Northern California Wedding Planner | Top Tips of 2019 - Wedding Planning Advice

Sometimes the short and sweet version is all you need so here’s our top wedding planning tips of 2019!

1. Do it for you!
Your wedding plans are yours alone, meaning that you really don’t have to try to please everyone. Keep it authentic to you as a couple and you can’t go wrong. Play the music you love, get married in the setting that feels right whether that is a church, a backyard property or a traditional wedding venue! Related post: Planning Authentically

Butte Creek Canyon Wedding - Photo by AVH Photography

2. Invest in Experience
We can’t drive it home enough - on your wedding day time will fly by! We want you to feel present and that can only happen when you are comfortable enough to trust the professionals that you have on your creative team.

For us, we really try to make a point of recapping with our couples after their wedding and over the years we can really see the difference in the client experience for those who hired professionals - timelines stayed on track making the most of your photo coverage, announcements & music on point, the flowers and decor details were impeccable, food was delicious and beyond that everyone had an amazing time! That doesn’t happen without a team working together. Related posts: Pricing vs Value and Why Experience Matters

Bella Rosa Farms - Photo by Shannon Rosan

3. Don’t be shy
Pinterest can send you down the rabbit hole and before you know it you are looking at weddings in New York or L.A with luxury budgets so you aren’t sure how to set a realistic expectation for your wedding. In the wedding world we have to be open with our couples about the real cost of planning a wedding in their local area. If you are receiving quotes and feeling the sticker shock, you have to pump the breaks and have a transparent conversation with your fiance/parents or anyone contributing to the budget. It is totally ok to discuss the pricing and make sure that you understand all costs before booking. Related budget posts: Service Fees and Real Talk - Budget Breakdown

Almendra Winery & Distillery Styled Shoot - Photo by Ranalla Photo & Film

4. Keep It Simple
Choosing what decor to incorporate into your wedding day can feel sort of daunting, but our rule of thumb is to keep it simple - choose focal points to maximize the impact of your design. This point goes back up to Tip #2 above, but the less decor your buy on your own the less you need to pack out afterwards so if you can rent rather than buy it’s often worth it. Linens are a great example, couples may find good deals online to purchase linens but these will often not come fully pressed an will also need to be washed & pressed afterwards which can add up quick. An elevated design for your sweetheart table, dessert display or lounge seating areas make great focal points. Related posts: Keep it Simple

Photo by Shannon Rosan

5. Plan ahead
Life doesn’t hit pause once you say I Do, so give some thought to what you want your first week or even month or so of “normal life” to look like after your wedding. If you have been spending a lot of time on wedding planning you are going to want to re-channel this energy somewhere and the best advice we have is to spend focused task-based time with intention. Look into trying out a yoga or spin class with a friend (many gyms and studios even have a few free trials!) or plan on a room in your house to rennovate/update. You can see our full blog post on avoiding the post-wedding blues here!

Photo by Sarah Tamagni Photography

Our 2019 season is a wrap, but we are busy working on planning details for our 2020 weddings and continually streamlining the way that we run our planning company, this means more efficiency & consistency for all of our couples. Be sure to catch up with the latest happenings by following us on Instagram at @530bride

~ Happy Planning!

Northern California Wedding Planner | Monday Vibes

All of the cool hashtags on Instagram are for the rest of the week but today we are stopping to appreciate the clean slate that Monday’s bring! We have a small break in weddings in July, which gives us time to get prepped for the remaining late-summer and fall weddings.

Here on the blog, we talk a lot about the actual wedding day but it seemed like a good time to talk about the steps after your wedding day and how to adjust back to your day-to-day life.

Photo via Pops of Pretty

Practicing good self care while you have an important milestone like a wedding coming up is important but also to think about what you will be focusing on after your wedding. For some couples, that may be transitioning into a new home together or preparing for career changes and others it could be focusing on sprucing up your existing place together and nesting a bit! Going through the photos from your big day, your honeymoon or mini-moon and de-cluttering some of the items you accumulated over the months of planning; it is all good for helping to move on to the next exciting chapter. Not to mention you’ll have some tasks to keep you busy like name changes, banking updates and of course thank-you cards!

Photo via Pops of Pretty

After things settle, it is understandable to have a little bit of what is known as the “wedding blues” and to keep replaying certain aspects of your day over again in your mind. Should you have spent more time with your guests, did everyone like the decor, were there enough of those yummy appetizers?.. the list goes on. We are here to tell you that you aren’t crazy by any means and these emotions are so normal! Some advice that we give is that instead of trying to process every detail, talk to your spouse, friends and family and ask what they loved about the day. Seeing their excitement about those special moments can help you to put things into perspective a bit.

Our last bit of advice is to stay in touch with your wedding vendors because we truly enjoyed the process of getting to know you. It is such a blessing to get to see each new milestone in our couple’s lives and to cheer you on long after your wedding day!

Photo via Pops of Pretty

If you are reading this while you are newly engaged or in the early stages of your planning, keep these words of advice handy but also know that you can take breaks in your planning process to just enjoy being a couple. You don’t have to have a stressful experience, because at the end of the day life does go on after ‘I Do’ and it really can be fun to just enjoy each phase of planning!

XOXO - The 530 Bride