30 Wedding Planning Tips You Need in Your Life Right Now

It’s officially wedding season!! Well, I suppose it has been for a little while. While weddings aren’t necessarily my niche, I just had mine at the beginning of May and it was a BLAST! Not only was the day amazing and so much fun, I wasn’t one bit stressed. Everything went off without a hitch and was flawlessly executed. I somewhat attribute this to how much of a planner I am mixed with my very laidback, Type B personality. I feel like I’m a unicorn, but seriously, it worked heavily in my favor. Really, the day was as close to perfection as you can get. It got me thinking back on what worked really well for my wedding, so I’m sharing some of my favorite wedding planning tips with you.

Please note that these are just ideas and that your wedding is YOUR wedding and yours alone. Well, yours and your fiancée’s wedding. Please don’t forget him! When it comes down to it, you should be able to make your wedding what you want it to be. It can be simple or lavish, DIY or totally rented. You can have a wedding planner or not. It’s all up to you. In my opinion, I remembered that it was just one day. Yes, it was going to be expensive, but I could have made it much more expensive by adding certain elements, but I decided against that. My husband and I spent money where we truly wanted to and went simpler with other things. Overall, I am beyond happy with how everything turned out and we received so many compliments about our day. There was so much love and joy. So, with that, let’s dive into these wedding planning tips.

If you love this post, you will love my other event planning and homemaking posts:

30 Wedding Planning Tips You Need in Your Life Right Now

Table of Contents

Keep yourself organized, even if you have a planner/coordinator.

Ladies, please, please, please keep yourself organized! This is at the top of our wedding planning tips because it’s the most important. Even simple weddings take a lot of time, money, and resources to plan. The last thing you want is to have vendors or party members asking you questions and not know the answer to something. With this in mind, get yourself some checklists and spreadsheets or even a physical binder to keep everything together. You will not regret it. Just to give you some perspective, here is how I digitally organized my wedding.

First, I created a wedding planning folder on my desktop and also one in my email account. Any wedding emails went into that account. Within my desktop folder, I created sub-folders for categories like administrative items, venue documents, decorations, flowers, wedding coordinator, music, photography, planning documents and timelines, reception and catering, hair and makeup, stationery, and wedding information packets. I added items like contracts or even documents with ideas that I had. One of the most useful items I made were wedding info packets for bridesmaids, groomsmen, and family members. I even created one for my wedding coordinator, photographer, florist, and DJ. When I saw my coordinator used the one I created for her instead of her own, I knew I had done a good job.

Stand your ground on your opinions, ideas, and decisions.

There will be opinions from outside voices. It’s inevitable. If you are a “yes” person, this may be a tough one for you. However, I highly recommend that you stand your ground when it comes to your own ideas and decisions. The waters can sometimes get murky if others are offering to pay, but you should have a conversation beforehand about expectations. If someone else is paying, are they expecting to be allowed to make decisions and invite certain guests? It’s better to have that talk before you get into the weeds of planning. However, at the end of the day, it’s your wedding. If Grandma REALLY wants you to wear her necklace from when she got married but you think it’s hideous, I highly recommend gently letting her know you are appreciative but will be wearing something else. It might be hard, but it will be worth it.

Determine an approximate budget and also your max spending limit.

Is a budget really a budget? Going in, I think my husband and I had some idea of a budget but it wasn’t hard and fast. We were looking at spending between $20k and $25k and spent roughly $22k. To some of you that sounds like peanuts and to others you may think you’ll never spend close to that. And that’s ok! What’s important is that you determine a budget that works for you and your fiancée. Most importantly, create a max spending limit. This will help you weed out certain vendors you know you don’t fit within your limits you set.

Decide on priority vendors first.

