So you’re planning a wedding, huh?! Congrats! The time between saying “yes” and “I do” can be a HUGE whirlwind, and it can feel really overwhelming when you first start the process of planning your wedding. My husband and I just celebrated our 3rd year anniversary, and I have STILL never shared photos from our wedding on the blog. I wanted to finally share our big day as well as share all the things I wish I knew before I started planning my wedding. Hopefully this post provides you with some helpful tips, tricks, and maybe a little inspo for your big day. Comment below how many months you have till your big day and any tips or tricks you’ve learned about the wedding planning process along the way.

PS….if you’re looking for vendor info for my wedding, I will have everyone linked at the end of this post!

Ok, friends, buckle up. Here’s everything you need to know before planning a wedding!

1. Book the big things as soon as you can

Ok, so what are the “big” things? Your venue, photographer, caterer, dress, and florist I would say are the main “big” things that you should book as soon as you are able. Why? Venues can book up well in advance, so if you want a specific date or time of year, you’ll have less options the longer you wait. Vendors like photographers and florists can also book up quickly too, especially if they’re in high demand. Your dress is also something that can take a long time. Some dresses may take 6-8 months once ordered to arrive, and then you need to factor in a couple months for alterations. If you can focus your attention on nailing down these big things first, you’ll save yourself a lot of anxiety.

2. Choose your wedding party wisely

Your wedding party should consist those nearest and dearest to you. That being said, also take into consideration how those people handle stressful situations. Are they people on whom you can depend? Weddings can be a time when you learn a lot about people, and sometimes it can be pretty revealing. Choose your bridesmaids and groomsmen wisely!

Looking for a fun idea of how to propose to your bridesmaids? Check out how I popped the question here!

3. If you can, use credit cards wisely and to your advantage

So, I know not everyone is into credit cards, but hear me out. I fully believe that if used wisely, you can make credit cards work for you, not the other way around. The key is to be smart about it and not spend beyond your means. I am not advocating for going into debt for your wedding. What I am saying is to apply for a credit card with great travel rewards to use for your wedding expenses. We got the Chase Sapphire Reserve and wracked up a ton of points that essentially helped us pay for all our hotels for our Italian honeymoon. As long as you spend within your means and budget, you can make all that wedding spending pay off!

4. Don’t go into debt for your wedding

So I know I just said to get a credit card to pay for your wedding, but I need to stress this point…DON’T go into debt for your wedding! Remember, it is one day of your entire life. Yes, you want it to be amazing, but do it within your means. If you want a more extravagant day, consider a longer engagement so you can save up. Starting your marriage with debt from your wedding isn’t a great idea, so avoid it if at all possible.

5. If you’re on a budget, consider setting your date on an “off” day

If you are planning a wedding and you’re on a budget, definitely consider an off day….and by off day, I mean any day but Saturday. We got married on a Friday, and definitely saved on the price of our venue, DJ, and photographer. While Friday does make it a bit trickier for out of town guests, if they have enough notice to get off work they will make it work!

6. Vet your vendors as thoroughly as possible

Even if you get a recommendation for a vendor from a friend or family member, check out their previous work as much as possible. I know that seems obvious, but do your research! Look at their reviews on Yelp, as around to other brides on wedding related Facebooks posts. The last thing you want is to have any unpleasant surprises on your big day!

7. Splurge on what is important to YOU

When planning a wedding, its important to identify what is important to you on your big day. Are you a big foodie? Maybe you splurge more on catering. Do you want it to be a big party? Maybe you spring for an open bar. For me, having a killer dress and an amazing photographer were two very important things that I wanted and was willing to pay for. Splurge on the aspects of the wedding that are most important to you, and identify where you can cut back to accommodate those extra costs.

In case you’re wondering, my dress was custom by Prive Wedding Designs, and our photos were taken by Victoria Gold Photography.

8. You can’t make everyone happy. In fact, you might piss some people off

At the end of the day, your wedding is YOUR day. You should plan for what you and your fiance want and what is important to you. In that process, you will not be able to make everyone happy. It is inevitable. When your plans don’t align with what other people around you want, don’t stress it. You do YOU! It is nearly impossible to make everyone happy so the sooner you can accept that the better off you’ll be in planning your wedding.

9. When planning a wedding…Register on Zola…its the best one stop shop!

Ok this isn’t even sponsored, but Zola is HANDS DOWN the best online registry in the game. Why? Zola combines the best of all worlds when it comes to registries. When we registered, we wanted a way to register for both home good items but also give people the option to donate to a honeymoon fund. Zola allows you to do both, plus their fees when you withdraw your funds is the lowest that I found. Zola also has an extensive inventory of items to register for, but if they happen to not have something you’d like on your registry, they have a handy Chrome extension so you can add literally anything to your registry. Like I said, it is the best of all worlds!

