Tips to Plan Your Wedding in 12 Months!
Getting Organised
Here at The Kingscote Barn, we understand that you may not want to have a long engagement and can’t wait to marry the love of your life. So why wait! It’s easier than you think to plan a wedding in 6 months (or less) and here are our handy tips!
Your Budget
The first thing that you should do when starting out with your wedding plans is to decide on a budget – and stick to it! It’s easy to get carried away with choosing lots of pretty decorations and exciting suppliers but if they don’t fit in with your budget then you’ll end up wasting lots of time and feeling very frustrated. Sit down and work out how much you can afford to spend on your wedding in total and split this into each area. Then you can start to build a picture of your ideal wedding and decide on a theme or style. Remember that it’s not just the venue and food that you need to pay for, your budget has to cover decorations, flowers, dresses, suits, hair and make-up and more.
BE flexible
While you shouldn’t have to compromise on having the wedding of your dreams, just because you’re planning it in 6 months, it’s important to be realistic. Being flexible is key to planning a short notice wedding and this will allow you to open your eyes to possibilities that you hadn’t considered before. By being flexible on certain elements of your wedding, you may end up having a better wedding than you ever imagined! You could have your heart set on a dream venue but end up choosing a different venue that you love even more! Venues that offer late availability discounts tend to have mainly midweek dates available so why not get married during the week. Weekday weddings are very popular now and your wedding will still be as amazing on a Monday or Tuesday as it would be on a Saturday! The bonus is that a midweek wedding will probably cost less and good suppliers are more likely to have availability too.
VENUE
Start by looking at venues online to get a feel for what style venue you like i.e. barns, manor houses, castles. Shortlist a few venues that you’re interested in and give them a call to check what dates they have available. Most venues will have late availability discounts for certain dates so ask about this.
Once you’ve found venues that you like, and that have availability, arrange a viewing so that you can see the venue and talk to their wedding coordinator about your wedding. A top tip from us is to choose a venue that has lots of experience and can help you plan your day.
SAY YES TO THAT DRESS
Most bridal shops will have dresses that can be bought straight away rather than having to be sent off to be ordered with the designer. You can also find some fantastic pre-loved dresses for a fraction of the cost! The high street is also a great place to look depending on what style you want
Wedding dress shopping is a memorable experience so enjoy the moment of finding ‘the one’!
your suppliers
The next thing to do is to start booking important suppliers such as a caterer, photographer, band/DJ, florist and cake designer. Ask your venue to recommend the best local suppliers and see what those suppliers can offer. You can do the majority of your research and securing suppliers online, over the phone and through emails which will save a lot of time.
Here at The Kingscote Barn, we have our own recommended supplier list that we keep up to date regularly so we can point you in the direction of certain suppliers and even check their availability for you.
Consider buying your cake from Marks & Spencer’s rather than finding a cake designer – they are great value and look fantastic too!
When choosing suppliers, it’s important to keep an open mind as there are lots of amazing suppliers out there who are waiting to give you the wedding of your dreams.
send out your invites
If you want your family and friends to join you in celebrating your wedding day, then don’t forget to invite them!
Aim to send out your invitations as soon as you can so that your guests can pencil the date in their diaries. It’s important to make sure that your guests still RSVP in plenty of time before the wedding – even if this doesn’t give them long to get back to you. You’ll most likely need to confirm your final guest numbers to your venue and caterer about 1 month before your wedding, along with providing them with a seating plan.
When you send out your invitations, make sure that you ask guests to RSVP a couple of/few weeks before you actually need them to, so that you have time to chase anyone who doesn’t respond on time. It’s also good to ask guests to note any dietary requirements on their RSVP so that you can pass this onto you caterer.
ask for help
You should have now secured some great suppliers to make your day extra special so it’s time to start piecing everything together and thinking about the finishing touches and last-minute details. Don’t be afraid to ask for help – your family and friends will most likely want to be part of your wedding plans so round them up for a ‘DIY decorations day’.
If you don’t want to make your own decorations, then you could look at hiring a wedding stylist for your wedding day. They have a wide range of props and decorations that you can hire from them and they also come and set these up for you as part of the package. This will take away a lot of the stress in the lead up to your wedding and on the day too. We work with some fantastic wedding stylists at The Kingscote Barn so please ask us for recommendations!
get planning
It may seem like a daunting task to plan a wedding in less than 6 months but it’s a lot easier than you think and it shouldn’t be stressful. You may be in more of a hurry to get everything finalised but you can still have a fun and enjoyable experience. There’s a lot of excitement involved with wedding planning – such as menu-tastings, decoration planning, dress trying and deciding on music – and you still get all of this with a shorter notice wedding. A lot of couples who have planned a last-minute wedding have found that they are more productive with their time and get a lot more done than they probably would have done otherwise. When it gets to the big day itself, try to enjoy it as much as you can and soak it all in! It’s time to celebrate your new marriage and all of the hard work that you’ve put in to planning it for the last few months. It will have all been worth it!