Wedding Planning Tips every Bride Needs to Know

We have asked a number of brides on what they believe were the essentials that they needed to consider when planning their wedding. Here are the top 10 crucial wedding planning tips every bride ought to know.

10 Wedding Planning Tips

1. Check the calendar
You may be planning to have your wedding on the anniversary of your first kiss or on your lucky number, but be open minded. If your ideal venue doesn’t have availability on that particular day be open to choosing another. Another very important wedding planning tip is to check the calendar for Rugby World Cup final dates, EPL final dates and other large sporting events that your hubby-to-be and his friends will want to watch. It shouldn’t really be the deciding factor but then again you don’t particularly want some of your guests sneaking out to watch TV half way through your vows. Let’s face it sports to South Africans is almost as important as a Wedding Day.

2. Give accurate directions
Luckily the age of GPS is here but some of your older guests may still be relying on the old map book. A good wedding planning tip is to include directions on your invitations or as an added note that guests can bring with them. This avoids any latecomers sneaking into the back pews once you’ve already walked down the aisle as they got lost along the way.

3. State what the children’s policy is
If you do not want to have any children at your wedding it’s important to state this on the invitation. Another option is to allow children but provide childminders or simply leave it open for everyone to bring their children if they would like to. However whatever the policy is, make sure to include this.

4. Have a schedule
A crucial wedding planning tip is to put together a plan of how the wedding day will proceed. Make copies and give this to your bridal party the night before and make sure that your MC knows exactly what he/she should be saying and when. If you want to cut the cake as you walk into the venue, make sure this is on your schedule, likewise if you want the father-daughter dance to be before the speeches then make sure that everyone in your bridal party knows what is going on and knows what is expected of them.

5. Make copies of the speeches
This wedding planning tip is probably more for the groom but in order to not be left stranded without a speech as it fell into the dam on your way to the church, make copies and give them to your best man and mother to hang on to, just in case.

6. Make use of rewards
An excellent wedding planning tip that we came across is to pay using your credit card. Some of our bridal couples make most of their large wedding purchases on their credit card in order to accumulate loyalty points (and pay it back immediately in order to avoid interest). Voyager or Discovery miles for example can be accumulated and used towards your Honeymoon.

7. Set up a wedding email address
Instead of using your work or personal email addresses for wedding replies and questions, set up an email address that is only for your wedding. This way you will quickly and easily be able to keep tabs of RSVP’s and more in just one email account.

8. Confirm any changes in writing
If there are any changes to your contracts with wedding suppliers or one of them has confirmed a request over the phone, confirm it via email. Something like; “Hi, this is just confirming our conversation that as soon as the bar limit of R30,000 has been reached the bartender will let the Groom know”.

9. Read the fine print
A very important wedding planning tip that may save you money is reading, in detail, all service providers contracts. Make note of when deposits need to be paid, when final invoices need to be paid, and whether overtime charges and any other unforeseen charges will be applicable or can be avoided. For example, make sure that you’re not expected to provide the same meal as guests to the photographer, videographer and other service providers otherwise you’ll end up paying for 10 more guests that you didn’t budget for.

10. Use a Wedding Planning Checklist
Finally we believe that using a wedding planning checklist is the most crucial part to any successful wedding. Having a list to tick off tasks as you go along, is a great way to be organised and ease the stress around organising a wedding. Download our free wedding planning checklist here.

If you apply the above crucial wedding planning tips your wedding will be the dream day that you always imagined, but above all it will let you sit back, breathe and enjoy one of the most memorable days of your life.

For more useful wedding planning information, have a read through How to Choose the Perfect Wedding Venue and Reasons to Love Country Wedding Venues.

The Nutcracker Country Wedding Venue is an exquisite tranquil country wedding venue situated on the banks of the Vaal River, 90 minutes from Johannesburg. Offering all that is needed for the perfect wedding, The Nutcracker is for the exclusive use of the bride and groom and their guests for the entire weekend. Contact The Nutcracker today for rates and availability.