A wedding is a beautiful celebration of your love surrounded by family and friends. Ever since you were a child, you may have dreamed of having a perfect wedding with elegant lights and decorations. Because the best weddings often require a great deal of coordination and planning, there are a few aspects that you should expect to splurge on to have a beautiful event.

The Venue

Choosing a wedding venue is crucial to your special day. This is because the venue helps set the ambiance for your event. On average, couples can spend between $12k and $14k for a venue. Of course, that average factors in very pricey venues that may be out of your budget. Make sure you know what you can afford and what you want to spend on your venue. Once that is determined, start searching for a venue as soon as possible. Booking a venue early helps ensure that venues within your budget range aren’t overbooked or unavailable by the time you start looking.

Catering

If you are having a more traditional wedding reception, you will probably be feeding your guests a full meal. Food is a great way to bring people together and help them enjoy your special day with you and with each other. You should avoid messy foods at your wedding in favor of simple yet elegant foods, especially since your guests are likely to be dressed up in more expensive clothing. While you certainly can prepare the food yourself, most choose to spend the money for a catering service so they can focus on other aspects of the occasion. For high-quality, delicious, and elegant food, expect to pay a fair amount for catering.

Attire

One of the more obvious wedding expenses is a wedding dress. The average price for a wedding dress is a few thousand dollars. However, as with all other expenses, this number is subject to change based on your preferences. You can find a quality dress for a fraction of that price if you have adequate time to search. The price of a wedding dress will increase with the intricacy of the dress if it is being specially designed, and alterations. While a bride’s wedding dress is often the most expensive attire of the event, it is not the only clothing that needs to be purchased. Make sure to factor in tuxedos, secondary outfits to change into, bridesmaid dresses, and any other attire costs when budgeting your wedding.

Before spending any money on a wedding, you first need to figure out how much you have and want to spend. Once you have a budget, shop around to browse different venues, catering, and attire options. Taking time to make quality purchases for your wedding can help you and your guests thoroughly enjoy the special day.

Check out this article on alternatives to diamonds you should consider!

What to Expect to Spend the Most on at Your Wedding

While most people love their weddings, the months leading up to it can be incredibly stressful. There are dozens of decisions to be made when planning a wedding, and it’s hard to enjoy being engaged when you’re so busy trying to plan a wedding. When planning your wedding, try these tips to help the process be less stressful.

Delegate

When it comes to planning your wedding, the first thing you need to know is how to delegate. You want this day to be the happiest one of your life. To help this happen, you’re going to need a lot of help from loved ones and professionals alike. Instead of trying to do everything yourself, delegate some of the tasks to willing helpers. If you’re worried about things turning out poorly, you can even give them strict instructions. This is what bridesmaids and groomsmen are for. You can do this early on, as well. Give each bridesmaid and groomsman a task that they are in charge of. You can check-in with them regularly to ensure all goes well, but they will know from the beginning what they need to do. Don’t be afraid to ask your family for help as well.

Hire a Planner

Hiring a wedding planner can eliminate a lot of stress on your wedding day. A wedding planner ensures that every aspect of your wedding goes off without a hitch, while you get more flexibility to relax and enjoy being engaged. A planner can bring experience to the table to help you manage your wedding. Well-established wedding planners know exactly how to provide you with the highest quality on your wedding day. All you need to do is decide what you’d like, and your wedding planner will do everything in their power to provide it for you. If you have the time and budget to do so, a wedding planner is a surefire way to put your wedding over the edge.

Start Early

Many brides and grooms complain that the few months before the wedding are some of the most hectic. In the home stretch of wedding planning, everything needs to be finalized, and last-minute adjustments need to be made. However, if you begin planning your wedding in advance, some of this stress can be alleviated. It is much easier to find an opening at your perfect venue a year from now than it is a month from now. If you begin your planning early on in the engagement process, you can get some of the big decisions out of the way ahead of time. In fact, plan the wedding as much as possible and as early as you can. The fewer decisions you need to make in the weeks leading up to your wedding, the more you’ll be able to just enjoy yourself.

Planning a wedding can be hectic, but the payoff is well worth the extra stress. However, there are small steps you can make to make the process much less stressful as a whole. Try out these tips to take the stress out of planning your wedding.

Check out this article on what you need to know before getting married in another country!

Elements That Make Your Wedding More Memorable.

Weddings can be wonderful experiences that you’ll forever want to live in your memory – and they can also sometimes be disasters. Beyond making sure that your wedding goes smoothly, you’re going to want to make it memorable. Here are a few small but meaningful ways to make that happen.

