Written By Fiona Deans-Dundas from Couture Wedding Planning
Images by GM Photographics
Congratulations on your engagement!!
Planning a luxury wedding but not sure where to start?
We will give you our top tips to get you started on the right track!
Fiona Deans-Dundas from Couture Wedding Planning http://www.coutureweddingplanning.com.au has been planning high-end luxury wedding since 2009 and would love to take you through 3 of the key things that make a wedding a success that she has leant through her years of experience.
1. Create a Style Guide
We feel it is wonderful place to start your planning journey as all your decisions will stem from your Style guide as the look and feel of your wedding will influence the venue you decide to go for, the florals you choose, the gown you will wear, the cake you will have create.
A fun way to start a style guide is to look at Pinterest and Instagram and find images that communicate the style and feel you would like for your wedding day.
We would them suggest you take your Favourite images and place them in a central document and make notes of where you like have these items at the wedding.
This way when you go to see your Florist and Décor Hiring Company you can easily show them the direction, style and colour scheme you would like to incorporate into your wedding.
At Couture Wedding Planning we love to take inspiration from Store Windows, architecture, nature and then create a unique Style Guide for each couple, which we present to them, so they have a clear understanding of what their wedding will look like before the wedding day.
We will collaborate with each couple and add in images they love and then go out and find the perfect set of suppliers to deliver the look and feel that couple is after.
To see the behind the scenes and our beautiful wedding portfolio follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/coutureweddingplanning/
2. Create a Budget
The second most important thing I could suggest to any newly engaged couple is to create a basic Budget spreadsheet.
Begin with some approximate costs – what you think items will cost and then add in the actual costs as you receive the quotes from your suppliers.
Even just putting down some approx. costs for items really give you an handle on how much things may add up to and then you can discuss if this figure is what you want to spend on your wedding.
Once you have lock in a particular supplier, add in the deposit amount you have paid to the spreadsheet and always make a note on when final payments are due so you don’t have to go back through all the invoices and contracts again a month out from the wedding.
For our Couture Wedding Planning Brides this is a huge part of what we do for each and everyone one of our couples – we also create a final payment schedule for each couple approx.
2 months before the wedding so they know when each final payment is due and how much the balance is that needs to be paid.
3. Create a Timeline
Another great way of keeping track of all your suppliers on your wedding day is creating a rough timeline right at the beginning of your journey.
Begin the timeline by adding the start time of the ceremony and reception and then as you go through the wedding planning process just add all the information as you receive from your suppliers such as the start time the make up artist, when you cars will arrive and what time your florist will be setting up for the ceremony and reception and what time you cake arrive etc.
I would also suggest making a summary of all the items that your suppliers are providing on the day which prevents you from going back to find all the invoices and contracts.
This means all the information for your wedding is in one central location. We would also add the main contact and mobile numbers for each supplier as you learn them.
Place anything that still needs to be worked on in red so it reminds you to focus on that each time you go back into the timeline to check something.
Then around a week out from the wedding you can just send this document to you all your suppliers to confirm you are all on the same page.
For each Couture Wedding Planning Bride we create a very comprehensive and detailed timeline that we communicate to all your suppliers.
We like to communicate the whole timeline to each supplier as they can then see how their component affects the other suppliers around them on the day.
