Jumping Right In

The first step in planning our wedding was to sit down and figure out the basics: budget, priorities and style. Both sets of parents offered to contribute to the wedding budget right away and after considering our short-term financial goals and a realistic savings plan, we came up with a "bottom line" number. There are many sources of advice on creating a budget (I found the budget tips at Martha Stewart Weddings helpful and most wedding books have a list of expenses to include in your budget), but it's only an esitmate until you begin researching the cost of vendors in your area. Think that allocating 10% of your budget to photography is the way to go? You may end up discouraged when the talented photographer you fall in love with charges double that amount. Likewise, the estmated costs you see in a book or magazine can be outdated or irrelevant for your geographical area. This type of research takes a LOT of time and at this stage of planning, it's completely overwhelming. Many aspects of the wedding, such as stationery and favours, won't need to be decided until months from now and I need to focus on booking the venue and choosing a date. So for now, I've broken down the total budget into different categories based on percentage guidelines. If those numbers aren't realistic once I start researching vendors, there are options to lower the cost or compromise on items based on our priorities.

As one of the very first planning activities, J and I thought about what our dream wedding would look like and made lists of our top 3 priorities. His list: venue, food and entertainment. My list: food, photography, venue and flowers (yes that's 4 things :)  Together, we decided on venue, food, and photography as the top priorities with transportation, cake and favours being areas that were the least important to us.

We want the overall style of our wedding to be simple and elegant with a natural or Westcoast look. I definitely lean towards a classic and traditional feel, while J wants to encorporate cute and fun elements. We have around 100 guests and plan to have a buffet dinner, open bar and a DJ. We both want the day to be meaningful with lots of personal touches and time spent with our guests. J insisted on no tuxes for the guys, and I refused to have any pink. This is my inspiration board:

Let's do this thing!