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Minnesota Wedding Planning: Everything You Need to Know
Yay! You’re engaged! Now is the time to start planning, but where do you even begin?! Below are five tips to consider when planning your dream wedding day!
Before you start booking vendors, decide on a wedding date – Picking your wedding date is crucial to finding vendors. This will help you find vendors who are available for your wedding before you get too attached to their work. Also, take into consideration the time of year you are getting married. It can either be super cold or super hot in Minnesota, so keep that in mind when selecting your date!
Once you have selected a date, begin booking the most popular vendors first – When you are ready to start booking your vendors, you want to be sure to book the vendors you know you want to work with or that can only take on a limited number of weddings per day. These vendors are typically wedding planners, photographers, videographers, venues, caterers, hair and makeup artists, and florists. Ideally, you want to start booking your wedding vendors a year in advance if you can. If you are planning your wedding in less than a year, we highly recommend booking your vendors between 6-8 months prior to your wedding day.
Once you have your preferred high-demand vendors selected, begin booking the remainder of your vendors – These vendors are equally as important to the success of your day, but may have more availability due to the nature of their work or may have a team they work with to allow for multiple weddings per day. These vendors would be your decor rentals, DJs, bartenders, dessert vendors, stationery, and transportation.
After you have booked all of your vendors for your day, you need to start working on a timeline – The timeline will be crucial to a smooth day with minimal hiccups. Typically, you create your timeline around your ceremony start time. For example, if your ceremony starts at 4 pm, then you would want to ideally start hair and makeup services between 7 am and 8 am (depending on how many girls need services and how many stylists you have hired to provide hair and makeup). From there you will want to get your photographer’s shot list and schedule so you know when the entire wedding party and family members need to be dressed and ready to start photos. On average, when doing all of your photos prior to the ceremony, it will be about 2.5 – 3.5 hours of photos before the ceremony. Once the ceremony is completed, you will then schedule your cocktail hour (typically 50-60 minutes long), followed by your grand entrance into the reception, welcome speech, dinner, cake cutting, speeches, your first dance, and any other special dances. Once dances are done, the dance floor is open for dancing and partying the night away!
Once you have a solid timeline, be sure to pack a day-of emergency kit – Even the most perfectly planned wedding will have hiccups the day of the wedding. This can range anywhere from a broken zipper on the bride’s dress to a stain on one of the groomsmen’s jackets. It’s best to have an emergency kit complete with hair and makeup accessories, a steamer, Tide To-Go pen, tissues, super glue, and much more (for more details on what to stock in an emergency kit, check out our Wedding Day Essentials blog post)!
Are you feeling overwhelmed with the prospect of planning your wedding? As your wedding planner, we provide more than just a helping hand – we can assist you in finding quality vendors to match your vision and help manage the logistics of the wedding day. That way, you don’t need to stress on your special day! Want to learn more about how we can help you have your dream wedding day without the stress?! Reach out to us!
Yay! You’re engaged! Now is the time to start planning, but where do you even begin?! Below are five tips to consider when planning your dream wedding day!
Before you start booking vendors, decide on a wedding date – Picking your wedding date is crucial to finding vendors. This will help you find vendors who are available for your wedding before you get too attached to their work. Also, take into consideration the time of year you are getting married. It can either be super cold or super hot in Minnesota, so keep that in mind when selecting your date!
Once you have selected a date, begin booking the most popular vendors first – When you are ready to start booking your vendors, you want to be sure to book the vendors you know you want to work with or that can only take on a limited number of weddings per day. These vendors are typically wedding planners, photographers, videographers, venues, caterers, hair and makeup artists, and florists. Ideally, you want to start booking your wedding vendors a year in advance if you can. If you are planning your wedding in less than a year, we highly recommend booking your vendors between 6-8 months prior to your wedding day.
Once you have your preferred high-demand vendors selected, begin booking the remainder of your vendors – These vendors are equally as important to the success of your day, but may have more availability due to the nature of their work or may have a team they work with to allow for multiple weddings per day. These vendors would be your decor rentals, DJs, bartenders, dessert vendors, stationery, and transportation.
After you have booked all of your vendors for your day, you need to start working on a timeline – The timeline will be crucial to a smooth day with minimal hiccups. Typically, you create your timeline around your ceremony start time. For example, if your ceremony starts at 4 pm, then you would want to ideally start hair and makeup services between 7 am and 8 am (depending on how many girls need services and how many stylists you have hired to provide hair and makeup). From there you will want to get your photographer’s shot list and schedule so you know when the entire wedding party and family members need to be dressed and ready to start photos. On average, when doing all of your photos prior to the ceremony, it will be about 2.5 – 3.5 hours of photos before the ceremony. Once the ceremony is completed, you will then schedule your cocktail hour (typically 50-60 minutes long), followed by your grand entrance into the reception, welcome speech, dinner, cake cutting, speeches, your first dance, and any other special dances. Once dances are done, the dance floor is open for dancing and partying the night away!
Once you have a solid timeline, be sure to pack a day-of emergency kit – Even the most perfectly planned wedding will have hiccups the day of the wedding. This can range anywhere from a broken zipper on the bride’s dress to a stain on one of the groomsmen’s jackets. It’s best to have an emergency kit complete with hair and makeup accessories, a steamer, Tide To-Go pen, tissues, super glue, and much more (for more details on what to stock in an emergency kit, check out our Wedding Day Essentials blog post)!
Are you feeling overwhelmed with the prospect of planning your wedding? As your wedding planner, we provide more than just a helping hand – we can assist you in finding quality vendors to match your vision and help manage the logistics of the wedding day. That way, you don’t need to stress on your special day! Want to learn more about how we can help you have your dream wedding day without the stress?! Reach out to us!