How to Plan a Wedding in Australia – 8 Essential Steps
- Determine a Budget
- Use a Checklist
- Select a Venue
- Compile a Guest List
- Select Your Wedding Party
- Create a Wedding Website
- Online Wedding Gift Registry
- Decide on Invitations
Newly enagaged couples often ask themselves – ‘How do I plan my wedding??’
What do I need to do & when do I need to do it?
They are often daunted with the prospect of messing up what may well be the best day of their lives.
Planning a wedding in Australia does not need to be ‘scary’! Provided you follow some basic steps you can be confident your day will run smoothly – just as you had envisaged.
Below are our ‘8 Essential Steps’ to follow when planning a Wedding in Australia.
More and more people are asking “Can someone show me how to plan a wedding online”. With the power of the internet today surely this should not be difficult. There are many websites and blogs that can help you when you begin your planning – Many of these websites are free.
Determine a budget
It’s always difficult working out a budget for a wedding – but until you do you won’t be able to start ‘nailing down’ your best vendors & suppliers.
There are many Budget Calculators available to help you with this task. Most will allow you to determine what you should allow for each expense. They will help you keep track of what you have spent and what you still have to pay for.
Once you have a guide on how much to spend on each item for the wedding you can tailor the budget to suit what you actually want.
Use a Checklist
There are so many things involved in a wedding it can be a daunting task to plan your own wedding. One way to ensure you complete each task when it needs to be completed is to use a comprehensive checklist.
A good checklist will list all the things you will need to plan for so that your ideal wedding unfolds smoothly on the day.
Obviously some tasks will be more urgent than others. Your checklist should be ranked in date order so that you know exactly when each task needs to be completed by.
Select a Venue
The first major decision regardiing a wedding is often the selection of a Wedding Venue. When planning a wedding in Australia we are blessed with many and varied venue options.
It is common to identify an area within which you would like to have your wedding. You will then be able to consider the venues available within this area. Venues will be included or excluded depending on-
- How many people you will be inviting,
- The cost per head charged by the venue,
- The facilities offered e.g. dance floor, disability access, parking, etc.,
Once the decision on venue is made most other services / vendors ‘fall into place’. The venue often also determines the wedding date as many venues are booked out well ahead of time. You may need to accept a date other than your preferred date.
Compile a Guest List
We would suggest that you prepare a ‘Master Guest List’. You will have multiple functions associated with your wedding including –
- Engagement party
- Hens Night
- Bucks Night
- Bridal Shower
- Wedding Ceremnoy
- Wedding Reception
You will not be inviting everyone on your ‘Master Guest List’ to all events. Once your ‘Master Guest List’ is established you can then decide who will be invited to each event.
Select your Wedding Party
Are you going to have a ‘Wedding Party’ – Maid of Honor, Bridesmaid/s, Best Man, Groomsmen, Flower Girls, Page Boys, etc.?
If you are you will need to decide who they will be. Make a list of those you wish to include in your wedding party. Speak with them to ensure they are happy to be involved and that the date is suitable for them.
Create a Wedding Website
There are many ways to create your ideal wedding website. You can create your own or use a ‘Wedding Website template’ to set it up.
Wedding Website options vary from very basic templates to quite complex ones which are ‘interactive’ and allow feedback from friends and family.
Online Wedding Gift Registery
Online Wedding Gift Registery
It is becoming more and more popular to use an ‘Online Wedding Registery’. Such registeries ensure that any gifts received are actually what the couple needs or desires.
If you have set-up a Wedding Website you can add details of your Wedding Gift Registry.
Decide on Invitations
You will need to send out invitations to all the events associated with your wedding.
As you have already created a Master Guest List from which guests for each event have been selected you now have the choice of how to issue invites.
Even though some events will be quite informal we would suggest that you issue a written invitation to all events. It can be an electronic invite via email or a more formal invite via the post. If you opt for an electronic invite then sites such as ‘My Ideal Wedding’ offer easy to use tempaltes. These templates are usually easy to alter to suit your requirements and often allow for electronic replies.
Generally speaking a formal postal invite is chosen for the Wedding Ceremony & Reception. If this is the case you will need to allow time to choose the preferred invitation. You then need time for it to be printed and posted.
These 8 steps will help you when planning a wedding in Australia. Remember that this is ‘your special day’. You get to choose how it turns out. Use all the tools available to you to confidently plan your wedding!
