Congratulations on your engagement- this is such an exciting time for you two! We, at Hazel and Bloom Events, are here to help. I bet you have googled a million different options for your upcoming wedding and you are wondering what the next steps are… I completely understand your uncertainty about what to do next- which is why I’ve come up with the next step for you to do.

First things first, grab your choice of beverage (mine is some delicious red wine) some pen and paper -or write on a shared note on your phone- and that fiance of yours and take a night to go over the three p’s to start.. Be mindful that there is no order of priority, since they go hand-in-hand when wedding planning. What are the three p’s you ask??

Priorities, People and Price!

LET’S GET STARTED..

Priorities

1. Separately write down your top 5 must-haves for the wedding
   • This is important to talk about together once you have written down your separate must-haves. Circle the similar ones and focus on those during the planning process.
   • Try to be as specific as possible. An example would be the importance of your wedding environment. If you want a fun environment and not formal, what can you add to create that fun environment that describes the two?
   • Make sure that these must-haves are not based on social pressure but focused on something you will be glad you chose 10 years down the road. (remember that some Pinterest photos are “staged” photoshoots)
2. Topics to chat about:
   • Destination vs. local
   • Season to get married (Fall, Summer, Spring, Winter)
   • Large vs. small wedding
   • Size of your wedding party
   • Familial financial input (if applicable)
   • Personal financial input
   • Adult only vs. Kid-friendly
   • Potential Family disagreements & how to handle them

Price

Ohhhh money! If you are anything like me, budgeting is my least favorite thing to do when it comes to big events but it is NECESSARY! If you have done any sort of research on what an average wedding cost or anything along the lines of average cost spent per vendor, I bet you are SHOCKED. The wedding industry continues to grow every year and that means cost increase. Don’t worry!

As one of our clients, we have already chatted about the budget during our onboarding meeting, if we haven’t then now is a great time to gather all the information that you will need for our onboarding budget chat.

Your budget will help shape your priorities and your maximum number of guests. If a band is one of those priorities that you and your fiance have selected as equally important, then your budget will shift around that and many other things. This is also a great time to chat about any type of financial support that you will be receiving from family, if applicable.

Lastly, try not to go into too much depth per category. Pricing for vendors is based on location, experience and so much more. Just come up with a maximum amount you can spend on the wedding with a little wiggle room and let your wedding planner do the rest.

We have a budget breakdown for each one of you to have, but here are a few other sites that will help you get a good idea. Keep in mind these are average budget percentages across the United States. I believe all budgets are customized per couple and location.

Brides

Here Comes the Guide 

Martha Stewart Weddings

People

Who should you invite and how to stay organized with your guest list?

Welcome to your first potential conflict in wedding planning. If your family is anything like mine, we know too many people. Here are a couple of ways that will make this process stressfree and fun:

• Start with your list of people that you and your fiance want at your wedding.
• Check each of your social media platforms and go through your friends to make sure you have not forgotten anyone.
• Ask your families to make a list of people they would like to invite. Then evaluate that list with just your fiance and yourself. This will eliminate any disagreements that you will have with their lists.
• Once you have made adjustments to your family’s lists, add them to your own.
• Create a spreadsheet (we use google sheets) and add everyone individually to be able to add family members you would like to invite as well. (e.g. John Smith, Mary Smith, (children) Sarah smith, Hunter Smith) This is a good way to get a FINAL guest count instead of forgetting the kids.
• Add a tab for household information. Make sure to add them with the correct etiquette. (e.g. Mr. and Mrs. Sarah and Adam Smith, The Smith Family, Mr. and Mrs. Adam Smith…) This is also the tab that you will be adding addresses, emails, phone numbers, etc.
  • This will also keep you from OVER ORDERING stationery. You should be ordering per household and not per person.
• The easiest way to obtain addresses is to create a link with Minted.com or look up an address assistant online and send out the link via email, text or social media. They will fill out their own information and will help you avoid any errors.
• Next, you have added everyone to the spreadsheet. Now’s the time to go through it and give everyone a Color.
  • Green = Yes we think they will come
  • Yellow = maybe
  • Red = 90% chance of not attending.
    ** Keep these colors with these names, I promise I have a fun game for you later when you start planning your seating chart and floor plan.**
• If you feel inclined to share your guest list with your families, google sheets will allow you to add them and share it.
• Finally, your Household tab should have numbered everyone to the far left. Use that number to identify RSVP’s if you choose to send out the traditional RSVP stationery option.

*If at any point you have a conflict with the invited guest list, contact your wedding planner on how to handle it. We have heard about every argument out there when it comes to wedding planning.

There you go! Priorities, Price, and People are the first topics of conversation to start the planning process. I believe that they are all intertwined and you can’t discuss one without the other. Just like you can’t have your margarita without the tequila, lime and salt!

Enjoy the planning together and stay tuned for your next step.

XOXO,

Jessica
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Hazel and Bloom Events

Side Note:: As a bride and wedding planner, I have decided to write a few blogs that will help you in the process. Stayed tuned for more tidbits of wedding planning.

Checklist

__Priorities

__Price

__People