At first, wedding planning can be quite overwhelming.  You have so many options and countless decisions to make, so where do you start?  You know you want a fabulous wedding that everyone can ohh and ahh at, but how do you create that vision?  While I don’t know this as scientific fact, I have a hunch that most brides head out to their local newsstand and purchase every bridal magazine they can get their eager little hands on.  Really, where else can you devour pages and pages of colorful content on everything (bridal) under the sun?  Do you want to see the latest wedding themes and colors for the season?  Yes!  Do you want to find out about the latest sugar frosted cake designs?  Double Yes!!  Do you want to see the latest bridal gowns from Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier, and other style mavens? An OUTSTANDING Yes!!!  We are after all, eager and willing consumers of the wedding industry. 

No different, I purchased a total of eight glossy mags within my first planning month.   In hindsight, I purchased those initial magazines with the same impulses I have when I pick up an US Weekly at the grocery check out line (as Miranda on Sex in the City says, “it’s my thing, get over it”).  The reason we buy loads of magazines the moment we start to plan: to be hyper stimulated with all things wedding.

However, once I allowed myself to gorge on the tasty morsels of stylized images, I stepped back to figure out my game plan.  After trolling on the web and flipping through my future-mother-in-law’s numerous wedding planning books (it would seem that wedding planning books are to parents as bridal magazines are to brides), I found that the most critical items to plan are nine key elements:

1. Budget: Unless you’re Melania Trump with alot of Donald’s f-you money to blow, you’ll be wise to plan within your means. 

2. Event Style: Formal church, destination, garden, beach, etc.

3. Magnitude of Event: Intimate gathering? Or mega blow out?

4. Venue(s) Selection: This will be driven mainly by your event style and then sky’s the limit.

5.  Photographer

6.  Videographer

7.  Floral Designer

8.  Music & Entertainment

9.  Officiant

These elements are considered to be critical path decisions because they either drive the overall planning process or represent services that have unique value and are limited in supply.  Realize that many vendors only work one event per day and most weddings typically occur on Saturdays and begrudgingly Sundays and even Fridays; so if you’ve discovered the perfect vendor that falls within your budget, book him/her!  You want to beat every other bride to the finish line on all of your top vendors and service providers.  The rest is pure fun, especially dress shopping!!  Although timing may become an issue if you wait too long (hint: your wedding dress), most of the other goods and services are less supply constrained, and therefore, offers the luxury of you taking your time to sign the dotted line. 

I’ve touched upon the specific critical path decision items in separate posts, so read on.  The point is to prepare yourself in tackling these decisions first so that you can winningly achieve Goal #1 (to capture your personality and style) and Goal #3 (to attain the best customer service).