10. Be smart about what you register for

When we registered for our wedding, I definitely wanted some fun items for our home, like an Instant Pot and a Dyson Vacuum, and do some upgrades to items we already had, like better towels and dishes. However, I should’ve also kept in mind that we live in a small apartment in LA, not a house with ample cabinet and linen closet space. I most definitely registered for way more towels than 2 people need, and probably more plates and mugs than 2 people need either. Just keep in mind your current living situation and register accordingly!

11. If you want specific photos, make sure to give a list of those to your photographer

Wedding photographers are pros, they have shot many weddings, so you don’t necessarily need to do this, unless you have specific photos that you’ve seen that you want to recreate. I definitely found some fun wedding photo inspo on Pinterest that I shared with my wedding photographer before our big day. By the way, if you want some serious wedding inspo, make sure to follow my wedding pinterest board for all the dreamy things! Another point that this comes in handy is for family photos at weddings. We had a list of every family photo combination so that we could get those photos taken care of as quickly and efficiently as possible.

12. If your venue allows it, bring in your own booze.

This isn’t an option at all venues, but it never hurts to ask! Our venue had the option to purchase their liquor package, but of course, it was pretty expensive. We actually went to Costco to buy all our liquor and beer, and then ordered cases of wine at our local Ralph’s. Ralph’s is actually fantastic because after you buy 6 bottles of wine, they are all 30% off. This saved us a ton of money and enabled us to have a full open bar for the entirety of our wedding, which was important to us as we wanted a big party.

13. If you have a tight guest list, make sure your invitees

This gets a little tricky! Some people just do not have a concept of wedding etiquette and just assume that they can bring a plus one with them to your wedding. At our wedding, we had a strict guest list of 125 people, so we had to be very strategic about the 125 people we invited. Our rule was that only people who were married or engaged couples could bring a plus one, and I thought I made it pretty clear on the invitations, but there were some surprise plus ones that unexpectedly popped up. Luckily, we were able to be flexible due to some last minute cancelations, but the more clear you can be with your guests regarding their ability to bring a plus one, the better off you’ll be!

14. When planning a wedding, know that you don’t have to incorporate every tradition

Just because something is a wedding tradition doesn’t mean it is right for you. Personally, the bouquet toss has always made me feel super uncomfortable as a wedding guest, so I didn’t want to impose that on the single women at my wedding. Likewise, I did not want Nate fishing up my dress for a garter, so we simply did not do those things. Your wedding can look like however you’d like it to look, so don’t feel like you have to do things you don’t like simply because it is what everyone else does.

15. If you can, hire a videographer….its worth it!

Videographers can be a pretty big extra expense, I totally get it. That being said….video really captures the day in a way that photos just are not able to! My wedding video is honestly something I love to watch again and again, it always gives me all the feels every single time and I’m so glad that we decided to get a videographer as well as a photographer. If you want to check out our wedding video for yourself, I’ll just leave this right here:

16. Hire a day of coordinator….it is WORTH IT

I’ll admit, while planning my wedding this is one thing I did NOT want to spend my money on. Fortunately for me, my venue (Brookview Ranch) required that we have one, so I had no choice. Looking back on that day, I can only imagine what a nightmare it would have been if I had not had a day of coordinator. Having someone to set up everything the morning of and make sure everyone was where they needed to be when they needed to be there freed me and Nate up to enjoy the entire day without too much stress. I’ve attended a couple weddings recently where there was no day of coordinator and I could definitely feel the difference in the level of chaos on the day of.

17. Free up time the week of your wedding, take some days off work if possible

The week of your wedding is going to be a whirlwind. You might not think so no, but take my word for it. Plan ahead for the week of your wedding and try to make sure that you don’t have a lot of work obligations or other responsibilities the week of your wedding. Planning a wedding all comes down to the wire as you finalize everything, people start coming into town, and everyone starts to get into celebration mode. So chill, enjoy, and soak in every minute!

Planning a Wedding…tips for the Day Of!

18. Not everything is going to be perfect, and thats OKAY!

Before your wedding day even starts, just accept that there are things that are going to go wrong. Not everything is going to go perfectly smoothly. Your florist might do the draping on your archway in a way that you hate, the hairdresser might forget to not use certain products on your hair causing it to go flat by your reception, your flower girl may throw a tantrum right before her cue….these things happen! Just let it roll off your back and enjoy your wedding! At the end of the day, these things are small and not important to anyone but you, so keep it into perspective and don’t let it ruin this very important moment.

