Where to start with all this wedding planning! Any ideas? I need inspiration.......

Personally I wouldn't pick a specific date first - you'll be constricting yourself from the off.

The first thing you need to do is think about your guest list. How many guests will be at the day/evening? Actually write it down (if you're like me it'll be more than you think!).

Once you have numbers you can start looking at venues. Get a search area. Are you having a church or civil ceremony?

Bear in mind 'out of season' weddings are often much cheaper (Oct-Mar normally but does vary).

Thanks for all your advice, it sounds like you know what your talking about. Lots of useful information to help get me started. Also great ideas I like the idea of having a summer wedding with a vintage feel to it but you can never plan on having nice weather and budget is also an issue so I think a winter wedding would be more realistic with the budget we have. I like the idea of having candelabras as centerpices so think that would go with a winter theme but also want flowers! I love the idea of having a fur cape (fake fur... Of course) I'm really excited now it's got me thinking of all the possibilities.

If you're set on this, make sure your venue allow naked flames. A lot don't.

wss

I booked my venue before i had an idea on how many guests were coming, luckily my venue was big enough.

Hi, I'm also on a budget (£6500) but am managing to have a summer wedding with close friends and family and a massive evening do. I had provisionally booked a venue (2years ago) knowing a rough idea of numbers for a date in September and married at Registry Office (thought this was the cheap answer). 3 months later having looked round more and spoke to more people, the venue had recently got a bad reputation and I was in a dilemma. I'm so glad nothing had been finalised all those months before. I now have 7 weeks to go and getting married and reception all under one roof done by a lovely hotel.

My advice give yourself time to speak and look round and even places you thought were out of budget, it is surprising what hotels will discount if they want your business. Look out for websites like Confetti and buy things when they have offers on, eBay is another fantastic site where you can get brand new items at a fraction of the cost.We brought the basics from Hobbycraft and then added our personal touch to things. Get creative.

Have fun and don't get stressed out about it.

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This is very important. Even the most well-meaning of friends or family members can say completely off-the-cuff remarks that get under your skin. Be firm from the offset that, whilst you appreciate feedback and advice, you will be the one (two!) making the final decisions about your day. Just because your Mum/sister/best friend/second-cousin-three-times-removed always wanted to have a pink wedding gown twelve feet wide with seven dwarfs escorting her down the aisle, it doesn't mean you should be swayed when they make noises about your plans not being the dream wedding. We all have different dreams - which is lucky!

Also, try to be realistic with your budget. Whilst we all want the biggest impact for our buck, there's no point starting off married life with lots of debt and financial worries. That's a recipe for misery in those first few months or years, when you should be having the most fun.

We started off working out how much we could save, then sent off for LOADS of brochures. Picked our favourites and went to see them. Saw 3 in the end. Didnt go view anymore once we had found the one we'd liked. we hadnt set a specific date just decided a time of year, and then went off the dates our venue had available and matched these to the church. We had already wrote a rough guest list too to help us work out our budget. Then everything else just kind of flows after, photographer, colour scheme. If im struggling to decided on something like our colour scheme, I just wait til it hits me. I know when ive made my mind up even if it takes a while to get there.

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Louise it says you joined this site in 2005 and have over 5000 posts??

What have you been doing on this site all this time if you still don't know where to start? LOL?