How to start preparing for the wedding yourself

The first thing you need to decide is whether you entrust the wedding to professionals or decide to do the preparation yourself.

In the first case, you will only have to decide on the choice of 

agency or wedding manager. Further, the matter is already behind them.

Therefore, we consider the second option: self-training.

And the sooner you start training in this case, the better. 
The optimal time until the celebration is 6-9 months.

When preparing yourself, you should be prepared for the 
fact that you will have to have more than a dozen meetings, this is a very time-consuming 
process. You will have to spend a single day on the Internet when searching for 
contractors, viewing ideas and choosing parts. You must be prepared to 
look through any contract and delve into all its points.

My advice: CAREFULLY read the contract so that it does not 
surprise you that the presenter needs a dressing room, and the photographer will give the photo only 
after six months. Very often couples, hearing that the contract is standard, sign 
it, looking only at the amount and forgetting about the other points.

So where do you start?

1. Decide on a budget that you can 
afford.

2. Decide on the format of the event, the number of guests, the 
range of services you want and distribute them within your budget. It is important to determine whether the official registration of marriage and celebration in one or different days. Make an approximate timing of your day, as you want to see it (of course, it will change more than once, but you need it already at this stage so that you can plan and answer contractor questions more correctly in the future, and they will have questions from them).

Personally, I am a supporter of sharing these two events, especially if you are planning an exit staging ceremony, so you will have more time to sleep before such an important day and for a high-quality and relaxed 
photo session during the day.

3. Decide on the date if you are not tied to a specific place of celebration.

If you have dreamed all your life about a wedding in a certain place, then you should ask the restaurant, hotel, etc. on whether your date is free 
or not and to build on this when choosing a date.

Copied from the site: the-wedding.ru

4. Site selection and booking for your date. Popular 
sites in the middle price category are booked sometimes for a year, and the sooner you do this, the better. It often happens that after visiting the site, the young ones without making an advance payment calm down and be content with the "honest word" of the manager. Unfortunately, managers can change, the date can also be “sold” for a larger event, if the management of the establishment is dishonorable. Yes, yes, this is still found in not very unknown restaurants. Avoid this will help you an agreement on making the deposit and restaurant reservation on your date.

Never leave money just on a 
cash receipt order, where it is not spelled out exactly what you left a deposit for.

5. Submit an application to the registry office.

For the summer season this can be done on the website of public services personally or 
for 6 months. I advise my newlyweds to submit an application personally, 
there is also an element of celebration in this. After filing an application, you can arrange a small love-story photo session and spend the evening in a cozy restaurant, recalling the acquaintance and the best moments spent together. Dream about your honey meat and plan for whatever country you would like to visit.

In winter, however, many registry offices take a statement for 2-3 
months, especially in the area, so if you have a wedding in the winter, I advise you to 
clarify this issue in advance .

6. Selection of major contractors.

First of all, I advise you to decide on the most important person who will set the whole tone for your holiday, with your host! I always advise couples to look at several candidates for a choice. Before the meeting, be sure to watch the video, see what the guests are doing at the tables during the competitions on the stage, this is very important! If the guests on the stage are having fun, and everyone else is looking at the plates dejectedly or even dispersed in the corners, then think about whether you need a presenter who does not "hold" the hall, despite the fun on the stage, read reviews about the candidate's work, contact several brides , where he led the wedding party and talk in person what they liked and what they would like to change. Make a list of questions before the meeting, it will help you productively spend time and do not forget to ask anything.

7. The choice of a photographer, videographer, designers and other 
contractors.

I always advise young people not to save on the photographer, to be 
honest, in my opinion, it is better to abandon the video, but to take an experienced 
professional photographer than to get both, of average quality. These photos will stay with you forever and it will be you who will revise them after many years and show to relatives and friends who will come to you on the anniversary of your wedding!

Also, do not cost too much on this day on your 
shoulders and shoulders of your loved ones and guests. It is much better if you still take 
decorators who develop the design concept of your wedding and arrange everything on the day of the event, especially for weddings with over 50 
guests.

