Planning a wedding can feel like a task, ensuring your same-sex wedding is everything you ever dreamed is possible, here are three steps to get you started.

Newly Engaged?

I’m Lorna Reeves of My Oh My Weddings.  This post is specifically dedicated to those of you who are perhaps newly engaged, those of you that have been engaged for a while but are really starting to think about planning your wedding. Where on earth do you start?

Today I am going to give you three main tips for how to start planning your wedding, your big day.

Here at My Oh My Weddings we work with companies and suppliers be that florists, photographers, venues that not only accept LGBT clients – everybody should be accepting – we work with companies that not only accept LGBTQ+ clients, but are really pro, welcoming and supportive. We want to work with companies, venues, florists, photographers that support the cause, drive forward equality and ensure that absolutely every couple is individual, is unique and is celebrated.

Where to start?

Okay. Where do you get started?

So your three top tips that you need to start thinking about and I need both of you to go and grab a pen and paper, do it on your i-pad, you really need to go through this exercise.

Step One – Gotta Have Faith?

The first big deal-breaker that you need to have a think about is religion, no religion and what your beliefs are around marriage and the wedding. If not religion is spirituality going to play a part in your big day?

Some people assume they know what their other half believes and they assume where their moral compass and where their beliefs lie. It’s not until you really start talking about marriage and how you incorporate that, that these things start to come to the surface. And these really are fundamentals. Time to make sure you are both on the same page!

Step Two – Size does matter!

It’s the worst thing in the world when one of you wants a huge lavish affair with hundreds of people and pink flamingos and it’s all singing, all dancing, and the other one of you just wants the two of you on a beach in the middle of nowhere. Either is absolutely amazing and there’s a big sliding scale in between the two, but you really need to be honest with yourself. What are you going to be comfortable with and what do you want to celebrate your day? Have a think about it. Write it down. The two of you need to talk, when you close your eyes and pitcure your day, what do you see? When you’ve got some idea of where you both sit on the scale, you can start to negotiate.

Step 3 – It’s All About the Money

The third big thing, the real bone-cruncher, is, of course, money. How are you going to fund your day? What sort of costs are you looking at? Where will you be comfortable price-wise? Have a think, have an estimate. The last survey published by GovUK actually put the average wedding at between £20,000 and £50,000 and it is a huge scale. Where you are comfortable. You can have a wedding for under £3,000. It will be much smaller, a little casual, but if it’s what you want then absolutely go for it but you completely need to see where both of you stand on this matter. Will family expect to pay and will they be offended it they do not get that opportunity?  Now is the time to start talking about it.

Time to talks, talk about the big three:
1) Religion and beliefs. Is there anything you really want to incorporate into your big day?
2) The size. How big do you want your wedding to be? Would be more comfortable in a small group or do you really not mind and you want to celebrate with as many people as possible?
3) Cost. How much can you afford to spend and how are you going to think about funding it? Is it something you are going to save up for and pay it all off or are you going to take out a loan or credit card and you want to do this as soon as possible and you’ll pay it off over the coming year or so?

From there, when you’ve had a think and you’ve had a talk, everything else can be arranged and negotiated. You can really start to map your day and have a feel for how you want your day to look once you’re both on the same page.

Break the rules

Next, you can move on to the exciting bit where you can be really creative. The wonderful thing about same-sex wedding being legalised is that there are no traditions, there are no rules. Gender roles go completely out of the window. It’s time to make your own traditions. Who says you have to have a best man? Who says you have to have a bridesmaid? What about a bride brigade? Or an ‘I do’ crew? Or a best woman? It really is completely up to you. There are no rules. You can throw out the etiquette book and really start to make this day your own. It’s about celebrating the two of you as a couple, what you want to bring to the world and celebrating with family and friends and the people who are going to support you through your marriage.

Wedding Planners

Wedding planners are there for the two of you as a couple. A wedding planner, like us, will advocate everything specifically for you. We will go to venues and ensure you get the best possible value deal for what you want as a couple. Save time, let us do all the leg work, research and trawling. We will make sure that your vision is maintained throughout the whole process. There’s no compromising. If you say a particular shade of pink, that’s what the wedding planner is there to ensure that you get. Your day is about you, about you as a couple and your wedding will fight that for you.

They have also got umpteen contacts and the most valuable thing your wedding planner will give you, there’s two things actually, one will be a time-saver. No more spending hours and hours, hours and hours, planning, researching, looking for venues. Your wedding planner has lots of contacts for you already. Hope over to www.myohmyweddings.com. We have a venue finding service where we can have a look at venues in your area, the areas that you are looking to get married in, to suit all kinds of budgets and we will make sure you get the best possible price and we will save you massive amounts of time.

A wedding planner will also, secondly, make sure that your day is stress-free. You can just kick back and enjoy the process. It doesn’t matter how involved you want to be. Use our services and we will present you with a load of choices. You get the fun bit. You get to say whether you want pink or blue. You don’t have to go and find the suppliers that will supply pink and blue. We will save you time and we will save you money. Come and find us on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter @MyOhMyWeddings We can help

You’ll be on your way to planning your perfect day, celebrating you, celebrating individuals.

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