The Essentials for Stress-Free Planning
As an Ottawa Wedding Photographer, I have had the pleasure of working with remarkable couples! I get to be intertwined in the planning process as we lead up to the wedding day, not only with photographing the events leading up to the day, but I also get to support with planning process with our consult check-ins. Some couples can get swirled up in the stress of planning, and I love to help my clients navigate the ebbs and flows of planning.
Start Planning Early
Early planning not only alleviates the stress of scrambling. Booking your vendors in advance gives you the advantage of ensuring availability for your dream team. Booking early also means getting to experience additional services from your vendors. Some examples of early planning events you can hire: venues host scheduled meal tastings, photographers offer engagement sessions, and planners offer engagement party planning.
Set a Realistic Budget
Set expectations on what you want to spend. Be realistic with this, if you want 8 hours of photography and videography coverage, multiple floral installations with large bouquets and boutonnieres, a huge dessert table, and everything monogrammed, expect that this is going to be an investment.
To-Do Lists
When tasks pile up it's STRESSFUL. Break your tasks up into manageable to-do items, even though you're planning a super duper fun wedding, the planning part of it isn't always super duper and fun. But having little tasks makes it seem much less daunting.
Choose the Right Vendors
Follow vendors on social media, browse their websites, and check out reviews. Find your dream team that aligns with you wedding day vibes and with you as a couple! A trend to help clients with their wedding day vision, when you select your vendors, unfollow all the other accounts, this gives you relevant content to your wedding dream team in your instagram feed and will help you hone in on your vision!
Communication is Key
There are A LOT of back-and-forth emails and calls with vendors. Your wedding day team probably has part of their process automated to keep things easy peasy for them. So why not keep things simple for you? Designate a wedding email for correspondence, keep communication away from DMs and texts, and create a central spot for all your messages.
Embrace Flexibility
It's great to have a solid vision and game plan for your wedding day, but remember to be flexible. Your wedding vendors are human and they work their gosh darn hardest to make your vision come true. But it's okay to make concessions if things need changes!
Delegate!
Have a MOH that is super excited about planning? Have them take the reigns on planning your engagement party. Have money in the budget, hire a planner to take over the big things!!
Create a Timeline
All my Wedding couples get a wedding day photography timeline curated by me, this is usually coordinated with the wedding planner to ensure your date runs smooth! If you're not an Amy Godin Photography client, there are amazing resources to use to create a timeline.
Have Dates!
It's so easy to get caught up in planning and forget to have an actual DATE NIGHT. Try to have a date night monthly, on the pre-anniversary wedding date to celebrate the countdown and reconnect! You can make them wedding themed, check out this blog post I wrote about wedding planning date nights!