Not sure where to start

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

Budget is probably number one, it will basically decide what kind of wedding you can afford to have. Good luck!

Definitely start with budget and who will be contributing and how much. Then location and guest list. The guest list will let you know what size venue to look for. I’m sure after that everything will fall into place. I def recommend buying a wedding planner. I found one on amazon for $18. Good luck. ❤️

What the pp said and... I've found the Wedding Wire tools like the guest list and budget are helpful. I haven't needed to use another tool like excel or another program/ book. I have the Ww app and it makes those features handy since my phone is always with me.

Hi and welcome!

First, I'd say *research*. Figure out what the average costs are in your area, what type of things you like, and how much that would add up to... and then think about if you can afford it.

Wedding Wire has a bunch of tools available to help you - just scroll up! Under "Planning" and "Vendors," you'll find a whole bunch of helpful things. You can also use other wedding websites to compare prices and reviews.

As others have said, get a book, and spreadsheets. They help so much.

Remember that all that is really required is you, your fiance, a license, and an officiant (if your license requires one - for instance, Quaker ones do not). Everything else is, essentially, extra.

Good luck!