Great Food

This one is critical. Why? Odds are your guests are going to be hungry. Skimping on the cost of food means leaving everyone – not only your guests, but you and your future spouse as well – either dissatisfied or, at worse, cranky and hungry. Having high-quality food in abundance is the key to making sure that everyone is enjoying themselves. Look into your local options. Are there tasty places that cater? What about places that both you and your future spouse enjoy, that offer diverse options to accommodate different kinds of dietary needs? Choose carefully and well ahead of time.

Having Your Favorite People There

This one is really what’s important. No matter what small (or big) mishaps take place, or whatever elements don’t work out precisely to your liking… the fact of the matter is, having the people you want to be there will make your wedding memorable. You and your future spouse are sharing a wonderful moment with your friends and family. This is about both of you, and it is about all of them – celebrating life. Make sure that you have everyone there that you really want to have. Writing out your wedding list can ensure you won’t miss anyone. Plan ahead and make accommodations as necessary.

Care and Attention

Many people have attended weddings with meticulously planned choreography, live music, incredible decorations, world-class gourmet food, and every kind of spectacle you can imagine. While you might have a strong vision for the grandeur of your wedding, you don’t need one. What you do need is to make sure that the people can tell that you put attention and care into making them feel welcome and happy. That can manifest in a lot of different ways – it might be making sure the chairs are all comfortable and in good repair. It might mean providing lighting and music that makes people feel a certain way. Whatever it is, it will be unique to you and your spouse.

There really isn’t any such thing as the perfect wedding. You will stress yourself out wildly trying to achieve the impossible. What you instead need to do is focus on what is most important. Focus on the people, on yourselves, and what is important to them.

Check out this article on what you need to know before getting married in another country!

Elements That Make Your Wedding More Memorable

The Size of the Event

The first critical decision that you need to make when planning your wedding is choosing the size of your event. Weddings can range from elopements with just a few guests and witnesses to hundreds or even thousands of people in attendance. The size of your event impacts nearly every aspect of your wedding, from venue to catering to budget and location considerations. The typical wedding has somewhere between seventy five and one hundred and fifty guests, but large weddings can involve hundreds of guests. Know who you want to share your wedding with early in the planning process.

An Indoor v. Outdoor Venue

Another crucial decision that you will have to make when planning your wedding day is whether you want to have an indoor or outdoor venue. Both indoor and outdoor venues can be beautiful and host truly spectacular weddings, but there are definitely advantages and disadvantages to each. An indoor venue will be ideal if the weather is bad on your wedding day. If you choose to go with an outdoor venue, make sure you ask what backup plans they have in the event of inclement weather on your special day.

Wedding Location

The final critical decision that you need to make when planning your wedding is the wedding location. Not to be confused with venue, location is simply the area of the world or country that you are hosting your wedding. Some people really want to have a destination wedding somewhere unique, but no this is a large expense for guests and will mean a smaller wedding. If you want to make things easy for friends and family to attend, consider a location nearby to where your friends and family live.

Planning a wedding can be one of the most stressful things you do in your entire life. But if you know the right decisions to make early, you can make things easier for yourself. Make these three decisions and your wedding planning will start to fall into place.

Read this next: Wedding Trends Every Young Couple Should Know About

Work Out the Logistics

The first element of an international wedding that can be complicated is simply figuring out the logistics of the whole situation. You need to figure out how you and your guests will get there and how you will take care of elements like a photographer and catering. Some of those elements may be taken care of at your venue, but if there is a specific photographer you want, you should figure out how much you are willing to budget to get them to your wedding. Once the logistics are taken care of, you can focus on the more fun parts of wedding planning.

Legal Requirements

It’s also important that you understand the legal requirements that can be involved with international weddings. Some countries require you to reside there for a certain period of time before getting married. And sometimes your marriage won’t be legal back in the US unless you make proper arrangements for a marriage certificate back home. Take time to do your research so you know what requirements you need to meet for your marriage to be legal when you return to the US after your wedding.

Get a Wedding Planner

If you want to enjoy your wedding with as little stress as possible, it will help to have a wedding planner on hand. They can guide you through the process and take care of many of the more complicated details. If you choose a wedding planner who specializes in international destination weddings, it will be even easier. They will have the knowledge and experience to plan an amazing wedding in the location of your choice.

Your international destination wedding will be an event to remember. And if you take the time to plan it carefully, you can have an incredible time exploring a new country with the person you love. Get some help with the process so you don’t have to stress more than necessary and can focus on your beautiful day.

Check out this article on the wedding trends every young couple should know about!