10 Easy Steps to Organising Your Wedding
By: Lillian Hammond
Marriage is a wonderful milestone in your life and it is important to start this new stage in your life in a good financial state.
You have just gotten engaged; and you are now preparing for one of the most important days of your life!
If you are in a situation like I was when I started planning my wedding; the questions on my mind were:
“Are there ways to save on my dress, the venue, or any other wedding item?”
“How do we stick to our budget?”
“Where can a get a good deal, and good value for money?”
“Where do I start? There is so much to do!”
You will find below, 10 easy steps to organising your wedding.
1. Understand the costs of the average wedding, and how to avoid overspending on your wedding. By understanding the most costly items on your weddings list, your attention would be focused on which items create the best savings opportunities
2. Agree on your desired type of wedding with hubby (to be)
3. Identify source of funds. You will need to identify how you are going to fund your wedding (i.e. with help from parents, or by using your savings etc…).
4. Agree on your budget. Once you have ensured that you have the funds available, you will need to decide on your wedding budget and commit to sticking to it.
5. Set the wedding date. Usually people would set the date before working out how they will get the money to pay for the wedding, but I would advise to first work out your finances and then set your wedding date.
6. Go through a list of all the wedding items and decide on which ones you will definitely have to purchase, and the ones you will not need to buy or will simply not need (for example, you may choose not to have arrival drinks).
7. Create a checklist or to do list.
8. Purchase items and negotiate on all of them.
9. Plan the wedding day itself
10. Arrange for post-wedding activities (i.e. change of name)
Lillian organised her own wedding on a budget of 5000 pounds. She spent 6 months prior to her wedding researching vendors, comparing products and prices; meeting with photographers; hotel managers; and many more wedding vendors to understand how she could save on each wedding item. She realised that it is possible to have a fantastic wedding without breaking the bank and decided to share her tips with others.