I also recommend taking the coordinator for the day of the event. It is unlikely that you will want to ring up the contractors on the eve of the wedding, checking their readiness, to think about whether they all came to you in the morning, is everything right with the cake that they brought to the restaurant when you are on a walk. Have you properly decorated the hall, to monitor the removal of dishes and alcohol during the event? 
Of course, one of you will say that your best 
friend, sister, mother or grandmother will cope with all this . But think about whether they will rest on this 
day and do you want if something goes wrong (and there is anything) that they 
run and solve these problems? I'm sure not)))

An important role in how your day goes will be played by such an item as “wedding style”.

If 10 or 15 years ago, riding a stylish wedding, beautiful satin bows on chairs and an arch over young people were considered, now everything has changed very, very much. and no one will look askance at you if you make an unusual, unique wedding, in a style close to you in spirit.

This could be a rustic, shebbi-chic wedding, art deco, loft, etc., a wedding in the style of your favorite book or fairy tale, a wedding permeated by your hobbies, whether it's surfing or the love of Mahjong. You can make a wedding in the style of Casino Royal or Little Red Riding Hood, choose the original color scheme and make such a wedding that all your guests just gasp!

You can make a wedding on the roof or in the field, arrange a rock party or a ball of the 18th century. Everything depends on your desires, imagination and financial possibilities. The main thing to remember is that it is YOUR day and it will not happen again, so you should be comfortable and do not have to adapt to your grandmothers, who shout in chorus: "What about red-white balls and obligatory swans?"

I would also like to dwell separately on the question of the choice of people who will make you exactly your photos and videos. As I said earlier, if there is an acute question of the budget framework, then I advise you not to save, first of all, on the photographer. Why, I also mentioned earlier. This is just my point of view and it may not coincide with someone else. Therefore, I will ask videographers not to throw slippers at me, just kidding)))

Before meeting with a photographer or videographer, sit down, carefully look at his work, look for his work in the reports of brides at wedding forums and websites, read reviews about him.

After arranging a meeting, ask him to send a contract in advance and show several complete episodes at the meeting. At the meeting, you will be able to discuss all issues related to the timing of receipt of the finished material, the system of payment, its requirements to the place of shooting.

Important. Also, do not be lazy to spend your time and watch a couple of episodes in their entirety. I agree, this is a long time, but very often the overall result of the photographer’s work varies greatly with what you see in his portfolio on the site, and you want all the photos to be of decent level, not 20-30, which you can show your friends , for the quality of which you are not ashamed.

Choosing a photographer, you are by default, agree with the general style of processing photos and do not expect that a photographer working in the style of reportage photography and loving black and white cropped photos will make you colorful staged photos. Photographers are still people with a creative approach and each of them has their own handwriting.

My advice: I immediately recommend to my young people to take the full package for at least 12 hours, since, as a rule, this is exactly the time that allows you to capture all the moments from the morning of the bride to the salute or other logical conclusion of the evening.

A competent photographer will tell you the most suitable places for a walk, will recommend a studio in case of rain, help you relax.

And one more tip: if you didn’t have contact with a photographer or videographer, as well as with any other contractor, you are confused in the style of his behavior as a person, no matter how you like his work, I recommend watching someone else. It is very important that all the people who make this day with you are on the same wavelength with you and understand you from a half-word. 
It is very important!

And I will dwell a little more on the question of the coordinator of the wedding. Many will ask the question: "Why do I need him? There is also a beloved friend, mother, aunt, uncle, grandmother, etc."

First of all, do you really not want to have a rest on that day, and your friend not only helped to lace up your fabulous dress on this day, but also managed to get together and look decent for you on this day?

Let your mother at the banquet quietly sitting and rejoicing for you on this day, and not running to clarify whether there is enough alcohol and whether the hot is ready. And there are dozens or even hundreds of such nuances.

Let's try to imagine what exactly your friend will have to do to make this day perfect.

So,.....