After you’ve determined your approximate budget and max spending limit, you’ll want to decide your priority vendors first. This means deciding where you want to spend more or less of your money. If your budget is $20,000 and you want a photographer that costs $6,000, you’ll need to consider choosing a less expensive venue and catering options. Even the least expensive venue and catering options can quickly add up to more then $5,000. For my own wedding, I planned it more than 1,000 miles away, so I knew that having a venue with on-site catering was a priority. The tradeoff was I chose a photographer that was much less expensive. My husband and I were married for over a year already, so getting professional pictures was not as much of a big deal to me. You’ll need to decide what your must-haves and higher priority items are going to be when picking out your vendors.

Keep your guests in mind but don’t plan solely for them.

Ok, so my guilty pleasure right now is reruns of Four Weddings. I LOVE this show and I’ve seen it plenty of times. If you’ve seen it, you know these girls have some crazy ideas. Ya’ll, you DO NOT need fire-breathing dance twirlers, 25 food stations, a magician, a university mascot, rickshaw rides, or blackjack dealers. You don’t need to implement a 20’s jazz theme at some swanky venue overlooking the New York Skyline. Honestly, my favorite weddings have been the ones that cost the least and had the most personal touches.

It’s important to keep your guests in mind, but you are not competing on an episode of Four Weddings. At the end of the day, most guests will be happy with minimal downtime, smooth transitions, good food, fun music, and the fact that they get to celebrate you. Something really meaningful we did at mine was spend our entire cocktail hour with our guests and visit each table during dinner hour. I spoke to every guest at least once and it had way more impact than hiring some fancy professional to do something that your guests won’t even remember.

Plan a day that you will love and remember.

The next of our wedding planning tips is so simple but so easy to overlook and forget. Think about what is most meaningful and important to you and incorporate those items and people into your day. Love pizza? See if your caterer can do pizza as an appetizer. Are you travelers? Print pictures from your travels and put them at your guest tables. If you love hiking, consider having a trail mix bar for a fun snack. We love to play cards and I love to cook and bake. As an alternative to a traditional guestbook, I had custom playing cards created that our guests signed. I also created and printed “recipe cards” where guests wrote us sweet notes and well wishes that then were placed into my recipe box. Find ways to incorporate the things you love and care about into your wedding. This is what will make it so special.

Have clear expectations for each vendor/person you work with. (Speak up!)

Similar to speaking up to family members and friends about your ideas and opinions, you can do this with your vendors as well. Obviously, you are working within contractual limitations, so you’ll want to keep that in mind. However, if you have preferences, it’s important to let your vendors know. Oftentimes, caterers can and will customize menus for you, even if an item isn’t listed. For your music, be picky! Make sure your DJ has a list of songs you do and don’t want for your wedding. If you have a vision, let your coordinator or planner know so she can help make it happen.

Don’t be afraid to think outside the box.

I have been to my fair share of cookie cutter weddings. They were the least memorable. A fancy venue does not guarantee you a great experience. If you enjoy being creative, this is the perfect time to put that skill to use. If you love flowers, consider having your ceremony at a local park or flower farm if the weather is nice. Like hiking in the woods? See if local Boy Scout camps have pavilions you can rent.

One of my favorite weddings was on a Monday in the middle of July. It was so sweet and personal. My favorite element was the bride’s favors. She is a huge coffee/tea lover, so she collected coffee mugs and hung them on a peg board her dad custom built for the wedding. I think of her almost every time I use that mug. Unique doesn’t have to mean showy or expensive. Think about what are some fun ways you can bring out your creative side and personality for your own wedding.

Don’t feel pressured to DIY everything.

Next of our wedding planning tips is to not feel pressured to have a fully DIY wedding. Just like a fancy wedding venue doesn’t guarantee a great experience, neither does a DIY wedding mean it will be something truly unique and special. Having DIY elements doesn’t always guarantee you will save money either. Not only might you actually end up spending more money, but it will also take you more time because you are making the items and elements yourself. If you want to purchase items but don’t want to spend a lot of money, consider looking into sites like Wedding Recycle, eBay, or Facebook Marketplace. Etsy is also an awesome place to find hand-crafted items and templates for stationery items.

Having an Instagrammable wedding should not be your priority.

