How To Plan A Wedding

Some people know exactly what they want for their wedding day. They have already picked out the dress, know exactly what flowers will be in season and have written their vows in their head. I was not one of those people. I know it’s controversial, but I wasn’t that bothered about having a reception party at all! I definitely wanted a wedding ceremony in a church. But after that, home for tea would have been fine for me. I was more bothered about the marriage, not the wedding.

However, I also had to take my family and friends into account. A wedding is about celebrating the love and commitment you are making to another person, but it is legally and culturally a public event. In truth I had no idea how to even begin.

So, in true teacher style I returned to my learning style to help me. If you are stuck knowing where to begin, trying one of these techniques might really help get the creative juices flowing.

Mind Map

Put you and your partner in the centre. Write down a list of the things that describe you. Around the centre, itemise the things you have to have in place (e.g. flowers, dress, catering). Then, use the descriptors to find a theme that you can spread throughout all of the features you need for the wedding. For me, a big part of our lives was history. I was a history teacher and one of our first dates was as the British Museum. So, we made our invitations look historic by designing and ordering our own new family seal. We found a shop online that could turn our design into an actual brass seal, and using wax, sealed our invitations. This then became the theme of the wedding; the colour of the wax became the colour of the bridesmaid’s dresses and my flowers. We chose a local venue for the reception that had historic merit in the area and had a traditional wedding service. From that one idea all the rest flowed.

Visual Mood Board 

Go to your local newsagents and buy one of every wedding magazine you can find. Then, sit down and go through the magazines cutting out any picture that sticks out to you. Group the pictures into features, e.g. all the dresses, all the flower bouquets. Glue them down in groups on a large piece of card. You’ll be able to see what colours, styles and themes pop out at you. From this you’ll be able to choose the products that suit you best.

A Thought Experiment 

This is not for the faint hearted! It can make a fun engagement party game too! Write down the different features that a wedding needs, photocopy and print out sheets for you friends. Then, ask them to write down next to each category what they imagine your wedding would look like. So, what kind of dress can they imagine you wearing, what food will you serve. After all, they know you really well and might come up with some fantastic suggestions. You can make it as serious or as sensible as you like. Although, I imagine a sensible game might be more use to you!

So there you have it, my ideas for helping you start off the creative thinking process. For myself, it turned out that planning my wedding was actually a lot of fun. The day itself was even better. Here at Just Catering we cater for all types of weddings, so phone us up and let us know how we can help fit in with your wedding theme. Congratulations and happy planning!

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