Where do I begin??

[Jena17]

I am newley engaged and don''t know where to beging! I am in the process of finding the venue and setting a date but need some information on what the next steps should be. Is there any book or website that helps a woman plan a wedding??? Please help!

 

[kstar512]

Congratulations on your engagement! There are a whole lot of things that will need to be done between now and the big day, and I am sure the fellow psers will have lists of things to do. There are many books and websites to help you plan. I created an account on theknot.com. You put in your date and budget and it tells you all the things you should be taking care of each month. It is pretty helpful and even gives you the amount you should be spending on each thing in order to stay in budget.

 

[neatfreak]

First the date, then the other big things. Venue, catering, photog, overall feel you want, etc. I say start with the vendors that are most important to YOU, that way you can book them first and/or rearrange your date to accommodate them if necessary. Worry about details later.

 

[Sparkalicious]

Hi Jena - congrats on your engagement and welcome to BWW!

I was in the same position as you several months ago. Since I was soooo in the dark about where to start, I headed to the bookstore and picked up a few - what I consider to be - invaluable resources. I picked up The Knot Book of Lists and a Wedding Planner binder thingy that helps you lay everything out and almost takes you "step by step" ... Additionally, I purchased Bridal Bargains because it has some great tips on how to save some $$.

Good luck with your planning ... Have fun!

eta - big ditto to Neatfreak - great advice!

 

[dcgator]

Hi Jena,

Congrats on the engagement! It can definintley be a daunting task to plan a wedding, but don''t worry, we will be here to help you through it, so you can acutally enjoy it! As for which online sources to use, I highly recommend www.weddingwire.com. I absolutely love this site as it not only lets you search vendors, keep lists, and track payments, but it also allows you to upload guestlists and track them too

(yes, I am one of those list geeks, lol)

I can''t speak to the comparison to the knot, since I have not used it. But you should def play around with wedding wire. Oh, I also forgot to mention that you can build your own free wedding website through ww.

Have fun, and do come back with any questions

 

[Morgie44]

I also really like wedding wire so far. They have a good budget tracker and a checklist I like better than theknot''s. I would look at the checklist to get an idea of all the things you need to think about. There were a lot that I wouldnt have thought of on my own.

In general, I would suggest first determining a ballpark guest list, budget, and season. This will help you in determining what venues are even in the realm of possibility. From there you can either brain storm a style and narrow down your venues to fit your ideas. For us, there were a very limited number of venues so we first found a venue we liked and then built the style from there. The next step for us was the most important vendors to us: Photography, DJ, and Florist, in that order. I have found it easiest to just focus on one vendor until they are booked and then move on to the next, otherwise it got to be a lot to juggle trying to schedule meetings and remember what was discussed at each if we were trying to find multiple types of vendors at once.

Good Luck!

 

[bee*]

To me it was important to get the venue and set the date, then get the church booked or the place that you are going to have your ceremony at. Then the other big things-photographer, videographer etc.