If you have just got engaged to be married, you now have a lot of work ahead of you involving planning your wedding. Unless you have decided on a registry office wedding and popping into the pub for an hour or two afterwards, which a few people do, there is a whole long list of things that you need to do to prepare for your big day.
Depending upon your religion, you may need to book your wedding in a church, a mosque, or perhaps any one of many non-religious venues that are licenced for marriages. You also need somewhere to hold your reception afterwards, and if you plan to go on until late evening you will need a band. Then of course there is the catering to consider, unless the venue is providing that. You will also need a photographer, or preferably two photographers to be with you for the day. And, of course, you need to plan for your honeymoon as well.
Then there is one other minor detail and that is where you and your partner-to-be are actually going to live when you are married. That is, of course, unless one or both of you have your own property already, but many couples don’t, and are still living with mum and dad.
Oh, and we nearly forgot. There is your guest list to invite to the wedding as well. You may wish to keep this fairly small, but then again, especially if you are Indian or other Asian, these events are ones where the whole world and his dog is invited. It is not unusual for there to be 600 or 700 guests at an Indian wedding reception!
The actual preparation of the guest list is quite an issue in itself in many weddings, because you may very well have limited resources and in that case, you have to make choices. Not so much about who to invite, but who not to invite! That can be a really tricky one.
The Venue
Of course, you have to make a choice about the venue for your wedding and/or reception. Many venues get booked up months ahead, so you need to start looking at venues and making a shortlist. Once you have that, you can then see if the top of the list is available on the day that you want. Of course, you could also do this the other way around and decide upon your wedding day according to when the venue is available.
Another thing to plan for early on, again if you want ensure your first choice is available on the day, is your photographer. Wedding photographers also get booked up months in advance. Ideally you want two wedding photographers who are used to working together as a pair, particularly if you are going to have a lot of guests, because there can be a lot going on and you could miss many candid shots if there is only one photographer.
You also have to decide upon the catering. If your venue provides all the catering anyway, then you only have to decide upon the actual menu. However, if you want to provide the catering yourself and the venue permits it, you need to choose who will do your catering, and exactly what it will cover. Some caterers will only provide the food, which means that you need someone to run the bar, and also supply the seating, tables, and so on.
Then there is the question of getting your wedding decorators. Wherever you are holding your wedding, the décor has to be not just great, but stunning. You want your guests to gasp with amazement at the décor of your venue, and that means that you need specialist wedding decor providers such as ourselves at Kenza Creations.
Depending upon your venue, it is quite possible that we have worked at it beforehand, so we will be able to give you some ideas. If not, we will visit the venue in order to assess the layout.
We work very closely with every client on wedding décor, since many people want us to include their own ideas. So, we need to meet with you and discuss your plans for your big day.