Wow.. Many congratulations to you both. How exciting! You must both be on cloud nine right now.
But...after you have taken a breather and enjoyed showing off your beautiful ring to your nearest and dearest, what do you need to do next?
Enjoy The Moment
Most importantly of all.…. Enjoy these next few weeks and let it all sink in.
Don't feel pressured to start wedding planning instantly.
You could maybe throw a party or arrange a dinner with your closest people to celebrate the awesome news.
But you could also choose to spend some time just the two of you, with maybe a weekend away or a day trip somewhere enjoying this most romantic of times together.
Choose a wedding planner
Once you have got used to the feeling of being engaged and are feeling ready, the first thing to do is find a destination wedding planner.
Always choose the one who you feel you get on with the most and will have the best relationship with. You will be spending a lot of time together so you do need to get on well.
Decide on details
Sit down with your partner, close your eyes and visualise your day, What countries do you love? What is the setting like?
Have wedding planning nights and make them into cosy date nights. Light some candles, order a takeaway or cook your favourite food together, and then decide on only three things from your planning list at a time. Once those three decisions are made you can then snuggle up with your favorite film or Netflix. This way, you are ticking things off the list in a fun way.
Next you need to decide who you want there? Do you want Informal? Do you want Formal?
Imagine you are there, this will help decide what it is you actually want.
Once you have your vision in place, you can then work with your planner to put a moodboard together. This will keep you focused on your style.
Mood Board Examples
Budget
Work out a realistic budget. There is no point looking at anything until you know how much you want to spend.
One of my jobs as a planner is to help you stick to that budget as closely as possible.
Bridal party
The next task is to decide who you both want in your wedding tribe, who do you want to be involved?
Who will be there supporting you, having fun with you and enjoying every moment with you during the whole process.
Get organised
Being organised is crucial in successful wedding planning and there are lots of options to use to help with of all your lists and information.
Set up a wedding email so all correspondence is in one place. Having all the information going to one dedicated email makes it so much easier to keep on top of things and means you are less likely to miss a reply or miss important information.
If you love stationery and writing things down in a beautiful book, get a wedding planning book or a to do pad.
You can also set up an excel sheet on google drive. and even set up a group chat onWhatsApp... you will know whatever way will work best for you.
Take a look at the gorgeous wedding planners available from
Choose a date
Decide on a month and year you have in mind. If you want a specific date, this will need to be booked asap so that you don't lose it.
Guest List
Start by creating a list of who has to be at your wedding no questions asked, who you would like there and any additional guests who you both would love to attend.
It’s amazing how quickly a guest list can grow! So work through your lists together until you come up with a final estimated guest number.
Once this number is decided on it makes it easier to narrow down venues straight away purely on the numbers they can accommodate.
Venue Search
Decide how you are going to search for venues.
For destination weddings, this is so easy to do with a wedding planner who knows the areas that you are considering really well.
They will have lists of venues with costs and images all ready to show you.
Venue visits
Once you have decided on your chosen destination and narrowed down your venue search, get your planner to get in touch with your favourites to arrange visits in which you can meet the venue owners, explore the venue and get a feel for it, try the food, check out the surrounding area and really get to know the area.
Supplier list
Once your venue is booked your planner can help you by sending you a list of the suppliers that they know and trust to ensure that you choose the perfect fit for you and your wishes. Although most planners are happy to work with suppliers you may already have in mind.
Ideas and Inspiration
This is when the fun part ( my favourite bit!) can really get started with the choosing of the decor, colour scheme and all the details that you wish to include.
Pinterest and Instagram are great sources of inspiration along with wedding blogs and forums.
Check out my blog on tips about wedding table design here onefinedayweddingconsultants.com/post/wedding-table-styling-tips
Enjoy the planning as a couple
Visit wedding fairs, enjoy the champagne, buy the wedding magazines, read useful blogs and begin to enjoy this next step in your lives.
Make a playlist that you both love and play it on planning nights in or when you are doing anything wedding related.
Time goes by so quickly and the memories of the excitement of wedding planning will be ones you remember forever and will make your wedding day feel even happier knowing that you both helped make it happen.
But during the whole process, remember to have fun and enjoy every minute.
Building a wedding website
Check out all the options and decide whether you'd prefer to create your own from scratch or use one of the many wedding website templates that are available out there.
Check out the pros and cons, and then pick one together.
Most wedding websites are free to set up and easy to navigate and they are a great way of keeping your guests informed of all the details of your wedding.
Save The Dates
Once you have decided on your choice of country, location, venue and date, sending out save the dates is crucial.
The more time you give your guests to plan their trip and save, the more chance there is of them being able to attend.
There are so many fabulous stationery companies to choose from. These gorgeous designs are from
If you need help planning your dream destination wedding anywhere in Europe, get in touch with me
here
For more tips and inspiration check out some of my other blogs by clicking on these links
Read some real love stories here