What do I do first?

Welcome and congratulations. I started by picking our date. Then we worked out how much money we could get together and then planned our wedding around this. There are lots of compromises to be made but I really enjoyed the planning process. Our wedding is still 18 months away yet but we now have all the major things booked and deposits paid etc. Hope this helps and good luck with your planning!

Thank you. I'm swaying towards the first Sat in Sept, likely to be 2017 as opposed to 2016 due to finances. I wish the UK weather could be more predictable!

Budget, guest list and date in that order. Also start looking at venues and get an idea of what type of venue and wedding you like as they can get booked up quickly, especially if you wanna get married in summer.

Thank you. We have a budget in mind of 12k as we feel we can realistically cover that amount, I'm not sure how that sits in terms of a budget.

Hello!

Massive congratulations on your engagement!

Pinterst is great for gathering ideas.

I'd also sit down and decide on a budget. Work on a spreadsheet so you have a rough idea of how much you want to spend on things such as photographers, venues, flowers, cake, dress, suits, bridesmaid dresses, stationery.

It's a very exciting and overwhleming time so give yourself a moment to adjust but it's a wonderful time! I'd do it all over again!!!

Jen xx

A realistic budget is a very good start and £12k is a good amount, although you will still find it so easy to exceed that without any effort, if you're not careful.

Grab yourself a pad of paper and a pen and start jotting down the things that are important to you BOTH. So, if you want your wedding in the summer, or have always dreamed of a particular venue, or you want a small intimate do, or to elope, or whatever, then that is your next most important thing, in my opinion, as it means you are starting off by organising the wedding you want, and although you will compromise somewhere along the way, you are at least working towards the things that are most important to you. So often you will see on Hitched that brides end up being pushed into weddings that are nothing like the ones they dreamed of, because they feel they "ought" to do things a certain way. These are the brides that get upset, get anxious and don't enjoy their planning, and that is a real shame. So start off as you mean to go along, if that makes sense!

At this stage, there is no need to make real decisions about many things, but do start thinking of what is important to you - ie for our wedding the two things that would have bothered me most are if we had a church wedding but no one was singing the hymns, and if we had an empty dancefloor at the reception! So this lead us to have a civil ceremony with no hymns, and a real focus on finding a floor-filling live band for the evening. We also really wanted outside space at our venue as hopefully our June wedding will have good weather, and it would be nice to have photos outside - the more we thought about this, the more important it came.

Is food important to you - do you want a certain type of cuisine ie ethnic fusions, vegetarian/vegan food - if you do, then start looking earlier as these specialist caterers may book up way in advance, and you may need to look at venues that will allow you to bring in outside caterers, which many won't (or if they do they charge extra for the privilage).

Do you have a potential guest list of 10 or 250? This will influence your choice of venue as many have strict number limits. many ceremony rooms can only accommodate 30 people or so if you are having a registry office wedding.

Most importantly, just enjoy the planning and don't forget the most important element - you will be getting married to the one you love - the rest of it is all part of an optional extra "show". Many things that you think are important, really aren't - things you stress about are not worth getting stressed about, don't lose focus on the real thing - you and your H2B committing to each other.

Hitched is a great site - it is quite at the mo while people are doing festive bits, but you will get loads of help and ideas along the way - be sure to share your plans and photos with us along the way!!

I got married eight years ago on the first weekend of October and we had great weather. The weather in September can be glorious.

I would do a little jump and enjoy the moment! And have lots of fun with it! Then second, the nitty gritty, decide on a budget. But I would bath in the sweet bliss of engagement before the 'wedmin' begins!!! Many congrats x

Hi and Welcome! I got engaged on Christmas day last year - its all so exciting

We have booked for August 2016 - however we didn't book our venue until October this year. I found that doing this (Well I only did it coz we were buying a house, sensible priorities and all that) that it meant that i knew exactly what i wanted - i'd looked for months and months and I knew exactly what I wanted.

The venue was only the 2nd I looked at but i'd know for 6 months thats where I wanted. I knew what dresses and flowers I liked from months of pinning!! I mean i know it means its a bit boring, but its just taken a lot of stress away. I can enjoy the time.

The biggest stress was a photographer - they were way too much price wise for us but we ended up getting a really good deal after a few weeks of hunting .

My advice would be to just take your time and look around - dont rush straight away. My venue wouldn't allow bookings more than 2 years in advance you might be the same with your venue?

Thanks so much Kimiu, some great advice there x

Thanks Laura, I think I will enjoy the moment for a while!

thanks, you're right - I will start by sitting with H2B to list ideas and then just take our time and enjoy x

Congratulations!

Not sure if anyone has said this yet, but once you know the date you want to get married, get wedding insurance. Don't book anything without getting that sorted first as most insurance companies won't cover stuff you've already booked. We got our cover with John Lewis for £70, they do lots of different levels depending on your budget.

Dawn

Good thinking, thank you. I had a quick look and it looks like you can only get insurance two years before, does anyone know any companies that will offer insurance for three years in advance?

There are many great tips above so I can't really add much to that, except a couple of things:

Be prepared for changes and surprises (I ended up with a completely different dress to what I originally wanted, different wedding rings, different band etc)

Don't leave making your table plan to the last minute! (guess how I know

Keep close eye on your budget or it will very quickly sky rocket.

And above all... have fun!

Thank you! I am going to make sure I make the most of the planning as I guess the day flies by so quickly.