You are Engaged! Now What?

Congratulations Lovelies!  You now have that gorgeous ring on your finger and you have a wedding to plan! You have already started following some of your favorite wedding inspirations on Instagram and are trying to read every planning blog you come across, because lets face it you may not have had to plan a wedding before and you have no idea what you need to be doing or where you should even start, right? 

Here is the answer, the very first thing you need to do is have a very real CTJM (Come to Jesus Meeting) with your fiancé and family about what you envision for your wedding and how much you have to spend on that vision. 

Photos By: J.Mosley Photography

Most people have no idea how much a good wedding actually costs or what a good starting point is for their budget. The national average is about $26,000 for about 100-125 guests, in our area it's closer to $28,000-$30,000 for 130-150 guests (depending on your style, you may have a much more stylish and personalized vision which means you will spend more). As you can see, guest count really impacts what your going to spend for food and beverage cost, floral expenses and even venue wise. It's very important to make sure everyone understands that the more people you invite the more you spend. Most of our clients have a budget of $350-$450 per person and that does not include honeymoon, rehearsal, rings or attire.The next step would be setting up a meeting with a wedding planner. Most offer a free consultation and can really help you save time and money. Their is a planner out there for all budgets. They can help you find venues and vendors within your budget and make sure that they are a good fit personality wise. 

If you decided to forego a full service planner, the next stop would be finding a venues. If you do not have a wedding planner however, please consider hiring an Event Manager or the Event Management Service. This option allows couples who want to do most of the planning themselves, to still have some guidance. These professionals can help build the timeline, create room layouts and have the experience to execute the couples vision on the wedding day. Most venue's now have it in their contracts that you must have a coordinator on site. Event Management is what is replacing "Day of" coordination, because there is so much more involved in making sure your day runs smoothly.

Now comes the fun part finding and booking your vendors. Here is a quick breakdown of some of the vendors you will be booking.

Photography

 Catering

 DJ

Attire

Floral/Design 

Videographer

Officiant 

Hair and Make up Artist 

Cake  

Stationary 

Transportation 

and so on.....

If you would like to talk about how a planner can help you, please email me at terri@ggevents.net or go to our contact page to set up a free consultation.