5 Common Wedding Planning Mistakes
When planning your wedding, there are thousands of things that you have to think about. The checklists are the same length as some books and often this is your first time planning a wedding. When there are so many details that go into planning your wedding from start to finish, there are bound to be things that slip through the cracks. Here are the 5 most common wedding planning mistakes that you hopefully can avoid:
Ordering invites for each person and not for each household
I almost made this mistake myself - and I hear a lot about people who actually had this happen! When looking over your guest list a thousand times to make sure everything is right, you may just automatically input that number into the invite count. Make sure when you are ordering your save the dates and invitations that you are ordering for each household and not for each person. Likely, each person doesn’t need an invite and it will save you a ton of money!
2. Not bringing your wedding invites to a post office to weigh them
Along the same lines as the first one, many couples are really excited to get the photo of them bringing their invitations to the mailbox and hadn’t even considered that the special, thick invitations may be too heavy or not have the right postage. I highly recommend bringing an unclosed invite to your local post office to ensure you get the right stamps you need and there aren’t any issues with the sizing or the contents of your invite. The last thing you want is for none of your guests to receive them, or for something in their system to ruin the wax seals you have inside and stain every invite.
3. Not knowing how long attire takes to arrive
Unfortunately, couples don’t really have experience renting or buying wedding attire until it actually comes time of your wedding planning. If you have about 8-10 months before your wedding and you still haven’t gotten your outfits, make sure to make those appointments now. Without including COVID delays, it typically takes 6-8 months for your dress to be made and delivered and about 4-5 months for suits to be ready. I would recommend about 8-9 months before your wedding for you to just make any attire appointments so you don’t have to worry about it later.
4. Not knowing the marriage license/certificate protocol
Thankfully I haven’t had any couples yet that had this issue, but I definitely could have gotten this wrong if I didn’t hear about this tip! Make sure to look up and apply for your marriage license in the county that you are getting married in and NOT the county you live in if there are in different counties. There may be specific rules for getting/signing your marriage license and getting your marriage certificates after you’re married, so make sure to have all of this information about 1-2 months before your wedding, depending on the county requirements.
5. Not keeping track of your budget
Many couples come up with a number that sounds good for their wedding budget and then just swipe their cards without looking at how it plays into their budget. I highly recommend finding yourself a resource for a budget tracker or just keeping a spreadsheet or a word document with all of that information. If you’re working with me, I have a budget calculator to determine how much you should be spending in each category and a spot where you can input your actual spending to track everything.
Don’t feel too badly if you already have these mistakes happen! It happens to so many people which is why they are “common” mistakes. Just make sure to get yourself a monthly checklist to see what needs to be done and when so you can hopefully avoid other problems while dealing with all of the pieces that need to fit together for your wedding day!
If you would like more help to plan your wedding, you can reach out to me at hello@firmlyrootedevents.com. I’ll send you monthly tips so you can hopefully avoid some other mistakes while planning!
