Planning a wedding can be overwhelming to say the least. There are so many moving parts that the entire thing can quickly become too much. Something I did when I first started planning was pick my top three priorities. These were the three things that were the most important to me and that most of our budget would go towards. If something wasn’t in the top three, then we didn’t need to spend the extra time or money trying to find the best of the best (full disclose: way easier said than done!).
I thought about things that would make the biggest impact on our experience and be most memorable in the long run. Drew made his own list and surprisingly, both of our top three were in line! We decided to start our wedding planning with these three things:
1. VENUE
This was both of our #1 priorities! We wanted a place that would make guests feel welcomed and have that ‘WOW’ factor. Considering we would be spending the entire day at the venue getting ready, we both though it was important to pick a place that we absolutely loved. Our venue had a beautiful outdoor ceremony area and a welcoming reception hall. Since we got married during the most popular month in Houston (aka: the highest likelihood of good weather and no too close to any holidays), and on a Saturday, we paid a hefty price for our favorite venue. But it was all worth it!
2. PHOTOGRAPHY
Do I even need to say more? As wonderful and perfect as the day may be, the photographs will last a lifetime. And now that everything is digital, they will literally last a lifetime. As I mentioned in my favorite things post, a great photographer was SO worth it. We wanted wanted our photographer to be take great pictures, be super easy to work with, and be a reasonable price. Well guys, we hit the jackpot with our photographer. Lindsay takes amazing photos! She is honestly one of the nicest people we (and all of our guests) have ever met, and had the best pricing! Since photography was in our top three, we were less concerned about pricing and more on the overall style of photography. Now we have the most beautiful photographs to remember our wedding day!
3. FOOD
Drew and I both wanted the food at our wedding to help our guests feel comfortable and just give them a great meal. We both wanted Italian food so we tried to find a caterer that had great prices and great options. This was an area that we really spent our time on to find the perfect place. I must be honest, the food was wonderful, but we did have some issues with the specific vendor but that will be for another post. In the end everything worked out just fine! Everyone loved said they loved the food at our wedding and even had leftovers to take home.
If you can narrow down your focus just to just a few things, it will help ease you into the wedding planning process. It may feel like every single detail is important, but don’t forget what the day is truly about. When all of those details get to be too much, just remember that your top three things are perfect and that everything else will fall into place. The custom napkins, napkin rings, and guest flip flops may be a nice touch, but as long as you’re having a great time, everything will be perfect!
Happy planning!
Vivian
