Questo ĆØ un post a pagamento da uno sponsor APW. Per ulteriori informazioni su APW e su come guadagniamo, per favore clicca qui.
Hello there. tu, with the giddy but somewhat tense smile, with the new ring on your finger and a heart full of questions: welcome. Siete capitati nel posto giusto. Even now, in the late middle (or what we all hope is nearing the end) of a global pandemic. Iām Meg Keene, and Iāve written two best-selling wedding planning books and helped millions of couples plan their weddings over the last 13+ anni. Yup, thatās a lot of people and a really long time. And while absolutely everything is different right now, everything is also absolutely the same, and Iām leaning into a decade of experience researching and writing about, yep, practical weddings, to get this party planned. Because while you have a lot of decisions in front of you (and much more complex wedding planning decisions than folks have faced in generations) you have totally got this. Or at least, together, weāve got it.
Before we get into any of thatāliterally, before you do qualsiasi cosa, be sure to toast your engagementā¦ several times. Pause, celebrate, breathe, repeatā¦ all before you make a single decision. Your engagement will only come around once, so take some time to fully enjoy being engaged, because the next bitāwedding planning during a pandemicāprobably isnāt going to feel like the giddy buzz of joy and champagne. So soak that up before you move on.
But now! If youāre off work for the holidays, and youāre ready to get your research onā¦ letās go.
If weāve learned anything over the last twenty-one months, the thing we can count on 2022 for is, bene, inconsistency. As these last two years have proven, nobody has any real idea of what comes next. But if I had to make a prediction, Iād guess that 2022 will be a year full of weddings, divertimento, and joy as things have started to feel somewhat normal. Iād also guess that we arenāt done seeing surprises and new variants come our way, and Iād sure like to think that by the end of the year weāll be living in a world that feels a bit less tumultuous and a lot more ānormalā (whatever that means). Suffice it to say: this is wedding planning in a brave new world, and things will be easier when you lean into the fact that there is no clear way to predict the future, and thatās ok.
Weāve partnered with our friends at Spazio quadrato to put together this initial getting started guide just for you. Sicuro, you could spend your holiday free time digging through the archives of APW and the depths of Pinterest and land yourself with an overwhelming to-do list. O, you could refer to this post for the tools and steps that will help you just get the ball rolling, while also kicking back and enjoying your newfound engaged-ness and the holiday season.
Organize Your wedding planning tools
Tutto ciĆ² che ha detto, itās EXTRA important in 2022 that you invest some time upfront in organization. io, once upon a time, planned my bilancio del matrimonio with a post-it on my desk at an investment bank. (Do as I say, not as I do.) And while that barely cut it then, it is absolutely not going to cut it now. Given that the only given is that nothing is given, youāll want a place to keep things organized, as well as solid sources for expert advice.
the APW books that will help: Youāre going to spend a lot of this season of planning on Google. E, spoiler, Google isnāt going to be as helpful as it once was, since so many wedding resources are going to be tailored to the pre-pandemic world. And while we canāt tell you nitty-gritty details on wedding vendorās business, or mask laws in your particular city, the APW books Potere save you from having to Google where to even begin. The first book will walk you through what you need to know to save time, i soldi, and sanity, e il EEEE e ciao can basically plan your wedding for you (okay, bene. It canāt do the planning, but it will give you the tools you need to get your wedding planned).
Your wedding website is an indispensable tool: A lot of wedding planning, in normal times, is spent updating family and friends on what your wedding plans are. If youāve been engaged longer than a week, I bet youāve already had to field the start of the endless questioning. Nostro #1 suggestion to combat the endless interrogation? UN sito web per matrimoni. Hop over to Spazio quadrato and make yourself oneāit will save you tons of time and energy. Not sure what to put on it? Dai un'occhiata al nostro list of top priorities for your wedding website, and you can even steal wording directly from us.
PRO-TIP: If youāre at all interested in snagging a custom website domain for your wedding website (Piace: mrandmrbranson.com instead of brand.joeandbrad.june122022.com) youāll want to do that likeā¦ yesterday. š So, go do it now. Secure the domain name of your dreamsāyou can use it for your wedding website, a share wedding photos, and even turn it into a family sharing site later on. If you get the domain from Squarespace you can get 10% off with code APW!
