I need help getting started!

AjsMommy2009

My father is non-exsistent in my life, and my mom lives over 6 hours away, and we rarely see each other.I need some help even getting started, like colors...please, I need help.this is already getting overwhelming.

HammysGirl

Welcome & Congratulations! :-)

First of all, when is your date?

Second of all: start with the basics:
*THE* most important thing to decide on is your budget. Your budget will them help you determine things such as:

- Size of guest list (probably the #2 thing to figure out)
- Date (Friday wedding? Satruday? Sunday?) - #3

Once you have those things figured out, you can then look for ceremony/reception sites, choose your colors, look for your dress/BM dresses, caterers, music (DJ or band?), florist, cake, photogrpaher, invitations, etc.

I would recommend using the checklist provided here on The Knot. Not only does it give you a good range of when something should be completed, it also has little reminders ahead of time like "begin looking at invitation styles" before "order invitations"; it's really manageable.

Other than that, I would start with those 3 things as they tend to determine/dictate everything else (especially #1!).

You can always use us for help or opinions - we're always happy to help! :-)

Good luck! :-)

amymoidl

I definitely agree with Hammy's Girl.  The first thing you need to do is decide on a budget, which may involve asking parents/family if they will be able to contribute and if so,how much.  (FI and I hated this part!)  Once you have an idea of what your budget is, I would plug it into a budget calculator (you can try theknot or another).  This will give you an idea of how much you can afford to spend on a venue.

I would then make a preliminary guest list to get a tentative count and discuss when you'd like to have your wedding. 

Now it's time to go venue shopping!  Do your research, but you'll need to have an idea of how much you can spend, how many guests it will have to accomodate, and when you want your wedding. 

Don't worry about colors yet, sometimes the venue will dictate the colors you ultimately end up choosing.

Once you pick your venue (and have your date), you can start looking into vendors!

momo09

I agree w/ pp.  Start with the budget first.  Then you could start looking through wedding magazines to start getting ideas on colors or check out the boards on here to see what catches your eye.  If you need help with the overall process you could check with wedding coordinators for their help as well.  If you need any recs on vendors or anything you can e-mail me at triplm [at] hotmail [dot] com

Congrats, and it WILL get better as you start to narrow things down!!!!