First Things First: Prioritize Your Wedding Planning

As your wedding officiant, I am happy to support and guide you in whether you’re planning a traditional, wedding, an “Offbeat Bride” occasion or an LGBT ceremony. No matter what kind of wedding you have in mind, Janet Westall and Ceremonies will support you from the first planning stages until you walk back down the aisle on your wedding day.

Summer is one of my busiest seasons for weddings, and many proposals also happen during this time of year with the romance flitting about in the air. While December is far and away the most popular month for engagements, according to TheKnot.com’s latest wedding statistics from 2014, August also falls smack dab in between the two most popular months for weddings – June and October – making this a great time of year to discuss planning your pending nuptials.

Wedding Planning CoupleMany brides-to-be approach their wedding from whatever angle seems most important to them in the moment, which can make the logistics and planning all the more difficult. There are a few things that should naturally come to the front of your planning, however. One of the initial parts of planning should be sitting down with your fiancé and going over the biggest aspects of the wedding to outline the vital parts of wedding planning.

Among the initial decisions the two of you make should be settling on a budget. Knowing what you have to work with will naturally direct how you plan the rest of your ceremony and reception. Planning a larger affair will require larger spaces and larger budgets, which means that this is also a great time to start outlining the potential venues and extensiveness of the prospective guest list through the lens of your budget.

This is also a perfect time to go over any musts that you may have for the event. Is a waterfront wedding a nonnegotiable, must-have part of your wedding? Maybe you absolutely insist that there’s an open bar at the reception. Whatever you’re dead set on including, narrowing that list to the absolute essentials early on gives you an idea of what kind of flexibility you have for the other aspects of the big event.

You should also try to narrow down your list of venues early and start contacting other vendors who you will need. The availability of a location may drive your wedding date if you don’t have a specific date picked out, so finding out what dates are available can help you focus your search for florists, photographers and catering selections.

Lastly, the big item: The dress. While it’s tempting to rush out to try dresses shortly after the proposal, it should come after everything else already discussed. By taking care of the who, when and where early, you have a much better idea of a prospective budget range and how much time you have to find and order your wedding gown. WedNet says that many dresses take roughly nine months from ordering to receipt, so it’s still a major component to be tackled early, but one that should wait until you’ve nailed down some of your other details.

Choosing the officiant is another important step because it is your officiant who will bring the whole ceremony together and actually make your matrimony complete. Contact me today and find out more about planning your ceremony anywhere in the greater Temecula area or throughout Southern California.

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