Putting together a wedding can be a daunting task. It seems like there’s a million details to coordinate and not enough time to do it all. There’s an old saying – plan your work and work your plan. This is never more true than with something as large as a wedding.
  Accept Congratulations, Couple |
I know with my own wedding, having a solid plan in place ahead of time made all the difference in the world. From the day my husband proposed to our wedding day was just 93 days. Yet we had a beautiful wedding with a dinner for 120 guests. I made all of our invitations, decorations, flowers and favors. Shopping was not stressful because I already knew what I was looking for. In fact, the entire process was not stressful. I absolutely loved putting together my wedding. I credit that all to my plan. Here’s how to develop your own wedding plan.
- Pray. First and foremost. As a Christian, your wedding is more than a legal union. It is also a spiritual union. Jesus commanded that no man separate what God has joined together. God is joining you and your future spouse together as one and, as such, He is the guest of honor at your wedding. When I realized that my husband was going to propose any day now, I started asking God His vision for my wedding. By the time we were ready to start formalizing plans, I had a clear picture of the wedding. I wasn’t worried about my husband agreeing with it – which he did – because it was from God. I knew we would have unity.
- Write down the vision. At this point, don’t focus too much on specifics. Whether your bouquet is white roses or carnations is not important at this point in the planning – unless you have always had your heart set on roses. Then, by all means, write that down. Your goal is to have a general plan to guide the specific decisions you’ll be making down the road. If you’ve already decided that you want to get married in your church, there is no reason to look at parks. Here are some questions to help you.
- What season and approximate date?
- Where? What city? In church? A park?
- What time of day? Candlelight?
- How formal?
- What theme or color scheme?
- What special elements do you want to include? Unity candle? Unity sand? Cord of three?
- How large or small?
- Will you have a dinner?
- Dancing? Alcohol?
- What will you use for your get-away car? Or horse?
- What about a honeymoon?
- Prioritize your vision. Some items on this list will be more important to you than others. For me, I didn’t care about the get-away car so we used my husband’s Jeep. At the same time, when a family member suggested we get married in another city, I adamantly objected. It was essential to me that we get married in my church and I refused to consider any other options. Knowing up front what elements are non-negotiable for you will free up your mind for the other decisions that need to be made.
The goal of this exercise is to develop a general framework for your wedding. You don’t have to select all of your wedding favors right now but you do need to make the major decisions. Once you have the framework in place, filling in the pieces is much easier and less stressful.
