Church weddings, hotel weddings, festival weddings and everything in between, summertime is the height of wedding season. Luckily, here at Sophie Allport, we love a good wedding… from seeing the bride and groom lock eyes from one end of the aisle to another to tearful toasts and side-splitting speeches, there's something about weddings that soften even the least romantics of hearts! If you're engaged or thinking of getting married at any point in the future, here are some top tips for planning your wedding...
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Set your budget. The first thing to do is to set a realistic budget for your wedding. The average UK wedding is said to cost an eye-watering £20,500 nowadays according to the Money Saving Expert, but that doesn't mean that yours has to cost that much. You can have the day of your dreams, regardless of how much you spend.
- Be realistic with your guest list. Second, remember that while you might want to invite everyone, a lengthy guest list will drive up your costs and the amount of organising you need to do too. Work out how many people you can afford to invite, and check out the capacity of the wedding venues you have in mind. Write a provisional guest list with your fiancée and be a little bit ruthless if you need to be... after all, you can always throw an engagement party for everyone you aren’t able to invite for the day.
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Identify the things that are important to you. Is your dream dress the most important thing to you, or would you and your partner really like to splash out on a professional photographer to capture your day? Is food and drink a big deal, or have you always wanted to tie the knot in an elegant venue? Whatever the case, try to identify the things that are really important to you, and see if you can spot the things that you’re a little less fussed about.
- See if there are any wedding fares coming up. Next, see if there are any local wedding fares you want to attend before your big day. Visiting a fare could be a really fun day out with your friends, and it's bound to give you some great ideas too! Also, lots of fares offer discounts to brides shopping on the day, so consider going along just to secure a good deal on things like bridal makeup and DJs.
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Start putting your wish list together. Finally, have some fun by putting a wedding list together! This is the list that your guests will shop from when they’re buying you a wedding present. It’s a very normal thing to do nowadays as almost everyone wants to buy a present for the bride and groom, and it solves a problem of friends and family not knowing what to get you – especially if you and your fiancée already live together. And if nothing else, it will feel like a nice bit of retail therapy among all that ‘wedmin’.
We've teamed up with the UK's award-winning wedding gift-list company Prezola. You can create your perfect bespoke wedding gift list from their selection of 30,000 products from all the top homewares and interiors brands including Sophie Allport. It’s simple to set up and if there are any Sophie Allport products not listed on Prezola's website that you’d like, simply contact them here and let them know which items you would like.