On the eve of:

Checking the timing of the event. It is enough to say that she is a non-professional and may simply not know how to do it correctly.

Check the readiness of all services and contractors. Do you really want to spend the whole evening on the phone, instead of sitting with a cup of tea and cakes, remembering all your adventures together?)))

On the day of the event:

Check if the stylist, videographer, photographer, florist has left, if your bouquet comes to you and if it is as it should be.

And she has just woken up, she is to dance with you until the night)))

Check the readiness and location of transport. And she just goes to you and in her hands she has a lot of packages, flowers and also a cosmetic bag.

Clarify where the bouquet and its compliance with the ordered. Let me remind you, she, loaded with packages, goes to you.

Take the cake on the court. And imagine if the cake did not arrive the same, and even at 7 pm, because in the morning it simply was not on the court, since it was with you at the registry office? What will she do? And did she know the day before that it was better to stipulate the delivery of the cake on the very morning, what would happen if something went wrong, could everything be fixed before the cake was taken out?

Meet the decorators at the site. Again, remember that at the moment she is happy with you in the registry office or trying to keep everything you took for a walk, while her phone is torn from calls from guests who have forgotten the address of the registry or do not know how to come to the restaurant.

Arrangement of seating cards and wedding bonbonnieres. Again she is not in the hall ...

Meet the host on the court. Again the same story ... at the moment you are walking together in the park at a photo shoot and she is holding the hem of your fairy dress, so that it flutters beautifully in the wind in the photo.

Take all the alcohol on the list. She is with you ..

Control over the course of registration of a banquet room and acceptance of 
ready registration. And here she is with you ..

Checking the registration of a place for exit registration. The same story, you get into a tuple together ...

Meeting with guests. She herself is a guest, is it not strange if she will meet everyone, coming with them?)

Assistance in seating guests.

Constant calls from guests, how to come, is there a children's chair, etc. But she’s with you all day, corrects her makeup, dress, wears flowers, and then all these bags and flowers are constantly ringing and falling to the ground ... Have you submitted a picture?

Control on the work of staff and the removal of dishes. Doesn’t she want to eat and be glad together with everyone?

Control on the fact that the glasses were full at all before each toast. Well, it's hard to imagine how she would do it from her place (((

The solution to all problems during the event, whether it is a broken nail or torn stockings or even a fallen cake .... and there are a lot of such situations. It is unlikely that she carries a mini small suitcase with different things for different occasions)))

Control over the correlation of planned and real timing. That's for 
sure she won't be up to it ...

Control over the collection of gifts and flowers and their placement. And at this moment everyone is sitting, and she is standing at your table, loaded with bags and flowers, constantly running to arrange them.

Contractor Power Monitoring

Calculation with contractors for services performed. She walks the whole wedding day, tightly clutching her handbag with artists and contractors ... and worrying about not forgetting it anywhere.

Checking the remaining alcohol and food and their collection for further transportation. But she is already tired and can go home ahead of time ...

The organization of departure of guests

Organization of your departure

And there are much more such nuances, these are only the most basic 
points ......

And, now, omitting the question that your friend is a doctor, teacher, engineer, that is, a person who has never encountered this in the course of her work, answer me, you want her to rest with you and raise a glass for your happiness?

Now I think you yourself will answer the question: "Why do you need a coordinator?" and what can happen if you entrust this day to a non-professional.

Well, the most important thing !!!

I tell all my newlyweds even at the first meeting — first of all, it should be convenient for them! No matter how selfish it sounded ... Nobody says that one should not give a damn about the desires of mothers and grandmothers, but one shouldn’t make out all the balls, just because the future mother-in-law or mother-in-law wanted it, but you cannot see them or put tables with the letter P "because it was like that of your second aunt at her wedding and all 100 guests were shoved into the hall at 70)))

My dear, this is YOUR day and it will never happen again for you, and they have not the first and not the last wedding to which they are invited, they will forget all these little things in a day, but in your memory it will remain forever and it should be like that as you want!

Copied from the site: the-wedding.ru