photo from GlamLive

This article is brought to you by David Thurston.

About the Author

David Thurston owns and writes for EssexWeddingServices.com – a regional wedding services website that lists a wide range of Essex based wedding services.

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With thousands of weddings occurring every single month in the UK, and average wedding day costs well into 5 figure sums, surely there is the need for professional wedding planners to help organise your wedding day, isn’t there?

Surely the bride wants to plan her wedding day herself, right down to the very last kiss goodbye at the end of the night? We look at whether to plan your own wedding day, or just sit back and let someone else take the stress.

Planning your own wedding

Some brides have been planning their wedding day from the first time they were a bridesmaid aged 6! Others start planning minutes after the proposal! I even know someone who went out and bought her wedding dress the morning after the proposal, but why not?

The difference between the brides idea of planning and the grooms idea of planning is immense! The bride will be thinking of wedding dresses, wedding venues, who will be the bridesmaid, what colour scheme to have. The groom will be thinking of where to go on his stag party, and where to go on the honeymoon, sorry ladies but most of the wedding planning will land in your lap.

So where do you begin? Thinking logically, the first step is deciding the date, the second step is finding a wedding venue. There are so many wedding venues available these days that the choice is fantastic, so you’ll be spending plenty of time hunting around the internet and wedding fayres for your ideal wedding venue.

Once you’ve visited a few venues, and selected your wedding date, pay your deposit for your chosen wedding venue, secure the date and relax and enjoy everything else. Once you’ve made those two steps, the rest should be fun, you can start telling your friends and family when and where you’re getting married and start enjoying the buzz of it all.

The wedding venue will probably have a long list of their preferred suppliers for you to book, ranging from toastmasters, to caterers, DJ’s and dress shops – the list goes on and on.

Keep calm and decide what you really want on your wedding day. Do you want a band or a DJ, do you want a harpist or a simple CD, a wedding car or horse and carriage? Make a list of what you’d like and start searching for some price quotes – ensure you get your groom involved by creating a spreadsheet to track all the costs of the day, and set your budget. Once you’ve chosen what you want for your wedding day, and got your quotes, then you’re nearly there with regards to the overall planning. Pay deposits for the services you want to use for the day, and ensure you get written receipts. They’ll all inform you when the balance is due for payment, so just keep the receipts together in one file and keep it all in a safe spot.

When you’ve booked your wedding services, then all the little things start requiring some attention, things like wedding invitations, favours, tiaras, balloons, taxis, hotels, all the stuff you didn’t think of when you booked your photographer and DJ and thought you were done!

Then of course it’s the stress of which people you’re going to invite, and which you only want to the evening reception. Again, take your time and relax and enjoy all the planning. Use the internet to help find ideas, ask your friends what they did for their wedding day. Websites like eBay have hundreds of items for sale that’ll help you. Why not make your own wedding invitations, or go green and send everyone a nicely decorated email invitation.

Everything will fall into place eventually, maintain your list of things you wanted for your wedding day, and keep a track of those costs, it’s your wedding day so plan it yourself and enjoy the end result a lot more.

The Professional Wedding Planner option

Once thought of as only for the rich or famous, the wedding planner has crept into the minds of many a bride to be as a good option to keep calm, and let someone else do all the running around. It is after all going to be the best day of your life, so why add any stress at all?

A professional wedding planner should work to ensure you have your perfect day, they’ll meet you for an initial consultation and try to get to know you as quickly as possible to gain an idea of your wedding day needs.

Maybe the wedding planner will provide the inspiration you are missing, and have plenty of fantastic ideas that you would never of thought of. They will certainly have a long list of suppliers at their disposal to recommend, so if you’re someone that knows nothing about wedding cakes, or suit hire or where to find your favorite car to arrive in, they’ll do all the searching and ask all the questions for you.

A really good wedding planner will also try and negotiate a discounted price for the wedding services you want, if they succeed at this for some of the hired services, they may even save you enough to cover their own charges – you never know !?
Provide the wedding planner with your budget and ensure they agree to stick to it, they will provide you with all the necessary documentation and receipts.

Depending on how involved you want the wedding planner to be, they’ll arrange all the invites to be posted out, and even request that replies be sent to them so they can keep you up to date with who can attend and who can’t. They’ll even do the horrid “why haven’t you replied yet” following up with the less organised of your wedding party.

Make sure you arrange another meeting with the wedding planners a week or so before the big event, and iron out any last minute issues. Whether you decide to have the planners there at your wedding day to ensure everyone is in their right positions at the right time is another option to consider.

Wedding Day planning – D.I.Y. or Professional ?

At the end of the day, it’s a personal choice, but then so is every single aspect of your wedding day.

If you have the budget and don’t want all the running around, contact a professional wedding planner and discuss your options.

If you don’t mind a bit of organising and want to be very hands on, then the satisfaction of enjoying your wedding day knowing that you’ve achieved it all yourself is fantastic.
Either way, it’s a once in a lifetime day, so enjoy it the best way you can!