19. Make sure to eat!

This seems like a no-brainer, but seriously, make it a point. Eat breakfast, eat snacks throughout the day, and drink plenty of water. Make sure that you eat dinner at your reception. You need that sustenance to get through such a long day, especially when alcohol is involved.

20. Do a first look

This was a huge debate for me for a while. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to be traditional and not see each other till we walked down the aisle, or if I wanted to do a first look. Eventually, after hearing so many people tell me their own experiences of doing a first look, I decided to go for it. Doing a first look is great for a couple reasons. First, it helps with wedding day jitters. When you get to see your fiance before the whole shebang, it helps to calm your nerves. Second, it allows you to get some amazing photos that you wouldn’t be able to get if you forgo a first look. With a first look, your photographer can really get those beautiful emotions and reactions…our first look photos are some of my favorites! Third, by doing a first look you can get some of your bride and groom portraits done before the ceremony which frees up more time after your ceremony.

21. Use an app to aggregate all the photos your guests take on their iphones

While your professional photos are going to be amazing, sometimes your guests can take amazing photos as well, and you want them all! Veri is an incredible app I found while planning our wedding that basically grabs all your guests’ photos and videos in real time and puts them all in once place. It costs $97 but it is a $97 well spent so that you can get access to all this extra content from your wedding. The way it works is you set up your wedding by filling in the time, date, and geographical area of your venue. You then ask your guests to download the app and just take photos as they normally would. The app pulls all the photos and videos from every phone that has the app installed on the date of your wedding in that geographical vicinity. Its pretty cool! Not all your guests will do this but the ones that did at my wedding loved being able to see other photos from the other guests as well.

22. It goes so fast, really try to be present and in the moment.

My wedding day is kind of a blur to me now. I remember bits and pieces. Thank god for photos and videos, right? Try to do your best to be really present, soak up every moment. It truly is an amazing thing on your wedding day, all the people who love you who are near and dear to you in one place celebrating your love. There’s really nothing like it. One huge piece of advice I’d give is to not drink too much on your big day. First of all, no one likes a sloppy bride, but also, alcohol will make it even harder to remember your wedding day. So maintain a nice buzz, but don’t get carried away.

23. Make sure you have alone time with your SO on your day

Like I said above, your wedding really flies by. Its so important to carve out just a little time to be alone with your significant other on your wedding day and soak it all in. Do some sunset portraits, or opt for a sweetheart table instead of a head table. This way, you both can eat dinner together alone and have a moment in the madness of the day to connect.

24. Make sure to budget for having your dress professionally cleaned after

Even if you managed to get through your wedding day without any kind of red wine mishaps or other calamities, your dress is going to need to be professionally cleaned, especially if you have an outdoor wedding. My wedding dress is something that I definitely wanted to clean right away and preserve just in case I have a daughter someday who might want to wear my dress…I know, wishful thinking I’m sure my dress will look ridiculous to her. When planning a wedding I think its pretty important to make sure you budget to have your dress cleaned and preserved afterwards.

25. You don’t have to go on your honeymoon right after your wedding

I know it seems like the thing that everyone does, but you don’t have to go on your honeymoon immediately after your wedding. Especially if you’re on a budget, you should wait a little while and save up for a while after the wedding is over. Also, just from a stress standpoint, if you’re planning a whole wedding and then you’re also trying to play a kick ass honeymoon right after, that is a LOT to handle. We waited a year after our wedding and I was so glad we did, because not only did I give me plenty of time to plan both things well, but also gave us something to look forward to as well. When all was said and done, we got to have the honeymoon of our dreams in Amalfi, Italy but that wouldn’t have been possible if we tried to do it right after our wedding day.

Vendors:

• Venue: Brookview Ranch
• Dress: Custom via Prive Wedding Designs
• Shoes: Badgley Mischka
• Engagement Ring:
• Wedding Bands: Jack Kelege, check out my blog post on Jack Kelege here
• Suits/Groom + Groomsmen attire: The Black Tux
• Bridesmaid Dresses: Rent the Runway
• Photography: Victoria Gold Photography
• Makeup: Beauty by Wendy Jones
• Hair: Drybar, check out my blog post about booking Drybar for your wedding needs here
• DJ: Vox DJ’s…we had Tetris and he was amazing!
• Invitations: Minted
• Vintage furniture rental: Nineteen27 Vintage
• Florals: McCann Florist
• Guestbook: Artifact Uprising, check out my blog post here
• Cake: Bri Ayott

Thanks for reading! If you have any of your own tips that brides should know before planning a wedding, drop them in the comments below!

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