The First Steps To Planning A Beautiful Wedding

You’re engaged and the reality has hit you that you actually have to plan a wedding.  Where do we start? Following are some tips that will ease your mind and allow you to have fun planning your wedding together.

You can quickly and easily find information by using our A-Z Planning index.

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2become1weddings provides you great wedding planning information at our website, but we highly recommend checking out the variety of well known books from top selling authors that can help to guarantee a perfect wedding!

Our "Basics" page will provide you with some timely reminders to consider before you get too far ahead in your planning, and the "Summary" link has a wonderful worksheet to create a brief summary of your wedding, ceremony and wedding party details.

Announcing Your Wedding

You will find helpful information under Announcements, which shows you how to announce your wonderful news to the world in style. It would also be wise to view the Planning > Engagement section fairly soon.

Make a Wish List A wedding is the beginning of 2 lives becoming 1, why not start out by including your fiancee in the planning. Sit down with two notebooks and list out the different items that each of you would like to see in your wedding. Don’t worry at this point how much anything will cost, consider this as your wedding “wish list”. Go over this site together, search the internet together and look at bridal magazines for more ideas.

Begin your planning by taking your wish list and separating it into different wedding categories such as ceremony sites, reception sites, reception food, music, photography, bakeries, attire, florists, honeymoon sites, etc. Combine both your list and your fiancee’s list. Within each category, write the minimum and the maximum of what you would expect to spend for the particular item. Discuss what you absolutely cannot do without (the ribbons in your bouquet do add a nice touch) and what you absolutely do not need (maybe the giant ice sculpture of two swans kissing could be passed up just this once).


Share the Duties

Once a firm list has been compiled, discuss what each of you would like to take care of. You may want to take care of arrangements with the florist, he may want to research and hire a limousine company.

Family members of the bride and groom typically assist with the wedding planning. Delegate some of the tasks to immediate family members (mom may like to assist with picking invitations or favors) and recruit some of the wedding party (especially your maid/matron of honor) to assist with helping you keep track of gifts received. They could also keep track of thank you cards sent and possible other tasks like assisting with putting together wedding favors or picking up items that have previously been ordered by you. Check traditional tasks for your bridal party.

Set aside time to work on your wedding plans together.  Decide on dates that you would like specific items completed and meet the deadline. Be sure to set up a calendar date book to keep track of the deadlines that you and your fiancee agreed on.  Try to get as much done as possible within the first few months of your engagement so that you can enjoy the planning instead of feeling rushed. Use our Timeline / To do lists.

Be sure to communicate!  One common breakdown in planning is communication.  Share details with each other on what you both have accomplished in your planning, discuss your likes/dislikes openly.  Doing so will bring the two of you even closer together, as well as ensure that you don’t end up with 400 chairs at your garden wedding when you only needed 200!  Be flexible and understanding to the wants of your partner, it won’t kill you to have just one layer of the cake as his favorite flavor, or to stay at the reception just a little bit longer so she can talk with her favorite Aunt Betty she hasn’t seen in a while.

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