,       You're engaged! So many congratulations to you both, I am so, so happy for you. Enjoy every second of this magical moment as you celebrate with each other. 

       After the reality of who you are now, separately and together, sinks in and settles into your hearts and your minds comes the awareness that there is an awful lot of thinking and planning and decision making to do to get to your wedding day. Questions like what date are you gong to have your wedding? Where do you want to have your wedding ceremony? Where do you want to hold your reception? Could they be in the same place? Who are you going to invite? How do you go about reducing that list from several hundreds to a more reasonable and affordable number? Is it going to be in the morning? Or is it going to be an afternoon ceremony followed by an evening reception? And the list goes on. And on. And on.

      All of these are essential questions that need answering as you begin your planning journey, but they are not where I think you actually need to start. Let's think about this.

If you are in your 20s or 30s, it is more than likely that some of your family and friends may already have had their weddings and you would have been a guest at those weddings. Or you may have been married before and this is a second marriage for one or both of you. Or you have been happily married for some years now and you wish to celebrate the love and happiness that you have enjoyed for the past years.

Whichever of these or similar groups you fall into you will most likely have seen a wide variety of weddings. You will know where they were held, what time of year they were held, what time of day they were held, how many guests there were, how many bridesmaids, pageboys and flower girls there were, what colours the bride chose, and of course her dress.

Without you knowing it, you have been carrying out your research long before you were aware that that is what you were doing. Be honest, we've all thought not always happy thoughts about some weddings we have been to, just as much as we have loved and raved about some or most wedding we have been to. Sometimes both thoughts about the same wedding. You know you did too, it's not just me.

      So now, if you think for a minute or two about those weddings you have been to, both great and not so great, you can start to filter some of the whats, wheres and hows to help you work out what you want. It makes the first few steps of your journey a little bit easier to know what you don't want as much as what you do want. But I still don't think that is where you need to be starting your planning journey.  What I think THE number one thing that you need to do when you start planning your wedding is to decide the STYLE or THEME of your wedding. Everything else will follow from that decision. What do I mean? Let me unpack that for you.

      There are as many different styles of wedding as there are stars in the Milky Way. For example, do you want a traditional, rustic, druid, festival, Star Wars, Boho, Poldark, 1950s, Moroccan, Day of the dead, Black and White, Eco, Christmas, western, Goth, Downton, pirates, or Military style wedding? Phew!  Or any combination? An Eco, Goth, Christmas wedding anybody? These are just a very few examples, once you start thinking of possibilities you will amaze yourself.

      You will find that once you know the style you want, you can think about where you might like to hold your wedding. Maybe a church wouldn't be the best place to hold a druid styled wedding for instance. But can you have your wedding in a standing stone circle? Absolutely yes if you opt to have a Celebrant led ceremony, with the right permissions from the landowner you can have your ceremony wherever you want.

    Your choice of style will also have an impact on the place you choose to have your reception, (and the ceremony).  What worked for your friend who chose a traditional church ceremony followed by a reception at a 5 star hotel on the river would probably not be the route you would choose if you really wanted to have your ceremony and reception in the orchard at home, or on the beach or end of the pier.  Think about where would suit your style and how you would bring the ceremony and reception together.  You can still have a traditional style wedding but put your own twist and quirkiness on it by having it somewhere different.

      The style of your wedding dress also follows your choice of wedding style.  An amazing dress with an eight feet long train and a pair of killer heels is probably not really going to work so well in your orchard or on the beach.  But it would look amazing in a church or 5 star hotel.  The number of guests you could have at the beach or in the orchard is also possible more than that ritzy hotel if you have any budget constraints. Hay bales, a pig roast and a barn dance will be considerably more affordable that a sit down meal for all your family and friends.  But of course, if budget is not a consideration then why not go for it.  Have a push the boat out, all the bells and whistles wedding at that hotel, and choose to have a Celebrant led ceremony so you can have it outside by the river rather that in one of their function rooms.

      These are just a couple of examples of how your choice of style for your wedding really will have a huge impact on everything else.  And by now you can probably see why I believe that it should be the number one thing thing you need to do in your planning journey.

      If you would like to know more about a Celebrant led ceremony and how I can work with you to create a truly unique ceremony for the heart of your day, then please go ahead and hit the Contact Sara button below so we can arrange an informal, no obligation chat.  I would be absolutely delighted to be your Celebrant for your special day.