Now that you’ve recovered from the delightful shock of your engagement, take a deep breathe.

This wedding of yours must be your first time (of course this is your first time! What am I saying?) and it is fine to get confused and overwhelmed by what to do.

As you are recovering from your initial excitement, you could be considering how to go about planning your wedding and how to go about making things simple. You have heard about unbelievable stories of weddings having at least 600 guests or even expensive weddings which the couple spent their entire savings.

You may not care about what people say or how other people look at it. You just want a simple wedding.

You may be looking at just a simple wedding reception with a small group of family members, relatives and friends to be present. Of course, despite of a simple wedding, every detail of any bride’s wedding is important. And there are some short cuts that you can take when you are planning your simple wedding.

There 6 steps that you can go over in advance to make the months ahead as simple as possible. You can use these steps to help outline the planning of your wedding.

1) Budget – One of the biggest mistakes that brides’ make is not setting a budget. And it is one of the major causes how most couples end up in debts after their weddings.

If not controlled, costs can easily spiral out of control, and if you don’t document them, you may end up paying far more for your wedding than you planned. You should work out with your fiance the maximum amount that both of you are able to spend.

Without an amount set, you realise it is so easy to spend way beyond your budget. You do not want to spend your honeymoon worrying about how to go about paying your debts. So set the intial stage right to budget plan wedding.

2) Date – Pick a date that you would like your wedding to be. At first, you may want to pick the part of the year you want to have your wedding. Is it the first half or the second half of the year?

Then work from there which month you want to pick. Be sure to allow yourself enough time to organize the details. You don’t want to stress yourself out by giving yourself too little time to pull everything together right before the wedding. Be careful in choosing a date. A rule of thumb is to give yourself one to two years of wedding preparation. Be sure that it is not a busy time of year, such as a holiday or during festive season.

3) Who Pays For What? – It also helps to know who traditionally pays for the various functions and features of your wedding. What does the bride’s family pay for? What does the groom’s family pay for? Which part of the wedding do both the groom and bride share the cost?

There will be times some grooms want to pay for everything and it is excellent for the brides. Not matter what the practice is, it is important to come to a common agreement at the intial stage of planning your simple wedding.

4) Location – It is an appropriate idea to consider where you would like your wedding to be. Would you like to have your wedding in a church, or would you rather have it in another location, such as your own home, outside or in a special location that brings back special memory?

If you are having a reception, look into where you will want have it. Contact each establishment, and see if the date that you want is available. Ask about prices, booking information, sitting capacity and areas for reception. Some reception sites will have discounts if you also have them cater the food at your event. Ask for small function halls if your expected number of guests is small.

5) Rings – Don’t let your wedding rings get lost in the mix. Rings are just physical resemblance of marriage. So don’t oversplurge on costly rings just to prove that both of you really love each other. You will want to set aside your budget. It would be wise to do some shopping around and visiting at least 5 jewelry shops as well as distributors which can offer you a better and cheaper price. You will want plenty of time to pick your rings out and get them sized and engraved before your wedding.

6.) Food – Food will take up most in your budget. You will want to determine the food arrangements for your rehearsal dinner and reception. You will want to know how many guests will turn up and whether your food is served in buffet style or served in sit-down lunch.

Planning a simple wedding helps makes everything simple. But when wedding matters concern different people, your simple wedding may not be so simple after all as it gets complicated when more people are involved.

Remember there is no perfect plan wedding and don’t forget why you are getting married in the first place, and have fun designing your wedding. Don’t be afraid to include your partner in the process, and remember that it is their big day, too!

So good luck to planning your simple wedding!