June 2013 Weddings

stressing out!

im new to all this wedding stuff and have no idea where to start! Have any of you ladies gotten started and know what you want? i have no idea about anything and the more i think about the more i wanna hold off on the wedding. any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Re: stressing out!

  • The first thing is to pick a date.  Then you figure out your budget.  My FI and I picked out a few things that were important to us (food and photography) so we focused our budget on these and dispersed the rest accordingly.  

    We then picked out a theme and colors.  I had made a few collages with different themes and picked out which one felt most like us, cherry blossoms and bamboo!

    After that is time to look into vendors and venues.  Look at venues SOON!!!! They get booked very far in advance so just be patient with this!

    Just remember to take things one step at a time!  I have a calendar set up with deadlines for certain things like booking a caterer, ordering invitations, deciding on centerpieces, etc.

    Have fun with it and don't let it stress you out!  In the end everything will come together!
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  • A lot of us here have been hanging around here for a while and have a decent amount of things planned already. If you are aiming to have a June 2013, you need to get going. I booked my venue in October 2011 and got one of the last available Saturdays in June. We got turned down by a lot of photographers also because they are already booked. So far I have my venue, ceremony location, photographer, and photobooth booked, and I am not even half as far along as some of these ladies.

    First you need to determine what type of wedding you would like to have and set a tentative budget and get a rough estimate of how many guests you will be inviting.

    The very first thing I would book is a reception location. Instead of being dead set on a date, I would just choose a month and see what the venue has available. Be flexible.

    Are you newly engaged? I would take some time out to figure out what you want, you dont need to book everything the next day, even though I know some people do. My FI and I let our engagement sink in for 2 months and then started to slowly plan. Take it one thing at a time so you do not get overwhelmed, start with the most important things first.
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  • Spend some time looking a magazines, websites, and think about what kind of wedding you want.  It can really be whatever you think up, big circus party, small intimate, whatever.  Once you've figured out your potential guest list and budget, you can start finding things that fit, starting with the venue.  June is popular, and venues and vendors will start booking up.  I would suggest lurking TK, read as many posts on this board and others, to see what kinds of plans and issues other brides are dealing with.  Good luck!
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  • ashlidieashlidie member
    First Comment First Anniversary
    edited March 2012
    I second most of the things the ladies are saying except being firm on the date.  For us, the budget and the venue we loved changed our date, we had no choice they aren't even open in April.  So, pick a timeframe first, but be open and flexible so you can be happy with your venue and other choices instead of stressing about a venue being booked on "your" day.
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  • Ditto PP's about getting started asap on the big stuff: venue/photography, etc. if you are planning on a June 2013 wedding.

    Here is how my planning has gone so far and it seemed to go pretty well, so hopefully it will help!

    1. FI and I came up with a very rough guest list, just to see where we thought our numbers would end up (i.e. 50, 100, 125, etc.) since this would affect our budget and venue options. 
    2. We did some very basic research on price ranges of the big things in our area: venues/catering, photography, officiant, etc. I asked friends who have recently gotten married and searched online.
    3.  We made up the very first draft of our budget (this was just to get an idea, it has changed A LOT since then haha), using TheKnot's budget planner and Wedding Wire's budget planner and adjusted numbers to fit the prices in our area.  (Ex. They had food/drinks budgeted at $30 per person... up in the Toronto area the average cost is $80 - $120 per person).
    4.  I started looking for ideas on Pinterest, Etsy, and TheKnot for themes, colours, etc.  I started saving pictures that really caught my eye into a MyDocuments folder.  When I opened up the folder after a week or so of looking around, a clear theme popped out: rustic
    5. We started looking for rustic venues in our area that could accomodate the number of guests we thought we might have and fit into our budget.
    6. We talked over a general time frame when we wanted to get married (we knew that we wanted the summer and ideally June because the weather is not too hot and not too cold).
    7. We set up meetings at a few venues (after requesting information packages with prices, etc. over e-mail/phone) that we really liked and ended up falling in love with the first one we went too.  They only had 2 dates open in June, so that's how we picked our date!
    8. Once the venue was set, everything else started falling into place.  They had an exclusive caterer, so that was set.  They had a preferred bartender and when we contacted him we REALLY connected, so that was set.  Then we searched for photographers/videographers (this was the most exhaustive part for me), met a DJ at our venue's open house who we booked with and found an officiant through recommendations on the Knot :) 

    Just take it one step at a time and try not to overload yourself.  TheKnot has been a huge value for me, as have friends and co-workers (a fellow employee at my company referred us to our photographer).  Also check out your local boards on here and search on WeddingWire for vendor references.

    Good luck!

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  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2013-weddings_stressing-out?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:f30b0bfc-508d-415c-bf59-ab83e327da37Discussion:8bac8e0a-5eee-4a94-9a1d-de388ccc7e15Post:275758ec-e4e2-460c-8c44-f5f427c97711">stressing out!</a>:
    [QUOTE]i have no idea about anything and the more i think about the more i wanna hold off on the wedding.
    Posted by adiazr516[/QUOTE]<div>
    </div><div>What do you mean, "hold off on the wedding"? Anyway, congratulations and welcome to TK! If you're on the June 2013 board that means you have a rough idea of your date, which is a good start. </div><div>
    </div><div>I would suggest nailing down your budget first. I made the mistake of checking out venues and photgraphers and falling in love before I had any idea of what our budget was going to be. Then I had a rude awakening when I realized that there was no way in hell we could afford any of that stuff! So definitely sit down with your FI and decide how much you are willing to and can afford to spend on your wedding. Your budget will dictate everything else from your date to the number of guests to what kind of food you'll serve at the reception.</div><div>
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