do your homework
Once youāve gathered some basic tools, itās time for you and your partner to sit down and discuss what kind of wedding you want to have. Il domain from Squarespace provides a handy worksheet about priorities for you and your partner, and weāve got a copy of it for you right here. Pick a quiet night, pour yourself a drink of your choice, and get to Venn Diagramming. What are your absolute priorities for this wedding? What are your partnerās top priorities? Where do those overlap? Once youāve worked through that, consider drawing up a simple wedding mission statement. This is a statement of what you want from your wedding, that you can come back to over and over again when planning gets tough. EEEE e ciao can walk you through this process (e altro ancora) in great detail, but for nowā¦
print out or make a digital copy of this getting started packet of worksheets (and get cracking)
Download this free wedding planning checklist here, and check out the complete version on APW
checklists galore:
And if you also want a hard copy checklist you can print out and hang on your fridge, weāve got you covered with our complete wedding planning checklist, and yup, weāve for sure included a #covidcouples checklist, that includes the tricky health and safety decisions youāll need to make during this process. PiĆ¹, we actively encourage you to cross off all those things you donāt care about on the checklist. Thatās important in normal times, but doubly important now.
set a budget: Setting your budget can feel like youāre just making up numbersā¦ but it doesnāt have to be that way when we can help you out. Armed with as much info as possible (Piace these sample budgets and our wedding budget spreadsheet), you can decide how much you Potere spend on your wedding. Poi, you need to discuss how much you want to spend on your wedding.
To help you out, noi abbiamo sample budgets for $2,000 a $30,000 matrimoni, with advice on figuring out your own wedding budget. PiĆ¹, we have a guide on how to stick with your wedding budget when Pinterest is right there taunting you, e which wedding details are actually worth it. Puoi anche look at some examples di COVID weddings to see how folks just like you have made it work over the last two-ish yearsāweddings have looked different, for sure, but theyāre still happening.
Spreadsheets: You wonāt need them quite yet, but get these spreadsheets saved now, so you have them when youāre ready. Ancora, organization is going to be what helps you keep your mental health in order when things keep changing. Weāve got you covered on everything from your wedding guest list template to your vendor contact list to your day-of wedding timeline.
PRO-TIP: Some folx love spreadsheets (not I), and some justā¦ donāt. So if you need something creative and fun to get your wedding planning party started? Why not dive right into a sito web per matrimoni. Itās a fun way to start thinking about color, stile, and vibe. And even if you donāt have a date or details set, you can get the framework made so that finalizing it later on will be oh so easy. (Head to Squarespace for an easy-to-make, personalizzabile, and highly-functional sito web per matrimoni. Dai un'occhiata al nostro 10-step-how-to guide. Oh, and use code: APW for a deal! PiĆ¹, they have a free logo maker to really customize your look, which I could spend hours playing with.)
talk to your families AND FRIENDS: Bene, you know how you want the wedding to look and feel. Now itās time to sit down and have a chat with your families. Are you asking for financial contributions? (Staff and readers discuss the pros, cons, and alternatives here.) Have you thought about what kind of input you want them to have? Are there traditions you want to includeāor traditions you want to eschew? Are you going to have a bridal party? We discussed wedding parties in the time of COVID here because yāallā¦ everything feels different these days.
Whatās Next?
Onestamente, Scegliere una villa privata come luogo del matrimonio e allo stesso tempo, if youāve just gotten engaged, that list is enough to keep you busy for weeks. But if youāre looking for more information, you can start browsing here:
- Check out our wedding vendor directory, full of folx committed to diversityāweāre biased, but truly believe the members of our directory are the best in the business, and itās a great place to start exploring and searching for your wedding dream team.
- Browse our real weddingsāand peruse our most recent real weddings that have happened since the pandemic hit, in our COVID Weddings section.
- Start a wedding websiteāin pre-pandemic times, we might have told you this could wait, but these days, youāll want easy ways to communicate with your peopleāplus, this is a fun and creative task, and we all need those. Donāt fret, weāve got guides for every step of wedding website creation! Head over to Squarespace to get started.
- Make your guest listāor, as many folks have had to doā¦ make a dream guest list, and also make a few versions like: āwe can have only 5 people thereā or āwe can have 30 people thereā. This part is odd feeling, and everything is so unsure, but it might help your mental health to have this much of a āplan.ā
- Find a venueāOr at least dive headfirst into your dream venue list, so you can start contacting them soon.
But most of all, come join us here in January, where we spend our days talking about and helping you plan your bad-ass egalitarian wedding, even late-ish-pandemic. Weāll see you then!
Questo post ĆØ stato sponsorizzato da Spazio quadrato. Squarespace makes beautiful wedding websites accadere in pochi minuti, grazie al loro software intuitivo (insieme a so many features) e moderno, minimo disegni di modelli for all kinds of websitesāespecially wedding websites! disegna l'abito da sposa dei tuoi sogni to start a free 14-day trial and get your custom wedding website URL Oggi. APW readers get 10% off yearly subscriptions when they use the code APW at checkout.