Welcome to Essex Weddings first ever post!
We thought we'd start with a useful wedding planner tips article, or more of a checklist to ensure you consider everything when planning your perfect wedding day.
First things first, you'll need to find a wedding venue. No point in trying to book any other wedding service just yet, as their first question will be "Where and when are you getting married" - and you'll have no answer if you haven't booked your wedding venue.
Once you've confirmed your wedding venue booking, and paid the deposit then the fun begins.
Start making a list of who you will invite to your wedding day, our suggestion is that you and your partner make a list each, agreeing roughly how many people you're considering to invite to the wedding.
Once you both have your separate lists of potential wedding guests - make sure you invite all the people you've both agreed on, and then discuss the people who have made one list, but not the other.
When you've finalised your wedding guest list, send out your wedding invitations nice and early to ensure guests don't book holidays on your wedding day.
Girls will then need to start looking for the all important wedding dress, our tip is to start early and take your mum or best friends (or both) along with you to get plenty of opinions.
Guys need to book suit hire, this needn't be planned quite as early as the wedding dress as there all always plenty of options for the guys, and most wedding suit hire companies only need a couple of months notice.
Depending on how big you want your wedding to be, you'll want to consider how you're going to get to your church or wedding venue. Are you hiring a horse and carriage, or a splendid wedding car ? Don't forget these companies have limited transport available, so we recommend booking one pretty early to avoid disappointment on your wedding day.
You'll want to capture your wedding day as much as possible, so booking a quality wedding photographer and wedding videographer is important. We recommend visiting wedding fayres to source these guys. That way you can browse through plenty of their previous work, chat to them about your wedding day, and of course compare one another's work and prices.
Find a good local wedding florist or balloonist, or both if you can afford it. Tradition seems to be that the flowers are to match the colour of the bridesmaids dresses. Both a florist and a balloonist will have endless options available for your wedding day, so speak to them with plenty of time before the big day to choose how you want to decorate your wedding venue.
The wedding cake will be in dozens of photos so make sure you get the one you really want the most, again a good place for checking out wedding cakes is at a wedding fayre. This is possibly the only place you'll see and taste their work. Even better is to get a recommendation from someone who has recently married and used that supplier for their wedding cake. You won't need to book the cake maker too long before the wedding as they'll only make it a day or two before hand, but you'll want to choose a wedding cake design and make sure the cake maker is available for your dates.
Assuming the wedding venue is organising the food and drinks for both the meal and the buffet, you just need to consider entertainment for your wedding guests.
If you're planning a wedding DJ or a wedding band, the best ones will get booked up early, especially in the summer. We don't recommend booking these through a wedding fayre unless you can actually see them perform there. The best way to find a wedding DJ or wedding band is through a recommendation. You could always try and see them perform before your wedding day, or even ask for a CD of their work. DJ's and bands can make or break your wedding reception, so make sure you book the best.
Other things you could consider for your wedding entertainment, are chocolate fountains, champagne fountains, kids entertainers, fun to play casinos, close up magicians the list can go on and on.
Hopefully this article has helped you think a bit more about your wedding planning.
For more useful wedding articles please come back and visit us soon.
Written by David Thurston, who runs Essex Wedding Services - a bright and useful directory of wedding services for Essex brides and grooms - the perfect place to find wedding venues in Essex .