As we welcome the New Year, we here at Donnie Brown Weddings and Events would like to send a sincere thank you to our Brides, our FABULOUS venders and friends for making 2013 such a wonderful year!
To all of our beautiful new brides-to-be, Congratulations!!!! You’ve dreamed of this moment. You patiently waited for the proposal. He popped the question. You said YES. And so it goes… It’s time to plan the biggest day in your life!
Here are some tips for the next step (you know, right after you call your mom, your jealous girlfriends, get the ring appraised and post a picture of it on Facebook!!!).
1) Daydream (a Lot)
Look through the magazines, start following wedding boards on Pintrest (http://www.pinterest.com/wdonnieb/) and follow blogs for further inspiration. Give yourself permission to let your brain turn into its own wedding channel. If you haven’t been planning your wedding since you turned ten, that’s OK; now’s a good time to collect ideas that inspire you and to learn what you want—and don’t want—in your wedding.
If you are not the type that wants to daydream about colors and flowers, THAT’S OK!!! This brings us to the next step…
2) Find a Wedding Planner
Clearly, our opinion of wedding planners are extremely high – as long as they are certified by an accredited association and are good at what they do. We have the greatest respect for planners who have a well-established network of fine professionals in their inner circle. The best part about hiring a planner is the flexibility. Most offer a “Day Of” coordinating package all the way to “Turn Key” planning.
As with every profession, there are the good ones with the bad, so references from people whose opinions you respect are a great starting point!
Once you find a perfect match, be prepared to answer the following questions on your first consultation:
What is your budget?
How many guests are you estimating?
When is your event?
What items have you secured at this time?
Once a planner is hired, meetings with venders will not be as daunting, because regardless of whether you include your planner in all upcoming appointments, he or she can still brief you before each one.
3) Set a Budget
This is the time to sit with your fiancé and any family members who will be contributing. Make sure to develop the budget with one large figure on top, then break it down per category. This is something you can do with assistance of phone aps and websites, but we encourage sitting down with a planner (even if you cannot afford a planning package, most planners will sit down and assist you during this time for a small consultation fee). Once the priorities and budgets are set…..
4) Chill Out and Have Fun!
Take time to relax—get a massage, sleep in when you can. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event purely about you and your fiancé. You are allowed to enjoy it and each other!
Keep an eye on our blog the next couple months. We will be giving more and more advice on how to achieve your goals during this important planning time.
We hope you have a Happy New Year and look forward to an exciting 2014!
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