Why You Should Have a Wedding Timeline
PLANNING A KICK ASS WEDDING
It all start with gathering the right tools for planning your wedding. Of course the Knot is a great place to find vendors, as long as you give some love to those vendors listed on page 18. But Laine's (and Josey's) favorite tool is Aisle Planner. You can keep all of your meeting notes, your invoices and you're wedding vendors in one place. If you've got a gaggle of eager beavers helping you plan you can add them onto the platform, your mom or sister can have selected access, and you can give them tasks to do on the checklist. Hello delegation, how do you do?
Planning a wedding includes planning for how the wedding will be executed. Hiring a day of coordinator to help you on your big day can be the only way to success. They will take charge of many things, like cueing your ceremony, like grabbing an extra highchair/fork/regular chair/napkin for guests, and directing people on where to go when. That way you can just enjoy getting married.
Your day of coordinator will also create a comprehensive timeline for the day. During your event they'll be in charge of directing your wedding event, and of keeping track of the logistics. A day of coordinator also comes in handy the week before your wedding, they'll call your vendors for final check ins and they can end up offering invaluable moral support.
When you hire experts, like really good vendors who have done their job weekend in and weekend out, let out a sigh of relief. Remind yourself that you have hired people to take care of certain things, avoid the temptation of micromanaging. Hiring expert vendors also lowers your stress during the planning process. A quality vendor is one that responds to your emails quickly and in full, they go above and beyond and impress the pants off of you before you even pay the balance.
HOW DO I DECIDE ON A VENUE?
Deciding on a venue is all about thinking about how many people you want to invite and how much space you need for those people. If you have a LOT of guests on your list, and you just can't bring yourself to give it the slim and trim treatment, it be might be easier to do your ceremony in a church (large capacity) or have your reception in a hotel ballroom (again, large capacity). If, instead, you want a smaller guest count, selecting a venue with limited capacity can help make that process so much easier.
LAINE'S BEST ADVICE
Don’t let the planning take over your life. Talk through everything with your spouse. It is so important to not let this planning process ruin your relationship, instead let it make yours stronger. Be in the moment with your spouse, during the planning process but also on the day of your wedding. Remember, you’re engaged and you’re marrying this amazing human being. Wedding planning is all about teamwork and compromise, it’s a great way to learn about each other. Enjoy it.
Wedding Planning is still a lot of work in the end, it is not like the movie “The Wedding Planner” where the planner does every little thing. As the Bride and the Groom, you have to make major decisions.