I can’t say this enough and I will be blunt. If you are more concerned about how many likes you’ll gain on social media or how beautiful your pictures will look to your followers, you may be planning a wedding for the wrong reasons. A wedding is ONE day. That’s it. You’ll forget most of it and remember the rest through pictures and guests’ comments. The reason you are getting married is to enter into a lifelong covenant and partnership with the man you love and are choosing to marry. THAT should be your main priority. It’s ok to want a beautiful day and for things to go well, but keep your priorities in check as you continue to plan.

Consider taking your formal pictures before the ceremony.

If you have your heart set on not seeing your groom until the ceremony, you can still take formal shots beforehand. My husband and I were already married when we had our wedding celebration, so it wasn’t a big deal to us at all. Our ceremony started at 4:30 and pictures started around 1:30. We were done by 3:00 and had almost 90 minutes to relax when we got back to the venue. We also got to spend our entire cocktail hour with our guests. And, I didn’t have to worry about making sure my makeup still looked good once the ceremony ended. It lowered my stress so much and our wedding party and family members were so thankful they weren’t forced to stand for an hour for pictures instead of enjoying cocktail hour.

If you don’t want to see your groom before the ceremony, plan out a timeline with your photographer. Guys typically take less time to get ready, so consider having them get their photos done while you are getting your hair and makeup done.

Find a balance with the amount of food you are serving.

I will preface by saying it is a GOOD idea to feed your guests. Weddings typically last 6+ hours, so your guests will be hungry. When planning for food, it’s important to find a balance and that’s why it’s next up on our life of wedding planning tips. If you have 10 stations plus 5 passed appetizers during cocktail hour, you risk your guests being too full for dinner, leading to food waste. If you are having a ceremony at 1:30 PM but dinner isn’t being served until after 6:00 PM, you may want to consider light snacks before the ceremony and heavier appetizers before dinner. If your ceremony is at 4:30 and dinner is at 6:00, it’s probably ok to just have a few food options during cocktail hour. Honestly, food is one of the most remembered elements of a wedding, whether good or bad. It’s a good idea to think through the timeline of your day to best plan for food throughout your event.

Think ahead about preserving precious items (Dress, flowers, etc.).

My flowers were absolutely gorgeous but I don’t have any of them. I brought my bouquet back to Colorado from Pennsylvania, but eventually thew it out because the flowers all died. I wish I had figured out a way to preserve them but I didn’t. This is my next recommendation to you. If it’s important to preserve certain items, have a plan before your wedding day arrives. That way, you can coordinate getting the items to the necessary places after the wedding is over without stressing.

Have a plan for decorating – pick up, drop off, and actually decorating.

With weddings, you can’t plan too much. I promise. Next on our wedding planning tips is to have a plan for decorating. Decorations are one of those nitty gritty things that can easily get lost in the sauce if you don’t plan well. After you decide how you will be decorating, make a list of every decoration you need. I created a document that had each decorating area (Entrance table, aisles, guest tables, dessert table, etc.) separated out. I created a bulleted list of each item I needed, plus hyperlinks if I needed to purchase any of those items.

After creating that list, I used the packing list my coordinator sent me so I could stay organized with all of my items. We created a plan for how the items would get to the venue and who would be helping with decorating. My coordinator also created a plan for how those items would get packed up and taken home. In the end, because of the plans, things went flawlessly.

Provide food and beverages for your wedding party before the ceremony.

Just like it’s important to feed your guests, it’s also important to feed your wedding party. Your bridesmaids especially, because they are stuck with you all day. You don’t have to go crazy, but just knowing there is food there will make them happy. For the morning of, I offered to buy my girls coffee and pastries. Originally, our plan for lunch was to get sandwich platters for everyone, but the venue had a café on-site, so I bought lunches for my bridesmaids and also provided snacks and chocolate. It was more than enough and everyone was well-fed. If you are starting later in the morning, your party members may take care of breakfast for themselves, but at least consider providing them with a light lunch so they aren’t starving by dinnertime.

Mentally walk through your day.

