Where to Start Planning Your Wedding

This is a question that my friends always ask me. After getting engaged and after going through pamamanhikan, one would realize that planning a wedding is a daunting task. It is truly overwhelming since your wedding is probably the only huge event you will have to plan in your entire life (that is if you are not a wedding coordinator or an event organizer). I always tell people that it is easier to plan an event for a couple of hundred of people than a wedding.

Anyway, have no fear since nowadays there are many tools online you can use to plan your wedding (and you can even do without a coordinator like we did!).

HAVE A CHECKLIST

The secret to organizing your wedding is to have a list. Yup, a check-list. The best check list I've used is the booklet that Wedding Essentials includes in its magazine. Just follow it diligently and you are sure to complete everything in time for your wedding.

AGREE ON A BUDGET

We scrambled around to put together a budget and plan before our pamamanhikan because we wanted to show our parents that we were prepared and serious about getting married. The booklet from Wedding Essentials provides a good run down on all the expenses that you will incur in your wedding. Things will change as you make decisions so it's best to put this spreadsheet online and collaborate by using Google Docs (helped us a lot since I live in Paranaque and he lived in Marikina).

Identify which expenses are important for the two of you. Do you want to spend more on photography and videography? The reception? Entertainers? Your wedding attire? You will have to identify which of the costs would be your "luxury cost" and which would be the least priority for spending. We personally spent a good amount of money on photography and videography and put the bridal car on least priority. We also managed to get a lot of help from friends.

START PLANNING!


Start planning months ahead. Cramming for your wedding isn't a good idea since you'd probably end up spending more. Best to start on your church, reception venue and caterer and then you can spend some time dating again till you realize that you have to start working on your wedding again.

Planning Your Own Wedding

I did not realize I've been gone a month! I've been so busy traveling and slipping in venue and church oculars, food tasting and hunting for a designer, I haven't had had the time to blog! Argghhh!

But anyway, the past few weeks have given me more insights about planning your own wedding. And it's not really so hard after all, especially if your fiance is the hands-on type.

Here are a few tricks and tools that I've been using to plan my wedding:

1. Attend bridal fairs! There's two happening soon, Celebrations at SMX on May 24-25 and The Philippine Wedding Summit at the PICC Forum on June 27-28. The show with the most suppliers usually are the ones handled by Themes & Motifs.

2. Collect flyers! It may sound funny, but my fiance and I have been collecting flyers for more than a year now. Most of them ended up in paper bags and I've just recently sorted them out (see the photo above). They've been really helpful in our search for the right supplier.

3. Use directories! You can get a free wedding directory from DPC Yellow Pages or buy the Bride's Yellow Pages from bookstores.

4. Use Google! Search for suppliers online and read up reviews about them too. I also use Google Docs to put together information and I share this with my fiance for his review.

5. Read Forums! I'm quite scared about giving my money to a stranger, so after searching for reviews about a supplier I also read forums to get feedback from others. I usually frequent Kasal.com's forum and the Wedding's at Work community.

Getting Married Online

Huh? No I don't mean doing the ceremonies online, but planning your wedding online.

The Official Google Blog gave a great rundown on an example on how a couple used Google tools in planning their wedding.

We all know that planning a wedding is such a daunting task. When I planned weddings for my friends all these tools weren't available yet, but I've been using it myself and I covered Gmail, Gtalk, Google Docs, Google Notebook, Blogger and Google Apps for Your Domain in a previous post.

There's a new collaborative tool though that I've been trying out the past few weeks and it's quite exciting since you can build a site all about your wedding in it and easily share photos, videos, documents, maps etc. in the page. This tool is called Google Sites and you can utilize this just simply by getting a Google Account (your Gmail account would do).

My tutorial about how to use Google Sites is over at YouGotTech.com.