to wear. There is also a wedding planner that has a Youtube channel that I watched videos of hers for helpful tips since we didn't have an actual wedding planner for our wedding. I have linked her channel below. She has a wedding planning program that you can purchase if you feel so inclined. This program is newer so it did not exist when I was planning our wedding. When it came to picking vendors, my venue had a list of recommended, but not required vendors. In addition to those vendors, I looked for vendors on my own through WeddingWire and The Knot. I read reviews for both the ones our venue recommended and the ones I found on my own. I spent a great deal of time trying to determine which vendor to go with. The only vendor we used that our venue recommended was our DJ otherwise I went with vendors I found on my own. Our venue provided our food including our wedding cake, tables and chairs, linens, uplighting, and rooms for our guests to stay since our venue was a hotel.

Wedding Planning Book

https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Wedding-Planner-Organizer-Binder/dp/B00GSD5QM0/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=wedding+planner&qid=1588770721&sr=8-6

Wedding Planner Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdAcY6YGgF-RgGYXTsOENbA

Start with a budget and (looks like I might be the only one to suggest this) look into the possibility of hiring a wedding planner to help. They do this for a living and with all the COVID-19 postponements, I’ve seen tons of brides wishing they had hired someone to help them through all the decisions, moving dates, new contracts, etc. You can definitely plan a wedding without help but they’ll be a godsend when it comes to wisdom, advice, changes, and sometimes discounts.

Don't worry! NO ONE has any idea what they are doing the first (hopefully only) time they plan a wedding!

Ask lots of questions; no question is too small, too petty, or too silly to ask. No one expects you to be an expert. Someone already mentioned the Jamie Wolfer wedding channel...she is the best! A second for that resource!