Happy #WeddingWednesday!
My name is Jenae, and I am a wedding coordinator here at Wilson Creek Winery. While planning several brides’ and grooms’ weddings, I was in the midst of planning my own! My then fiancé and I were going to take our time with the engagement, but being a wedding planner… I just couldn’t help myself! So, here is my Wedding Proposal to you, to make the planning process that much easier!
Photo Creds to Leah Marie Photography! www.leahmariephotography.com (PS the whole wedding party got ready at the Wilson Creek Manor first… Gorgeous Pictures!)
We started out by setting a budget and ended up looking at venues within a couple weeks of getting engaged. Not only did we immediately fall in love with our venue, but we fell in love with the venue’s coordinator as well! In my opinion, that is EXTREMELY important when booking your venue. Your wedding day is supposed to be one of the best and most important days of your life! You want a coordinator that enjoys what he/she does and who you would want to work with throughout your entire planning process!
Once you book your venue, everything sort of just falls into place on its own. Your venue will recommend certain vendors for a reason. They are great at what they do, and they are very familiar with the venue. Although you do not always have to go with preferred vendors, it will almost always be in your best interest because they have the tendency to make your planning process even easier!
If I could give any piece of advice, it would be to get a wedding planning timeline from your venue (or online) and stick to it. Whatever you do, do not wait until the last minute to do everything at once, because you do not want to stress yourself out. Several people asked me what my secret was for staying so calm throughout the entire planning process, and my answer was just that. Stick to the timeline, do not procrastinate, and have fun! No weddings are perfect, so if you go into the process knowing that, you will be so blown away at the end result! If something goes wrong, try your best to laugh it off. Chances are, nobody will notice but you. Your guests do not pay attention to the small details. They are focused on how beautiful/handsome and happy you both look…. and in the end, you two love birds getting married is all that matters!