A wedding is a memorable affair in everyone’s life where dreams weave into reality. However, it is not as simple to arrange a wedding as it seems to be. In this blog, we will share a roadmap and a treasure trove of precious insights that orchestrate the perfect wedding. The wedding tips and tricks enlisted here will guide you in planning and executing your wedding ceremony in the best possible manner. Suppose the entire duty of wedding planning and execution seems overwhelming to you. In that case, you should hire a professional wedding planner who can handle the whole project with their innovative approach, rich experience and unwavering passion to achieve perfection. The wedding planning checklist includes every important aspect in the process of planning a wedding, like selecting the right venue to curating a menu that, in a true sense, tantalizes taste buds. Read on to know the most effective wedding planning advice.
10 Essential Steps with Wedding Planning Tips and Tricks
Fix a Date
Firstly, you need to envision your special day and accordingly dive into the nitty-gritty of wedding planning. It would help if you had a clear picture in your mind of how your special day celebration would be. Will it be an intimate gathering or a grand affair? Thoroughly understanding the same will facilitate your decision-making, and then you can go ahead and fix a date. The date of your wedding indeed sets the stage for further planning. You should necessarily consider the season, the weather, & the significance of the chosen date to ensure that it aligns with your dream completely. As per the wedding hacks by experts, choosing the date of your wedding is the most crucial part of the entire wedding celebration. So, it is essential to be very careful regarding this.
Prepare the Guest List
To prepare a wedding guest list, you need to follow a few small steps to ensure that you invite the right people to your wedding. Firstly, you need to split the guest quota among yourself, your partner, your family & your in-laws. You can make this a fourth for each and go ahead and make the list. The next step is to create the master list, which would include your friends, colleagues, relatives, cousins, family, etc. Once you have made the master list, you need to segregate the top-tier guests. They should be your priority when you start sending invitations. The next phase is to determine your budget and then consider if you can accommodate the Master guest list within your budget. You must consider consulting with your parents and in-laws to check if all their guests are included in the list.
Choose the Location
This is an essential step in the wedding planning checklist. To choose a perfect location, you should visit the destination before the wedding. You should hire a trusted local wedding planner to assist you in making the right decision. It would help if you informed the guests early about your chosen location for the wedding. Once you have finalized the area and the venue, you should tailor the ceremony as per the location. Consider local accommodations to accommodate guests who would be attending your wedding from far-off places overnight. You should ideally start the planning at least six months prior to the wedding day. A review of all the shortlisted locations, along with your chosen wedding planner, should be done before you finalize the venue.
Set Aside a Budget
Following the wedding tips and tricks by experts, you should set a particular budget for the venue. You should cease to overspend and make an estimated budget for venue, decoration, and catering. When it comes to Indian weddings, a number of pre-wedding functions, pujas, and religious ceremonies are conducted. You can plan all these pre-wedding rituals and pujas at home instead of performing them at the wedding location. This will save a lot of your money as you don’t need to rent the place for extra days before the wedding. You can invite only the closest friends and relatives to these rituals. All of these strategies will help you in planning your entire wedding within your budget.
Shortlist the Venues
You should shortlist the venues based on their look and feel, service quality and ambience they offer. You should make sure to check if the chosen event space for your dream wedding matches your vision. Make sure to check their policies and also check if they provide in-house decoration, catering, etc. Also, check if they provide in-house alcohol. You should primarily focus on the accessibility and logistics of all the shortlisted venues before you choose the best among them. Also, determine the infrastructure of every venue to accommodate the number of guests you are planning to invite. The wedding venue affects the choice of decoration and lighting. You should make it a point to choose such a venue with beautiful gardens and in-built décor. As per the wedding planning advice from the experts, such a venue will require lesser lighting and extra décor to make it look splendid.
Book the Wedding Venue
Before you book the wedding venue, you should visit all the shortlisted venues in your chosen locality and talk to the venue managers. It is of paramount importance to check out their terms and conditions and enquire about their backup plans just in case of any unforeseen circumstances. Once you are fully convinced after inspecting all the facilities, you should go ahead and book the venue. As per the wedding planning tips and tricks by experts, you should thoroughly check all the basics before booking the venue like the convenient location, capacity to accommodating the guest count comfortably, availability of the venue on the desired date, total cost & additional feed, availability of a dedicated on-site coordinator, all the inclusions of the venue package like rentals & catering, important rules & policies that govern the place etc. Be cautious and follow this checklist to book the best wedding venue.
Hire a Wedding Planner
While you are opting to hire a wedding planner, you should always look for experienced planners who have a proven track record of conducting successful weddings. You should be very transparent about the planning fees that they charge and ask for a detailed breakdown of the packages and services. You should ensure that the planner you choose should be friendly and adaptable to listen to your ideas and suggestions. Before you hire a wedding planner, discuss your expectations with them and check if they can fulfil them. You should discuss the themes and decorations of your wedding ceremony with them. The wedding planner you choose to hire should necessarily be innovative and should be able to bring in new ideas and implement them. A professional and experienced wedding planner knows all the necessary wedding tips and tricks that enable them to plan a grand wedding ceremony successfully.
Book your Favourite Caterer
Before you start researching for your favorite caterer, you should know that three different types of catering are available depending on the selection of the venue. The first is the most common form, which is in-house catering, where the selected venue supplies the catering service. This is typically found in restaurants, hotels, and several full-service venues. The second option is preferred catering, where the venue provides a list of the best caterers. These are hand-picked by your venue and trusted caterers who offer excellent services. The third option is open catering, where several venues like historic buildings, private estates, museums and art galleries allow licensed caterers to work at their premises and serve food to the guests. No matter whichever arrangement you choose from the above, you should decide on the menu, from snacks to starters to the wedding meal.
Arrange for Entertainment and Alcohol
You need to check whether your chosen venue offers in-house alcohol or not. If yes, you should check their licenses and permits. In case there is no facility for in-house alcohol, you have to hire a licensed vendor who provides both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in the wedding venue. It is also mandatory to check if your chosen venue offers a DJ or if you need to hire a DJ from outside. You should keep an eye on the lighting of the venue, add a monogram to the set dance floor at the wedding venue, etc. Also, you should ensure that a music request box is placed where friends & family members can easily insert their song requests to the DJ. This will save the trouble of the guests walking all the way up to the DJ to request a song. This is one of the valuable wedding planning advice by the experts.
Send out Invitations
After everything is set and you are planning to send out invitations for your wedding, here are a few wedding tips and tricks to bear in mind. You should make it a point to send invitations to your guests at least six to eight weeks before the wedding date. This should be three to four months prior if you are planning for a destination wedding. All the necessary information like the full names of the hosts and couple, the date, time, month, year & also the venue address in full have to be mentioned. You should note the address of the guests in full if you are sending the invitation via courier. Keeping these wedding planning tips for a stress-free day is very necessary.
Related Blog: How to Plan a Wedding in 3 Months
Conclusion
Keeping the above checklist handy and following the wedding tips and tricks shared here will help you a lot in planning and executing your wedding ceremony. Making the right choice at every step matters a lot in planning your wedding successfully. So, you need to follow all the essential tips and hire a trusted wedding planner if you are not confident to handle everything on your own. As a layman, this may appear to be overwhelming to you. Best of luck in your endeavour to make your special day even more special.