I am a mentally visual person. I can visually walk through details in my head and picture everything. This was so useful for my wedding. I began with a general vision and started to mentally think through how the day was going to look and feel. Based on that, I started to create timelines, checklists, and documents that allowed me to pull everything together. You may want to consider taking a video of your venue so that way you have a visually frame of reference when mentally walking through everything.

Create checklists for all the items you will need for the wedding events.

Checklists during a wedding are your administrative best friend. I lived by them when I was planning my wedding. With tools like Excel, Word, and Canva, you can create simple or detailed checklists to help you in the planning process. Some checklists you may want to considering using include checklists for decorations, items for the rehearsal dinner and wedding day, and general tasks.

Make sure you are timely with communication.

Even if you have a wedding planner/coordinator, unless she is literally doing everything for you, you will need to communicate with your vendors. These vendors might include the venue manager, caterer, florist, DJ or band, baker, wedding dress tailor, and calligrapher. Some of these vendors will be working with each other. It’s very common for the DJ and caterer to personally know the venue manager if they’ve worked weddings at your venue before. When your vendors send you emails and are expecting a response, make sure you respond in a timely manner. If you can’t respond with 24 hours, let them know when they can expect a response from you and actually respond by then. If you aren’t sure you’ll remember, set a reminder or your phone or add it as a task in your wedding planning checklist.

Delegate tasks where you can.

If you are like me, you have a vision you want carried out and you want it carried out perfectly. This leads to control freak tendencies. Unfortunately, you can’t do it all and definitely not by yourself. Honestly, you won’t remember if a specific sign isn’t hanging perfectly. You will be so caught up in the day itself you won’t remember enough to care about all the fine details. This is why next on the list of wedding planning tips is to delegate wherever you can. My husband, bridesmaids, mom, sister, and coordinator all pitched in to help with decorations and the venue was decorated in less than an hour. I trusted my coordinator to fix anything that seemed out of place. It took the pressure off of me and allowed me to enjoy the day.

Oftentimes, your bridesmaids will be happy to help wherever they can within reason. Maybe one of them can drop off your decorations or coordinate with a vendor. If you have a wedding coordinator, lean into her for as much help as possible. You are paying her for a reason.

Have a contingency plan for weather.

My ceremony and reception were in the same venue space, both inside. Cocktail hour was set to take place outside, but in case it rained, we had a plan. Some brides are dead set on having at least their ceremony outside. Listen, I get it. My wedding was in early May in Pennsylvania, one of the prettiest times of the year. However, I knew that weather in PA during the spring can be very iffy. If you really want any part of your wedding to take place outside, have a contingency plan for weather. You really don’t want to have to scramble at the last second because no secondary plan was made. Cost is a consideration as well. If you want to rent a tent in case of rain, understand that that will eat into your budget.

Provide timelines to those involved in the wedding.

Disorganized weddings cause guests and party members a lot of stress. It’s not fun for anyone. Organized weddings that allow for flexibility are best case scenarios. Next of our wedding planning tips is to provide timelines for anyone involved in the wedding. You can keep it simple and have a Word document with specific times and events listed. I went a little fancier and created a wedding info packet for my bridesmaids, groomsmen, family members, and certain vendors. It eased everyone’s stress because they knew exactly where they had to be at different times.

Etsy and Canva may become your best friends.

My stationery was all DIY. I designed all of it in Canva and then had it printed. I saved a LOT of money doing this and I have a premium account so I had access to all the features that Canva has to offer. If you don’t have a premium Canva account, you can still create beautiful digital products. If going full DIY isn’t your thing, you can purchase inexpensive templates in Etsy that you can then download, edit and print. I found that it was much cheaper than getting a bunch of stationery from different printing websites like Minted or Zazzle.

Consider using rental items instead of buying.

What are you really going to do with 100 mason jars and all those picture frames? Do you really want to be responsible for making sure they get sold or donated? An alternative to buying all of your décor items is to rent them! Oftentimes, these are small business owners who have collected items over the years and now rent them out. You can find anything from flatware to arches to antique furniture, signs, and lawn games. If you don’t want to make the purchases yourself, this is a great idea. Many companies have systems in place to make sure you get the rentals with ease.

