Lost planning a wedding!

#1 Find your ceremony and reception venues. Some venues are all inclusive and will provide flowers, tables/chairs, linens, catering, etc. Some are a blank slate and you'll need to bring in everything. You can find venues and other vendors for your area by clicking on the Vendors tab above and entering your location.

#2 Once your have your date (a Tuesday?) nailed down with your venue(s), book your officiant, photographer and anyone else not included in your venue package.

#3 If necessary, hire a wedding planner/coordinator to help you.

Right down a rough list for your guest list. This will help determine what venues are appropriate for your wedding. And also a budget. Those things have to be decided before anything else can come into play.

I have my budget and where I want to do the ceremony. I also made the rough draft guest list. so I guess I'm going in the right direction so far. I guess when I look at venues ill look for one with all included. Another question I have is what do they mean when they say the lighting? are they talking about decorative lighting?

Thanks for your feedback

Use the wedding wire checklist....

some venue's have dj's and other vendors but most don't. And you might like what you get better if you pick them yourself.

1. figure out a budget (what can you spend...your money? family money? depending on who pays do they get say in planning the day of or picking who gets invited) and a rough idea of how many people you want to invite (or create a solid guest list if you want.

2. Now that you have your budget and rough number of people figured out....do you know where you want to get married? In your same state? a Destination wedding? Close to as in down the block home or is just within a hours drive close enough?

3. Do you want to get married in a church, outside? in the same venue as your reception?

4. Do you know what season you want to get married? Are there some rough dates that might be options or does that not matter?

5. Start looking at venue's online (or in person if they are just down the block) in the area you want to get married that are in your price range and allow the number of people, that would be available in the season you want that are near or the place you want to throw your wedding.

6. Found a couple of options. Compare (venue, catering included? Parking? too big too small? the prettiest, the cheapest etc).

Yeah, the lighting would be their decorative lighting. Some places may need it and it can totally transform the space and others, the space is pretty as it is.

Also, I suggest making a list of your must-haves. What's the most important to you? A big dance party - focus on a place with great mood lighting and a big dance floor.

The best vendors I've found were ones recommended by my venue and Weddingwire. Not just their preferred vendor list, but from the mouth of the owner, she recommended a caterer over her other preferred vendors. That really helped narrow them down and I ended up with a caterer with a fantastic personality! My MUA search was semi-disastrous until I searched WW for MUAs by rating and number of reviews. I found a fantastic MUA that way. My florist and photographer were found at wedding expos and I got great deals on both.

I'm in the same boat as Kaneesha. We just got engaged last week, and overwhelmed on where to start. All these hints and tips are very helpful, so thank you! =)

Now that you have a rough draft of your budget, rough draft of guest list and you have an idea of where you want to have the ceremony, I'd say contact the ceremony vendor to see if your date (6/30/15) is even available, find out what they offer (reception area, table lines, decorations, etc.) and the cost. That would be my next step.

I love planning so if anyone wants any tips or advice, just ask and I'll share what I know.

I'm in the same boat as you are. We have picked a date, but beyond that we can not make up our minds. We haven't even decided what state we want to get married in. I think once you pick a venue you can go from there. One step at a time will make it a bit more manageable I think.

Kaneesha, please hold this thought uppermost in your mind and make it your wedding planning mantra-- it will save you a ton of stress and money:

"The goal is to get married. As long as I'm married at the end of the day, and we had fun, it was a good wedding."