New Year’s Resolution: Planning Your Upcoming Wedding

If you are plan­ning to get engaged over the hol­i­day sea­son, con­grat­u­la­tions! How­ev­er, that means you’ll be start­ing the new year with a myr­i­ad of wed­ding details to iron out. One of the best ways to tack­le this some­times over­whelm­ing task and make it fun for the two of you instead of stress­ful is to start with a check­list and grad­u­al­ly work through it. Below is a sam­pling of the things you’ll want to include on that list:

WHAT TO INCLUDE ON YOUR WEDDING PLANNING CHECKLIST

1. SET THE DATE

Of course, the most impor­tant part of plan­ning a wed­ding (after decid­ing whom to mar­ry) is decid­ing when to have the cer­e­mo­ny. This could depend on your work and school sched­ules as well as those of your close fam­i­ly and friends. It pays to be a lit­tle flex­i­ble until you’ve secured a place for the cer­e­mo­ny and the recep­tion as your first choic­es may not be avail­able on your first choice of dates.

2. SET THE TONE OF THE EVENT

The tone of your event is anoth­er impor­tant ele­ment. Do you want a for­mal or a casu­al wed­ding, a small or a large wed­ding, an out­door or a church wed­ding? Per­son­al or tra­di­tion­al? Bright col­ors or neu­tral? There’s a lot that goes into set­ting the tone for your event.

3. SET THE BUDGET

With­out a bud­get, wed­ding expens­es can quick­ly get out of hand. Now is the time to set a max­i­mum bud­get, so that you don’t get swayed by an expen­sive wed­ding venue or option that just doesn’t fit in. It is so impor­tant to do this ear­ly on.

4. FIND A VENUE

Secur­ing a place for your cer­e­mo­ny and your recep­tion is anoth­er crit­i­cal part of your plan­ning process. Many church­es have coun­sel­ing require­ments that you’ll need to meet and pop­u­lar recep­tion venues tend to book up ear­ly, espe­cial­ly on Sat­ur­days.

5. CHOOSE YOUR BRIDESMAIDS AND GROOMSMEN

Give some thought as to whom you want to stay up in front of the church with you. Keep in mind that these peo­ple will need to be avail­able for a cou­ple of days sur­round­ing the wed­ding as well as for the recep­tion. Best friends and fam­i­ly mem­bers are the tra­di­tion­al choic­es but don’t be afraid to extend those bound­aries to include peo­ple who are clos­est to you. For exam­ple, we know of sev­er­al grooms who have cho­sen women to be their “best man.”

6. DECIDE ON COLORS for dresses and suits

Decide on a col­or scheme ear­ly. This will tie into much of your oth­er plans, from choos­ing flow­ers to order­ing suits and tuxe­dos to plan table­cloths and cen­ter­pieces for your recep­tion. Once you decide on a col­or palette you can request swatch­es from ven­dors to col­or match.

7. GET WEDDING DAY READY

It’s nev­er too ear­ly to start try­ing on your wed­ding day attire. In fact, there are two major ben­e­fits to doing this in advance: you reduce stress and save time. That aside, you can make the process even more con­ve­nient by order­ing online. This keeps you from spend­ing a lot of time vis­it­ing a shop in-per­son, or the trou­ble of coor­di­nat­ing sched­ules to ral­ly up grooms­men. How does it work? You can get start­ed by request­ing a free Home Try-On that’s deliv­ered right to your door. If some­thing feels off, you can ask for anoth­er at no extra cost, allow­ing you to make the right choice for your wed­ding. 

TIPS FOR MAKING WEDDING PLANNING A SUCCESS

1. EVERYONE WILL HAVE ADVICE BUT REMEMBER IT’S YOUR WEDDING.

Plan your day to meet your dreams, not every­one else’s.

2. MAKE PLANNING YOUR WEDDING YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION.

…but real­ize it is more than just one res­o­lu­tion.

3. CELEBRATE THE LITTLE WINS

Make a point of cel­e­brat­ing your lit­tle wed­ding plan­ning vic­to­ries, such as secur­ing your venue, find­ing your attire and get­ting your wed­ding par­ty all lined up. Reward­ing your progress with your future spouse will keep you both sane.

4. GET SUPPORT FROM YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS

If you can get ahead of the curve and pick the mem­bers of your wed­ding par­ty ear­ly, they can assist you in the deci­sion-mak­ing process as well. You can del­e­gate some small items to them, tak­ing more off your plan­ning plate. Why not take advan­tage of this extra help?

5. TALK TO YOUR FIANCÉ AND HAVE A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF BOTH YOUR EXPECTATIONS AND ROLES

You want to find out ear­ly what each of you expects from the wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny and recep­tion. Look at this as one of your first oppor­tu­ni­ties to prac­tice com­pro­mise. You cer­tain­ly don’t want to learn at the last minute that he real­ly want­ed a casu­al wed­ding and you’re hav­ing a for­mal one. In that case, a good com­pro­mise would be to have a for­mal cer­e­mo­ny and a casu­al recep­tion.

Gen­er­a­tion Tux offers more than 20 dif­fer­ent suit and tuxe­do styles plus thou­sands of col­or acces­sories. We have some­thing to fit vir­tu­al­ly any theme, col­or scheme and tone. Our mod­ern and slim designs are made of qual­i­ty fab­rics in a full range of sizes.

We deliv­er the suits and tuxe­dos direct­ly to your door. You don’t have to mess around with pick­ing them up from a store­front at the last minute; we get them to you about 14 days before your event and we pro­vide pack­ag­ing and a label for free return ship­ping. You can request a suit to try on before the event and grooms rent free with five or more grooms­men.

Plan­ning your wed­ding this new year does­n’t have to be a has­sle or cause stress between you and your fiance. Start with a good check­list and take advan­tage of time-sav­ing options like rent­ing your suit or tux from Gen­er­a­tion Tux.

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