Ways to Plan a Wedding Without a Wedding Planner

Ways to Plan a Wedding Without a Wedding Planner – How essential is a wedding planner when it comes to planning your big day? The short answer: wedding planners are not essential. The service of a wedding planner is purely one of convenience.

Sure there are some perks to having a wedding planner; perks that go beyond mere convenience. The biggest reason remains the fact that having a wedding planner (usually) makes a stressful time of your life easier.

However, that is not always the case. What works for one bride won’t always work for another and you may find yourself more stressed out when your wedding planner is ignoring emails or not confirming appointments.

That is why we have collected our top 3 tips for planning a wedding without a wedding planner for you! Let’s have a look.

Tip 1: Get organized

Find a system that works for you and stick to it. If you’re handy at Excel spreadsheets and using different apps and software programs, go ahead and take advantage of that.

Regardless of how tech-savvy you are though, having a physical “home” for your wedding plans can make planning much easier and more effective. As a result, having one binder with all of the information you need will help you get truly organized.

Flipping through the physical, tangible pages will make it much easier for you to stay organized without the expensive help of a human wedding planner.

Be sure to note down your important appointments and dates both in your physical binder as well as your regular planner (digital or paper). Buying a pre-made paper wedding planner online or in a store will take away the added pressure of designing one yourself.

If you rather design your own though, you can use websites such as Canva to design your own wedding planner free of charge! Just be sure to factor in the cost of printing and binding it.

Tip 2: Set deadlines

Procrastination is a bride’s worst enemy. While a hired wedding planner will be motivated to make deadlines in order to keep a client, it is harder to stay motivated when planning your own wedding is simply another thing on your “to-do” list.

Once you have purchased or created your own physical wedding planner and organization system, you need to do your research.

Find out how far in advance wedding vendors usually book out their services, speak to other recently married women in your area, and do initial research on some venues you may be interested in.

While you may be asking how you can possibly set deadlines without first pinning down a budget, settling on a venue, and a cake flavor, trust me!

You can always change your deadlines down the road but after some initial research, set preliminary deadlines for the major parts of your wedding you are likely to include.

Set a preliminary date or date range and then deadlines for the following:

• Budget
• Venue,
• Caterers
• Guestlist, RSVP cards/invitations
• Secondary celebrations such as bachelor/bachelorette parties, or a bridal shower.

New deadlines and edits to your deadlines are always possible but without an initial round of deadlines to meet, you won’t know where to begin!

Tip 3: Set a realistic budget

Sit down with your soon-to-be spouse and frankly discuss the budget as soon as possible after getting engaged. Be completely honest about your wishes and expectations and ask him or her to do the same. Consider this your first marital task!

Hiring a wedding planner can make some money arguments less detrimental to the relationship since they generally work within the given budget, but an honest discussion and agreement on a fixed number will do the same.

Look at all of the resources: mutual savings, your savings, your partner’s savings, friends, or families who want to contribute, possible areas where you do not need to spend anything.

Ways to Plan a Wedding Without a Wedding Planner – Conclusion

Since you have already done some initial research in order to set your deadlines, you can also have a list of desires with an estimated cost attached. Be sure to add an extra 10-25% on that estimate as everything in the wedding industry is sure to come with some hidden costs.

Once you both sit down and settle on a budget, you will be happy that you do not need to budget for the service of a wedding planner!

Additional tip: once you have settled on a final number, set aside 10% of the total for an “emergency only” fund and try to keep your wedding to the remaining amount. Trust me, you will thank me later!

Happy planning!