A Savvy Wedding Planning Philosophy

According to most wedding checklists, there’s a general order in which you should approach your wedding planning. The order of tasks is usually pretty similar, starting by creating a wedding budget, deciding what your top priorities are, creating a guest list, booking the ceremony and reception sites.

Next are the vendors and decor decisions… including musicians, rental items, florist, caterer, photographer, cake baker, and entertainment, etc. Then choosing wedding attire, invitations, and the finer details. There are always items on the list that may not apply to your particular situation, and that’s totally fine. Feel free to toss the things that don’t align or feel authentic to the celebration you have in mind!

Needless to say, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed when you look at the epically long list of tasks. If you’re feeling paralyzed about the idea of moving forward, get your foundations set first, and then feel free to focus on the areas that actually matter to you. We call this savvy method of planning your big day our wedding planning philosophy, if you will.

Values-based wedding planning

We’ve been big proponents of taking a values-based approach to planning your wedding. The items you want to think about first will likely be very indicative of your intentions for the wedding or even your marriage.

What you decide to start with will probably say a lot about what is really important to you in the wedding planning process.

Focus on the Areas that are Most Important to You First

For example, one of our former bride bloggers Rowenna said the first thing that she and her fiancé did was order their wedding rings. According to most wedding planning timelines and checklists, this is a task that doesn’t need to be tackled until nine months out. But their wedding rings were very important to them, so they chose to complete this task earlier in their planning process.

“Our wedding rings are a symbol of our marriage that will be worn for our whole lives, so we both wanted to put a lot of thought into them, and had very specific ideas of what we wanted. We found a custom designer on Etsy who made us a set of three bands exactly to our specifications, and they turned out beautifully.” Rowenna, bride

Wedding Planning Tasks That are Lesser Priorities

On the other hand, the items that aren’t a high priority for you might get limited attention. Invitations? Musicians? Dresses? They may not be the things you choose to spend your brief periods of free time focusing on.

There’s nothing harder than making a decision about something you neither feel strongly about, nor have any particular ideas about.

If you’re on a tight budget, things you might skip could include renting a limousine, putting an announcement in the local paper, and hiring a wedding planner.

Seeking Alternatives for Lower Priority Items

So, in addition to tacking the things that *are* important to you, spend time brainstorming alternatives that keep things as simple and inexpensive as possible for the items that are less important to you. Hint: we’ve got fabulous list of wedding alternatives to consult here.

Just because these things are traditional, nothing is mandatory when it comes to a wedding– except the parts that make it legal.

Here’s a big tip: If you didn’t care about something before the wedding, don’t make yourself care about it now.

If you’re a graphic designer and love making paper products, then go ahead and do them! But if you don’t have a single artistic bone in your body or if you just prefer simplicity and minimalism, there’s no reason to make yourself stress over decorations or take on DIYs you’re not equipped to complete.

Prioritization is Key

Focus on the stuff you care about, and find simple and savvy solutions for the rest. Don’t waste your precious time forcing yourself to stress over decisions on things you genuinely don’t care about.

In short, our wedding planning philosophy is this: keep the things you actually care about and feel authentic to you, and feel free to toss the rest!

📌 Pin This! 📌