Things to keep you a bit more sane while you're planning

What's the best way to plan for an event? There's so much you may want to incorporate and put together that it can get quite confusing if you don't tackle it with a game plan. This is the engineering side of me talking. I do a lot of tactical thinking on a daily basis since a lot of fire fighting and managing customers is a part of the job. But I digress..... :)

First things first, I would say definitely create a budget or basically how much are you willing to spend. It may not be complete because you may not know what to expect but at least write down all the categories that you want to incorporate and put a ballpark figure down. No details should be overlook and no amount is too small because everything adds up. This will allow you to research it in more details later on. Don't worry if you missed something - the budget and budgeting what you want will be a work in progress.

The second big question would be the venue. Where do you want to hold your event? How do you envision your big day? Would you want to do it at memorable spot where the two of you met or a garden with lots of open space or a historic site? The possibilities are endless. This is when you can also do a reality check on whether the budget that you set up makes sense or not. Once the venue is chosen, that usually means a date is secured is as well! That's a big check on the planning process! :)

Next I would say prioritize and envision what is the most important part of the event. I guess you could even say, what do you want to stand out? It can be a specific aspect such as food, music, photography or it could be broader such as memorable speeches or the first look between you and your future spouse or even the wedding dress. After deciding what's important, you can focus and have a starting point whether it's researching cost or how to execute the moment perfectly. Believe it or not, things will slowly fall into place.

Personally, it can get confusing when booking/planning many of the aspects of the wedding all at once. Whenever you get tired of looking at the latest inspiration, take a break (very important)! Do something else.... look at something else... plan something else (maybe the honeymoon). Don't forget to spend some time doing non-wedding related with your spouse-to-be as well.

How far are you on your planning?

How do I get started -- planning that is...

Planning - how do you do it? Everybody loves to plan to a certain degree but I believe wedding planning is in a caliber of its own. If you've never really planned for a multifaceted event before, it can be quite intimidating at first. Often times, there're so many ideas and inspirations it's hard to narrow it down. For some couples, they want to incorporate everything! It's not a bad idea if you have a multiday event... :)

A great idea for inspirations comes from some of my favorite websites that I've followed since I started falling in love with weddings.

www.weddingbee.com
www.stylemepretty.com

These places provide tons of ideas and inspiration and just help you get started. I found them super valuable when I was researching and planning out my wedding. I still visit there everyday because it's so addicting. Start there first.... let me know what you think ;)