Five things to know before you start wedding planning

Tom’s sister, Monica, is engaged and that means it is wedding planning time baby! Monica mentioned she was unsure of where to start. What many of you do not know is that I worked for a wedding planner as an assistant in college and even was a certified wedding planner. (We can all thank J. Lo for sparking my love of everything weddings)

So I came up with five things I think a bride just starting the process should know before she starts looking for locations and vendors. If you are a past bride, currently planning your wedding, or even a planner, please feel free to comment below and add to the conversation!

1. Know your budget. That way before you even start calling and making appointments, you know the price points you need to stay within. There are plenty of wedding budget tools on all the wedding planning sites. Wedding Wire has a great and easy to use one here. Having a budget and sticking to it, will make the wedding planning a lot less stressful.
2. A basic idea of the number of guests. Venues have minimums and maximums for the amount for people in a room. Knowing this will help when you look at venues. It would be heartbreaking to fall in love with a space only to find out you have too many people or not enough.
3. Think about where you want your wedding to be. In the city, in the suburbs, or destination. This will narrow down the search if you already discussed as a couple where you both want your guests to celebrate.
4. Talk to your fiancé about what time of year. Spring, Summer, Winter, or Fall. Now some brides do not care as long as they get the venue they want. But I have heard many opinions on not wanting it too hot,  not wanting a huge chance of rain,  wanting it looking lush and green, not a chance of a snow storm, wanting it to be a winter wonderland… So having an idea of how you both feel about the season you want to be married in, is a good idea.
5.  Have an idea on style of the wedding. This will help with venue selection. Do you like rustic, urban, banquet hall, loft, intimate, unique, outside. Every venue you will see will have it’s own special charm, and knowing what you want your dream wedding to look and feel like will help the process tremendously.