Have you booked your dream venue and are stuck on what to focus on next? Follow the steps below and it may help get the ball rolling in the right direction.
1. If you don't already have an itemized budget and tracker that's priority #1.
So many great online tools are at your disposal such as the Wedding Wire Spend Tracker and The Knott Wedding Budgeter.
A few notes on these budgeting tools. They are what you make of them, it's still up to you to do the research and stick to your finalized budget. A lot of the online resources you find just streamline the process to make it more user friendly. Before your budget is final, get current estimates, price ranges and order minimums from vendors in your venue area. With many resources at your disposal it could be overwhelming on which to use but nothing is better than getting actual quotes.
2. Decide on hiring a planner or coordinator (if you haven't already). I could (and may in the future) do a full article on the difference between the two. The simple way to explain it is, a planner will advise you with their expertise, throughout the rest of your planning process then execute. A coordinator will start working with you 1-2 months before the wedding to execute your plan (Some coordinators even share recommended vendor lists to clients). Whichever route you decide to go, it is good to hire one early on to secure your date.
3. Get and stay organized!
Majority of couples are new to the wedding planning process and worry they are going to forget important things. Using planning tools and checklists are a great way to make sure this doesn't happen. My personal favorite that I use with my planning clients is TRELLO.
Trello is a project organization site that you can share with your significant other and those involved in the planning process, to help you all stay on the same page. This site is not specified for weddings however, you can personalize it to your exact planning needs. Exemplified in the picture above is an example of a custom wedding planning board I created for my clients. If you are wanting to start one for yourself you can use online resources to find general wedding checklists that you edit to what is relevant for your unique wedding planning board. Trello offers lots of great free features that I recommend using. Such as setting due dates, attaching documents, inserting pics, recording notes and even a phone app. Having everything wedding related in one place is super handy and prevents anything from slipping through the cracks.
Most important of all, enjoy the process! If it becomes overwhelmingly stressful ask for help, weather it be from your partner, family, friends or a planner. A wedding is a celebration of love and the planning process should be to :)