Every year over six million couples take the next step and get engaged on Valentine’s Day. The heart-filled holiday is inherently romantic making it no surprise it’s the 5th most popular day to propose according to Wedding Wire.
You’re Engaged, Now What?
This is such a special time in your relationship but it’s easy to get overwhelmed by planning a wedding. Luckily, Philadelphia is full of incredible companies to help you along the way.
Olive Street Events offers a simple piece of advice to the newly engaged, “Don’t worry,” they say. “Take everything one step at a time and stop to smell the roses along the way. Just remember, at the end of the day you will be married to your person and that’s all that really matters, so enjoy the process!”
Olive Street Events is a full service Event Planning + Design company based out of Philadelphia that believe there is no cookie-cutter formula for events. We teamed up with this planning powerhouse to break down the First 4 Steps To Planning Your Wedding.
First 4 Steps To Planning Your Wedding
1. Celebrate!
You’re engaged!
This is a very exciting time in your life and you’ll need to choose who to share it with. After you propose to your squad and solidify your wedding party, it’s time to celebrate! An engagement party is a wonderful way to kick off the planning season and introduce all your VIPs to one another. Your wedding party will be spending a lot of time together over the next year or two so the more time they spend getting to know each other the better.
2. Get Organized
First thing is first, create your budget and confirm who is contributing. Once you have that number you can get started allocating funds to different areas. Everything in the wedding industry costs more than you think it does, so it’s important to prioritize what’s important to you. This can be anything – a killer band, a rare out-of-season flower or an all out menu.
Once you have your list of top priorities you can then allocate a little more than the recommended percentage to that area. Put this information into Excel or Google Sheet and update it every time you book a new vendor. You don’t want any surprises at the end!
3. Find Your Venue
The largest expense in your budget is the venue and catering so it’s important to nail this down early on. Three factors to consider when picking out your dream venue are location, guest count and financial comfort zone.
To start, you need to distinguish if you want to stay local or host a destination wedding. Once you’ve answered that question you’ve narrowed your choices considerably. Next, make a rough draft of your guest list considering the capacity of the venue. If you know that your minimum guest count is 150, cross off venues that cannot accommodate.
Lastly, there are many parts of a venue that impact the overall cost which are important to consider. This includes onsite catering, third-party catering and table or chair rentals. All of these things have to be taken into consideration in the cost of booking that venue. Once you’ve culled your list down to a manageable amount of venues (and stalked their websites and Instgrams) you’re ready for a tour and booking.
4. Book Your Must-Haves
Reserve your preferred wedding vendors that tend to book fast. This includes band, photographer and photo booth, as well as any large-scale decorations.
Our friends over at BVT Live! have a wide selection of vocal performers, musical groups and DJs to get your party started. A few of our favorites are Big Ric Rising, Back2Life Band, and their newest ensemble Carnivale. BVT suggests attending one of their free live showcases to browse the groups before booking. When you know which act fits your vision reserve them right away!
Notice we said photographer AND photo booth.
To capture every detail of your wedding we suggest booking an experienced photographer. Trust us, you’ll want to remember every single napkin, flower, kiss and smile. Delaware photographer Naomi Solorio tells a story through her lens.
A photo booth tells a more candid story. Photo booths are always the life of the party and printed photos make a terrific favor. Twinkle Photo Booth offers a completely interactive photo booth with touch screen interface, LED ring light and custom photo templates. Photos are instantly uploaded to a shareable gallery for friends and family to experience all over again.
Planning an Event?
Our Team of Experts Can Make Your Event Memorable
We can’t wait to start customizing your photo booth! Contact our team to schedule a consultation.
