In this blog you find numerous tips, ideas and downloadable worksheets to help you plan your wedding more efficiently. I have spent numerous hours trawling the vastness of the internet to find what I believe are the very best of helpful tools, to enable you to plan and coordinate everything from start to finish. So whether you're the diligent bride or the groom that wants to do his bit, this blog has you covered.
Wedding planning by timeline
The following links are a compilation of the best timeline guides to planning a wedding that are available on the internet. They are a useful tool for getting an overview of all of the aspects of planning a wedding and in most of them, you can literally tick things off as they are organised. Many are very similar, which you will see for yourselves but you may have a preference.
I will say that having read all of them for the purposes of this blog (I know I'm a hero), that most of them get one thing wrong .... If you want the absolute best in anything (this does not have to be the most expensive) book it as far in advance as possible!
So below are the links to the guides. Most are downloadable, which you can find and print by clicking the links.
1) This guide is my personal favourite. Nice looking, quite thorough and plenty of room for taking notes . Clicking here, will take you straight to the downloadable PDF
2) This is another nice one. It will give you the option to download if you stay on the page a minute or so - click here
3) This one is not downloadable, but its Bride Magazine so its worth checking out, click here
4) This is quite nice, again takes you straight to the PDF when you click here
5) I actually like this style. It helps you to get a vision of how you want your wedding and then goes into the planning. Click here
6) Take this quiz for hints and tips on wedding style, its here
7) There a number of wedding planning apps available on iPhone and android. Having read and tried a number of them, my recommendations are as follows.
* Hitched wedding planner -This is available, its good & its FREE
* APPY COUPLE - Cost is £25 but its good
8) One final point here, if you want to avoid a poor quality magician, check out some of my other blogs here
Get exceptional Wedding Entertainment for a great price
When looking for wedding entertainment ideas, the possibilities are endless and are only limited by your imagination. The reason this is the second part of the blog has nothing to do with the fact that I am a magician and its the part of the wedding industry i work in.
Consider these facts from Bride & Groom magazine, where couples were specifically asked about their thoughts on wedding entertainment. The couples responses were as follows;-
~ 72% of all brides say they would have spent more time choosing their reception entertainment
~ Almost 100% said they would have spent more of their budget on the entertainment
~ 78% of brides say they would have spent more of their budget on wedding entertainment
~ 81% of guests say the thing they remember the most about the reception is the entertainment
I am sure you would agree that the figures are pretty compelling. If you want your special day to be perfect in every way, then please give careful consideration and budget to booking high quality wedding entertainment. The chances are, you have been to a wedding where you've been bored for parts of the day, don't allow that to be the experience your guests remember!
1) This is useful for an overview of booking entertainment and what to expect, including customisation to your theme. It's an interesting read, click here
2) An A-Z of wedding entertainment ideas. Some excellent ideas here if you can stomach the numerous pop-ups and unfortunate ad's on the side of the webpage. Click here
3) I actually love this guide. Some truly excellent ideas that I had both never thought of or ever seen at a wedding. You wont be disappointed when you click here!
4) Negotiating with suppliers? This is a 10 step strategy that WILL SAVE YOU MONEY! There is some excellent tips if you click here. PS - Please do not use these on me
5) The last tip, which is important, is don't let your entertainment be an afterthought. It is the key to your guests enjoying your wedding.
Budget
There is no getting away from it, Weddings cost money!! Granted, the amount of money you will need to spend will depend on your budget and the type of wedding you are planning. Regardless of budget size, you will want to get the very best value for money and stick to budget as much as possible, the tips below will help.
1) This site has spreadsheets galore for careful tracking. Some useful tools here
2) A nice overview of wedding budgeting here
3) Plan a wedding for under £3000 - this is a sample budget
4) Plan a wedding for under £10,000 - Budget sample and tips
5) Love this! Very handy, printable sheet, stick it on your fridge on in your wedding folder and easily keep track of everything - click here
7) WHO PAYS FOR WHAT? This is a list of the traditional 'who pays'. If thats your type of thing, click here
If you would like support along the wonderful journey of wedding planning, do consider a professional wedding planner. So many people have preconceptions of what wedding planners are, what type of people have them and believe it costs the earth. If your one of those people, please take the time to contact a wedding planner, i think you will be pleasantly surprised. My personal recommendation is Eventagious and you can contact them simply by clicking here