It got engaged nearly 9 years ago now on Valentine’s Day in Rome and for the life of me, I can’t remember what we did and how we knew where to start planning our wedding! We had just over 14 months to plan the big day, but I can’t even remember how we decided on the date.
If you are newly engaged it can be difficult to know exactly where to start the big day preparations especially if planning a wedding abroad. But don’t fear as one of our new Belle Brides Victoria getting married in France in 2017, shares where she started her wedding planning journey.
Source
Victoria: “Hi everyone,
Today I really want to talk about PLANNING, a scary word if you are either like me, too organized or if you are really not organized at all. When we first got engaged my first reaction as a very organized (and a bit control freak) person was “Oh my god I have no idea where to start”. I feel like some of you might recognize this moment. So my first mission was to go over a 100 blogs, read all about it, take notes, compare, and finally start…
At this point my first advise would be “please don’t do like me”. Indeed, I have read everything for hours and days started to make files of images and contacts, until I told Maxime on Valentine’s Day (yes November until February was all about wedding for me) “ok we need to talk and make decisions”. We took time to share our point of views, what we wanted and how we wanted it and I realized that it would have been much more easier to start here.
It was an amazing Valentine’s Day and all his ideas were so helpful, simple, obvious. He told me “I want a refined style wedding so that when we look at the pictures in 30 years it seems like yesterday and we won’t think it’s so 2017” and I loved it !
Also, because we are planning everything long distance and because it is not too far from Paris, we had to start booking certain details 18 months in advance, like the venue. We agreed to make a schedule for the next year so that we will be sure to be good with the timing. Making a schedule for a year is huge when you don’t really where you ll be in 6 months, but at the same time it’s reassuring knowing that you will just have to follow the plan.
To summarize, if I had to do it again, I would start with a nice dinner sharing our thoughts about our special day.
Our next step was to make a list of all we will have to do (a giant to do list) and at the end put all the tasks in our wonderful schedule. So far we have been following the plan and everything is on good tracks. If this can help you here is the list of our big tasks (of course that might change as we get closer to the date) but until month 8 it worked :
- Discuss what kind of wedding we want and set a budget
Source: Jukeboxx Media
Month 18 to 12 :
- venue
- photographer / video maker
- caterer
- Musicians / DJ
- guest list
Month 12 to 8 :
- dress
- collect the addresses of our guests
- invitation / save the date (design and send)
- floral artist
- hairdresser and make up artist
- web site
Month 6 to 1 :
- Groom outfit
- bride maids and groom men outfit
- bride accessories (shoes, veil, jewelry)
- decoration and activities
- car rental
- wedding papers for the city hall
- Wedding rings
D-30 to 7 :
- D-day schedule
- table plans
- engagement photo session
D-1 :
- set up decors, tables, lightening, games, car ,music, flowers
- take time of for a massage and a manicure / pedicure
- get some rest
- assign everyone’s task for the D-day (best man, maid of honor, bride maids and groom men)
- Rehearsal
I am looking forward to talk to you about my trip in France in next month post…”
Victoria’s Wedding Vendors so far:
Reception Venue: Domaine du bois Saint Mard
If you are looking for ideas and inspiration on planning your wedding in France, don’t forget you can catch up with Belle Bride Victoria and you can find all the Belle Brides past and present here.
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