Hey there!!
Thanks for coming back to my brand new blog series! This is a resource I wanted to create because I couldn’t find one like it when I was planning my day! If there’s a specific topic that would be so helpful for you to hear more about, don’t hesitate to reach out! It will always be growing as I find more information to give to you and I won’t hold back!
Before I get in depth of what vendors want you to know before booking them, there are some important questions that you’ll need to begin asking yourself in the beginning of the wedding planning process. These are things you need to tell to the people who are helping you along the way, whether that’s bridesmaids, your mom, a hired wedding planner… whoever it might be. They need to know this and it’s important that you don’t feel pushed in any other direction unless you genuinely change your mind. The answers to these questions let you know what YOUR dream day looks like, not anyone else’s, and what will make your dream day so wonderfully perfect & unique.
You might find the answers through Instagram photos that you’re drawn to or in the Pinterest board that we all know that you have. Or in the magazines you’re drooling over and that wedding you went to and just will not shut up about! It’s not an exhaustive list, but I definitely believe it’s a good place to start. (This is of course assuming that you’ve already thought over if you want a wedding or elopement, but we’ll definitely go into that more later!)
- What’s your budget?
This is probably the least popular question and one that might change over time. We were so bad with figuring out an actual budget that it just kept growing and changing over the months. Maybe you’re in a place or have family that that’s okay. But if you’re on this financial journey alone, figuring out and sticking to a budget can save you a lot of heart break & stress once you’re actually married (priority should always be on the lasting marriage, rather than just the wedding day!). So sit down, have the talk with your families & future spouse, & find a budget that you’re truly comfortable with. With the correct planning and budgeting, a beautiful wedding can happen on any budget! - Within that budget, what are your priorities?
Maybe you’re looking to have a huge party with loads of dancing, so you should expect most of your budget going towards alcohol & DJ, or maybe it’s the photography & videography and memories that are just so important, or it’s that venue that you can’t get out of your head. No matter what, figure out what your non-negotiables are and make them happen within your budget! When Josh & I got married, we knew that the party aspect wasn’t really as important to us, so we didn’t get a DJ & let our guests know it would be a cash bar, but we knew that a photographer would just have to be up there in our budget. The next few questions might help you sort out what your priorities might be! - What do you want your wedding to feel like?
An excellent way to know the answer to this question is a Pinterest board! When I really started planning a REAL wedding, I made a secret board and invited my bridesmaids to it. Then I started sifting through my main wedding board that I had been pinning stuff to for YEARS at this point (you do this too, right? please just say yes so I feel better, haha!) to add to the new board. Sometimes this is fun to do physically too, buying magazines & creating a vision board. Whichever way you decide to do it, you’ll probably start to see a theme throughout your photos. Maybe it’s light and dreamy or maybe it’s really elegant, or maybe it’s just intimate and small. While I knew I wanted an intimate wedding, I soon learned that our guest list wasn’t going to allow for exactly what I envisioned (I initially was trying to get our guest list in the 20-30 people range, but that didn’t work…). But even with the 60 people I did end up with, I was still able to create that feeling with my venue! It’s all possible no matter what, you just have to find the right people! This question, along with maybe time of year, will help you narrow down some wedding colours!
These questions will help you both pick your wedding vendors (price and style), as well las help your wedding vendors to serve you well. If you don’t know what you want, it’ll be really hard to make your vendors understand where you’re at.
Are there any other questions you wish you would have asked beforehand? Anything else I may have missed? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
Caroline Dorothy
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