Remember that almost everything on Amazon is returnable.

Ok, next of our wedding planning tips might not be too well-known, but it’s worth mentioning. Pretty much anything you buy on Amazon can be returned. There were specific things I knew I wasn’t going to be able to rent, like 100+ flameless candles. However, I didn’t want to keep them. So, after we finished using them for our wedding, we returned them. They were in good condition and barely used, making it easy for Amazon to resell them. In a sense, it’s like borrowing items. A few other things we ended up returning were our cake stand, cake knife and server, and card box. We ended up receiving a full refund for the items we returned and got back hundreds of dollars.

You are not forced to have wedding cake.

Wedding cake is one of those things that’s still somewhat of a tradition. However, couples are starting to realize they don’t have to have a wedding cake, per se. Not everyone likes cake. If you and your fiancée fall into that category, don’t have cake. My sister-in-law and her husband had a cookie cake. My best friend had an ice cream buffet. My husband and I cut a pie and had a dessert buffet (yes, we did have serve cake). If you love donuts, have a donut wall! Or pie. Maybe a cookie bar. The possibilities are endless.

If you want a bigger “wow” factor, consider a having a smaller guest list.

One of the most important wedding planning tips I can give you is to consider having a smaller guest list. I understand there are circumstances that may require a bigger guest list. This might be due to a large family or parents who are paying and want specific people there. However, there is nothing wrong with having fewer people. We invited 170 people and about 80 RSVP’d yes and attended. That may sound shocking, but it worked out perfectly. Not only did we save money, but we also got to spend time with every guest. If you decide to invite 300 people just because you want 300 people there, you may need to pick a cheaper venue or food options. However, if you invite fewer guests, you have more room in your budget for upgrades like an extra appetizer or a better photography or music package.

Stop comparing your wedding to others.

I’ve been off social media since 2018 (Facebook) and 2021 (Instagram) respectively. I’m not nearly as influenced by others are who use social media regularly. I got inspiration off of Pinterest, but by not being on social media, it allowed me to create the wedding I wanted, not the one a set of followers would think is beautiful. Your wedding is yours and your fiancée’s . No one else’s. Just because you see a thousand boho weddings with floral crowns and rugs everywhere doesn’t mean you need that for yours. Go with what you love, not what you think everyone else will love. The more of your own personality you put into your wedding, the more your guests will see the authenticity.

Forego items like favors and programs.

You don’t have to have favors or programs!! When I started planning, I was so set on having programs. The ones I ordered came in the wrong size, so I said “screw it”! pivoted and created a timeline of events board for my guests to view. It was cheaper and I wasted less paper. Unless your favor is something edible or extremely personal, skip it. Even then, assuming you are feeding your guests plenty of food, do you really need to spend money on a favor that may or may not get eaten? If you REALLY want one or both, go for it. It’s your wedding. Just know that the costs of these little items add up quickly, so it’s best to consider spending your money elsewhere.

Designate someone as the “day-of coordinator,” even if you don’t hire a professional.

Please, please, please have someone be your day-of coordinator, even if you’re not hiring a professional. You do not want a bunch of people coming to you with questions or complaints on your wedding day. There is a lot going on as it is and you need to focus on yourself. If you don’t want to hire a professional, find someone who has attended or been in a few weddings and is organized. You want someone who guests and vendors can come to with questions when they need something. This should not be you.

Have fun!

Our last but most important of our wedding planning tips is to have fun! It sounds so cliché but I can’t stress this enough. In the end, this is one day that you put a lot of time and effort in to enjoy. It’s truly about you and your fiancée coming into a union together, but you’re celebrating for a reason. So, have fun! Eat the delicious food you picked, dance all night, get a little tipsy, take funny photos with your best friends, and enjoy your day!

Alright, 30 wedding planning tips later, and there are so many more I could have included. Which ones did I miss? Which ones would you recommend and add? Can’t wait to hear your thoughts.