We are so excited he popped the question! You've found the man of your dreams. Now what? You have a wedding to plan! Um......how? Here's a quick list of some wedding planning DOs and DON'Ts from the Altar Ego Weddings experts:
DO hire a wedding planner! Of course that's the #1 DO! ;) Whether you want a professional by your side throughout the entire planning process or you want to do most of the legwork yourself, don't skip this worthwhile suggestion! Read our informative blog post on why every bride needs a wedding planner.
Scott & Tem Photography
DO work on your wedding guest list. Do you want only your nearest and dearest with you on your special day or is it important for your entire Facebook friends list to attend? There's a big difference between 100 guests and 300!
DO get a realistic idea of your budget. $10,000 will work, right? Consider this: According to The Wedding Report, the average cost of a wedding in Texas is $26,030. In Austin the average wedding cost is $30,953 and Dallas-Fort Worth's average wedding costs $32,159. If the average guest count is 150 guests, we can extrapolate the following: on average, Texas brides spend roughly $173 per guest; Austin brides spend $206 per guest and Dallas-Fort Worth weddings come in around $214 per guest. Look at your guest list, do some math and you are armed with some good information to get started. Here's some good news: with Altar Ego Weddings' full-service wedding planning package, we will walk you through all this step-by-step!
Onto a couple of DON'Ts!
DON'T get too excited about your "brother's best friend's cousin" who kind of takes photos on the side" or your "mom's boss' wife who always sends cute cakes for company birthday parties" and wants to help with your wedding. These are generous offers, no doubt, and you may think you'll save money. However, wedding vendors are professionals. From your planner to the DJ and caterer, choose professional tried-and-true vendors with wonderful reviews on wedding industry web sites, such as Wedding Wire. Let your family and friends just enjoy your wedding without having to worry about tasks. All of our wedding planning packages, including month-of coordination, include vetted, personalized vendor referrals. You can rest assured you will have a solid, cohesive vendor team.
DON'T buy into everything you see on Pinterest and fabulous wedding blogs! We love them too, we promise! We have gobs of inspiration on our Pinterest boards and love being featured on blogs, such as Style Me Pretty and WeddingLovely. Definitely collect inspiration for your own big day, but keep in mind that some things you see may be "styled shoots" that participating vendors spent thousands of dollars to create. You may also find gorgeous handmade details you love that may take an inordinate amount of time to create. Keep an open mind and a practical point of view while making your way through your own design process.
What should you make of all this? Being engaged should be one of the most joyful times in your life. Wedding planning is fun and exciting, but can be expensive and stressful as well. These DOs and DON'Ts are just the beginning of the advice we'd like to share with you. At Altar Ego Weddings, we take pride in helping our brides have the least amount of stress as possible during their wedding planning process.
Contact us today so we can help you get going in the right direction from the start! Congrats again! We can't wait to hear from you! Be stress-free!
Jennifer Yarbro Photography