7 Simple Steps For Planning Your Wedding Online
Wedding planning is a truly exciting and rewarding experience, and we have learnt from our many years planning with couples at our luxury wedding venue how difficult it can be to know where to start, especially during uncertain times like these. Planning your wedding doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With some simple steps you can enjoy wedding planning from the comfort of your own home!
Step 1 - Utilise Planning Tools
With so many free wedding planning websites out there you can easily collate all of your ideas in one place. Here are a few of our favourite wedding planning websites to get you started:
Covering every stage of planning, Hitched has an extensive database of suppliers, bridal wear, wedding songs, honeymoons, speeches and more! You can even take your planning to the next level with their unique table planner or take advantage of their forum and ask advice from other brides.
A highly rated website and app that makes keeping track of your plans and budget very simple! With an attractive dashboard to inspire you this is a fabulous app and website to take control of your wedding planning. If you’re all about budgets and pie charts this is definitely the app for you!
A simple and user friendly website and app which breaks down your planning into 5 different categories; Checklist, Guest List, Gift Lists, Budget and Shortlist. Bridebook has a database of suppliers as well as lots of ideas and inspiration to guide you through your planning.
Now that you have signed up to your chosen planning website and browsed the many suppliers and ideas available, you are hopefully feeling inspired! The next step on your list? Securing your venue!
Step 2 - Book Your Venue
It will come as no surprise that without booking your venue, everything else comes to a halt. The venue dictates the date, theme, colour scheme and supplier availability!
It is of course very important for you to visit venues so that you can get a true feel for the place and speak with the Wedding Planner to appreciate what they have to offer. Though you may not be able to meet with us at this time, you can still visit us virtually! At Rockbeare Manor we are currently offering virtual tours via WhatsApp or FaceTime with one of our Event Manager’s for our prospective couples. This way you can explore the venue, ask any questions you may have and even secure your date!
Step 3 - Contact Suppliers
Many suppliers are used to receiving bookings from couples that aren’t local and are therefore happy to discuss your plans over the telephone or via FaceTime, creating mood boards and sharing their portfolio so you can get a feel for their work without having to meet face-to-face. Don’t be afraid to contact potential suppliers to discuss your ideas even if you’re not sure they’re right for you.
With so many fabulous suppliers out there it can be very difficult to narrow it down so why not ask your friends and family for recommendations? You can do this easily via Facebook or even look through the supplier’s reviews on social media. Our Event Manager’s are also happy to help and provide recommendations - weddings are our speciality so we work with and get to know lots of amazing suppliers in the industry!
Step 4 - Pinterest the Dress!
Now this is one area that we know you can’t compromise on. Let’s face it, we’ve all found our ‘dream dress’ online only to try it on and wonder what on earth we were thinking, and who wants to miss out on the big ‘dress reveal’? Until you can get to the shop to try on your dresses or suits why not get enthralled in the world of Pinterest creating pin boards to explore your ideas.
Step 5 - Involve Family & Friends
Whilst it’s not possible to physically see friends and family at the moment, you can still connect using video call and group chats. Why not explore creative ways to ask your friends to be bridesmaids!?
You could create a collage of pictures of you both, leaving a space for a wedding day photo “I can’t wait to put a picture here of the two of us on my wedding day! Will you do me the honour of being my bridesmaid?”. Even a simple bouquet of flowers with a heartfelt message would do the trick!
Step 6 - Get Crafty
There are many stationary companies that will create design prototypes for you from a simple explanation or even as much as a colour scheme or theme. If you’re feeling extra creative you could dive into some arts and crafts and create your own name cards, table plans and wedding signs!
Step 7 - Create a Wedding Website
Many couples choose to have a wedding website so that their guests can easily find everything they need to know in one place, you could even go one step further and send out e-vites to your guests to make it official!
The following sites will create wedding website for you for free:
With some beautiful templates that are fully customisable you get a premium service for free! With Joy offer digital RSVP’s, an app for all of your guests and a place to upload images from the day!
This is a free general website building service, but with some fabulous templates and the ability to create galleries you could easily produce a unique wedding website of your own with Wix.
With simple functions easy to navigate Zankyou is a great free service with some lovely modern design options. You can even co-ordinate playlists, upload maps, recommend hotels and upload videos.
Wedding planning should be an enjoyable experience. If you’ve found yourself with extra time on your hands, then now is a great time to get wedding planning! We hope these simple steps give you some inspiration and help you to achieve most of your wedding planning from the comfort of your own home!
If you would like to book a virtual tour or talk to one of our events team please call us on 01392 797444 or contact us here.