How to Plan Your Dream Wedding

Perhaps there was a romantic getaway, or a cute dinner. Perhaps they proposed over brunch, or a visit to your favourite hangout.

Either way, there’s a shiny ring in the picture and all your friends and family only seem to have one question on their mind: When’s the wedding?

There are a bunch of these blogs around, and really, there is no definitive right or wrong answer when it comes to planning your special day. The team at Twin Leaf have been privileged to spend the last decade witnessing some pretty incredible weddings, and the stories we’ve heard have painted quite the picture regarding what’s involved. Of course, a handful of our very own had to go through the process, and so we’ve decided to share a few tips and tricks that we’ve picked up over the years to, hopefully, provide some clarity in the whirlwind of wedding planning.

Set a Timeline

Without a doubt, the urge to start checking out venues, trying on a myriad of outfits, and scrolling endless Pinterest boards of wedding ideas is near irresistible. After all, YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED!

Whilst planning is an exciting time, we recommend that couples take a step back from the chaos, and formulate a realistic timeline between getting engaged and your wedding date. The typical engagement period lasts just over a year, and for good reason, as having an adequate timeline allows you to not only plan around obligations, such as that one family reunion you totally forgot about, as well as providing ample time to plan, invite, and ultimately ensure you have exactly the wedding you want.

Remain Calm

Or as calm as possible, with the surreal feeling of upcoming nuptials making it impossible to ever truly be calm.

Wedding planning will take time, energy, and patience, and so we cannot recommend it enough that couples approach planning at a pace that’s comfortable to them, and survey all your options undeterred by stress. Staying calms will lead to more calculated decisions, not to mention reducing the risk of forgetting anything along the way!

Set a Budget

Often labelled as the greatest party you’ll ever throw, weddings do come with another connotation- its price tag.

Not to say that every weddings needs to break the bank in order to be successful, but a conversation does need to happen regarding who is contributing to what. Whilst this may be uncomfortable at times, having a realistic approach as to what can be featured in a wedding will save plenty of frustration moving forward.

Over our time capturing weddings, we have learnt that the best weddings are ones that, regardless of budget, focus on the real reason we are celebrating, and that is you, in all your spirited emotions, surrounded by the people you love most.

Research and Find Your Style

Victoria is an amazing state, with couples having hundreds (if not thousands!) of options to choose from. From summery vineyards to heritage mansions, there is a plethora of ways your wedding can take shape.

To escape the dreaded FOMO, couples are encouraged to utilise the timeline set to explore the options available, and find a style that best suits what you have in mind.

Book a Venue and Set the Date

After careful consideration, taking into account budget, timelines, and your ideal vision, it’s now time to lock in that dream venue! Needless to say, once this has been confirmed you will officially have set your wedding date as well. Now the real fun begins!

Book Your Vendors

With a date locked in, you’re now able to approach those desired vendors with the necessary information to lock them in. Typically photography and video follow after the venue, however couples are encouraged to also begin consulting other high-demand services, such as hair, make-up, florists, caterers, entertainment, and styling.

Certain brands also look to book out each year quite fast, so the sooner couples get in touch, the faster they can lock in those absolute must-have vendors!

Assemble Your Squad

Some do this as soon as they’re engaged, others later down the planning journey. Regardless, a time will come where it’s time to assemble your bridal party!

The sooner they’re assembled, the sooner they can be put to work. They will be professional therapists, negotiators, fashion consultants, and ultimately the greatest helping hand in weathering the wedding planning storm with you, so choose well!

Plan Your Guestlist

From a meticulously combing of all your social contacts, to a willy-nilly mass invite to all your Facebook friends, we recommend couples adopt some strategy in deciding who to invite.

Venue capacities will require consideration, as well as the age old questions surrounding kids, plus-ones, and those distant relatives whom your mum really likes, but hasn’t really seen you since you were in kinder.

We recommend couples to take their time with invites, and ultimately decide on the crowd that best suits the wedding you have envisioned.

Send Invites

Notice is often a tricky one, as for some, a couple of months may seem too little, however for others may appear too much.

If you ask Google, an acceptable timeframe to issue save-the-dates range anywhere between 8 to 16 weeks prior to the big day. If you ask one of our very own photographers however, he chose to send his invites a full year ahead of time for his wedding. One of our brides even left it to just 10 days, and had a full turn out!

Ultimately, you will know your friends and family best, so send those invites accordingly to ensure the whole gang’s there to celebration your special day!

Take a Break

Chill out for a sec! We’ve called wedding planning a whirlwind quite a few times now, and for good reason. Between the consultations, menu tastings, dress and suit fittings, phone calls and deposits, anyone would be bound to get tired out.

From what we’ve seen, things can boil over pretty quickly, so it’s important for couples to take a step back, and remember why you’re planning all this to begin with. Have some time off planning for a week, or two, and recharge that wedding battery to ensure you’re in tip top shape in every stage of the experience.

Consider Your Wedding Itinerary

As you get closer to that special date, a discussion does need to be had regarding the timeline of the day itself. Certain vendors, such as photographers, hair and make-up artists, and DJs will require a specific rundown of at least a portion of the day, if not the entire duration.

Often overlooked, aspects such as travel times and duration for photos do potentially take up a significant portion of the day itself, and so couples are recommended to have a discussion with their vendors regarding just how much time should be allocated for each service.

We’ve outlined an itinerary guide in our FAQs, do check it out here!

Check In with Your Vendors

Just about a month prior to you celebrations, it’d be a good time to check in with all your booked services and confirm that everyone is raring to go, especially if you haven’t spoken to them for a while. If you’re getting married at the peak of wedding season, at times communication between vendors may be a little delayed due to the potential volume of weddings they are servicing, so the earlier you check in, the quicker you’ll get the thumbs up from all your amazing vendors!

Plan for Wet Weather

This is not an indication to book multiple venues on standby (that’s one heck of a way to go over budget!), but to instead consider alternatives for any unforeseen circumstances that may pop up, particularly the weather.

If you’re a Victorian and reading this, while it goes without saying that Mother Nature may be out to get us, wet weather is not a reason to panic!

Your venue will have a plethora of contingencies on hand to tackle any situation, and just about every photographer and videographer will have a list of wet weather photo options for you to choose from- we’ve got a pretty handy list ourselves, do check it out here!

Help Others Out

In today’s day and age, the wedding planning experience is often shared on a community level, with multiple Facebook groups and social media platforms dedicated to sharing advice, tips, and personal experiences.

It’s awesome to seek out some advice from these sites, and equally awesome to, if you’re in a position to do so, help out others in a similar position. Your advice might very well end up being the last piece in someone else’s puzzle, now ain’t that sweet!

Time to Party!

The whirlwind is over, everything has been planned. Vendors have been tripled-checked, menu is finalised, and those last minute RSVPs have been dealt with. Only one thing left to do- and that’s to party!

Your celebration will be the fruit of months, if not years, of meticulous planning, so be sure to soak it all in, and enjoy every moment of your dream wedding.

That’s all from us, thank you so much for reading our little article. Happy planning!