Rathbone Images Blog

Top Ten First Things To Do

You did it! He proposed, you accepted, now what?

Top 10 First Things To Do:

10-- First, congratulations! Call all your important people and tell them. Start thinking about who you might want to include in your celebration (everything from the invitation list to the wedding party to speakers/singers/etc).

9-- Sit down together and choose a date.

8-- Think about the theme or mood of your wedding. Jot down some words that appeal to you: beauty, romance, tropical, unique, etc. These will help you choose everything from venue to florist to photographer.

7-- Start checking out your resources-- buy bridal magazines (e.g. Seattle Bride), surf websites, get ideas. If a wedding show sounds appealing, there are lots of local ones throughout the year. Start a file of things you like, actual and/or digital. Make a planner if you want to. One of the greatest things about getting married now is the incredible amount of creativity and uniqueness you can express through your wedding. You have so many choices and opportunities (for example, you can get married in a church or a park, you can light a unity candle, pour sand, or do something else that no one else has thought of, to symbolize your love for each other). I will be talking in a later entry about some of the original things our clients have done.

6-- Make a rough budget, realizing that it may need to be adjusted later. Decide which items are the most important to you, and allocate more of the budget towards those items. Think of the future (after you are married), and what will be most important to you then.

Here is a website that you might find helpful in this process: Budget Planner.

5-- Decide whether to use a wedding planner. Here is an article describing some of the advantages and disadvantages: Wedding Planner? If you would like any recommendations, we have some great ones.

4-- Start researching sites and check venue availability. Usually, the venue is the first thing you want to book. When I planned my wedding, there was no web (I know, we got married in the dark ages!), but now researching sites and everything else is just a click away.

3-- Ask friends for recommendations and contact anyone whose work catches your eye.

2-- Set up meetings and ask lots of questions (questions to ask your photographer—that’s a whole ‘nother topic). Always ask to see samples--remember your key words in your decision making process.

1-- Lastly, but not leastly, keep in mind the most important thing through this whole process—your wedding photography! Just kidding. ;) No, what I mean is that it is easy to get caught up in the details (and sometimes the stress) of planning a wedding, and forget the real reason you are doing all this. So, sometimes it helps to step back and remind yourself of the big picture—it’s not really about the wedding, it’s about the marriage, the bond that you two have together and that you want to declare in front of all the most important people in your life. My favorite thing at my own wedding was not the flowers or the cake, or my dress, though I loved all of those—it was having everyone I cared about in one place, and feeling their support and love as Bob and I joined our lives together. There are lots of big decisions to make, but at the end of the day, it is about the two of you, and the life you will share.


And if you are reading this article, and you are planning to propose to your partner, think about having a photographer on hand to capture the action. It’s a really fun way to start the story of your wedding.

Happy planning!

-- Priscilla

posted by Rathbone Images @ 9:14 AM PERMALINK