Planning a wedding can be incredibly exciting, and yet incredibly overwhelming! It’s a ton of fun and can be streamlined and organized with the help of a wedding planner. But even with the help of a professional, there are still those pitfalls that we’ve seen time and time again! So let’s learn from those common mistakes and navigate a successful wedding planning process!
NOT SETTING A REALISTIC BUDGET
One of the first questions we as our new clients is: What’s your budget? It’s an extremely layered question, and we realize that! But it’s important to set a realistic budget from the get go and know where your priorities lie. And to always stay honest and transparent about that budget even when it ebs and flows. Our job is to work with you on that budget to set expectations and guide you through areas where it’s important to stay within budget in order to achieve the overall goal. Even if you have an exponential amount of money available for your big day, it’s always wise to have at least a ballpark of a limit so there are no surprises down the road.
VENUE BEFORE PLANNER
To be clear, this is not necessarily a “mistake” so to speak, but more of a suggestion and word to the wise! Booking a venue before setting your overall wedding goals and guidelines can sometimes cause bumps down the road. What if the venue has exclusive suppliers that won’t let you work with a particular team you had in mind? Perhaps your venue expenses are going to cut you really short in other areas, or the hanging flowers you wanted won’t happen because there are no rigging points in that particular ceiling. These are all things that a wedding planner can guide you on when you go on venue tours and create goals and budgets together before booking the biggest item on your list.
NOT TRUSTING YOUR VENDORS
It’s almost a guarantee that the wedding vendors you hire have done this more times than you. Their experience, professionalism, relationships, and creativity are why you hired them. Let them do their jobs and trust that they will do their best on your big day. I promise that the most trust and respect you have, the better the product will be! Plus, how stressful for you to try and do someone else’s job. You just focus on the champagne drinking.
NO PLAN B FOR RAIN
This seems almost silly to even say out loud. But it happens all the time. People cross their fingers and say a prayer to Mother Nature in hopes that their day doesn’t get rained out. But alas, we live in a climate of ever changing weather and even your prayers won’t save you from a last minute down pour. So have a back-up! It’s only going to serve you well to not have to stress on your wedding day about where your guests are going to go when the skies open. Talk to your venue about contingency plans or options for tents. And if it does rain, embrace the memories and the stories you will tell. And hope for the double rainbow moment! (And buy big oversized clear umbrellas! See the image above for how epic it can look.)
NO REVEAL OR FIRST LOOK
I may get some flak for this one, but I am a huge proponent for the “first look” or “reveal” moment before a ceremony. And here’s why: it seems silly to me to rush photos after a ceremony when you have an entire day to spend together and capture photos. (Photographers ideally love to have 45mins for bridal portraits, 45 mins for bridal party, and 30 mins for family photos.) Not to mention, you’ve paid for those delish cocktails and canapes, why wouldn’t you want to enjoy it? Cocktail hour is also a perfect time to get your “hellos” and “thank yous” out of the way so you can sit and enjoy your dinner and not feel the pressures of visiting every table.