Plan A Wedding With Us! Part 1

by Joconde Team

Congratulations! You have recently become engaged, celebrated your new commitment and now are ready to start planning your big day!

Where should you start? We think it is a very safe bet, that your first step in the planning process is hitting instagram, pinterest and maybe google for some ideas. We don't blame you! That IS where all the pretty stuff is. It is where you collect ideas and inspiration and even get to see what is out there and what is possible.

We have been a part of the wedding and event industry for more than 7 years, and we can share some tips on where to start and how to go about planning your wedding day.

Gather information & ideas

The best way to start the planning is to first have an idea of what you want to do! What do you want your wedding day experience to be like? Do you have a vision for the day? Have you been a wedding recently? what did you like? Or what would you want to do differently? These and so many other questions are what you need to consider first so you go into the next phase with some solid information. 

Instagram and pinterest are great resources for ideas and inspiration. But these are compilations of weddings from all over the world. So the best approach is to find local vendors in your area and have a look at their weddings too (or local vendors where you are going to have your wedding). Some things may be too far fetched for your local vendors ability and resources to pull off, or it may not be! Be sure before you have your heart set on anything you may not be able to get easily or realistically.

Hire a Planner / Coordinator / or any Helper

This ties in with the first stage too. During the information gathering phase! also find out who your local wedding planners or wedding coordinators are. It is best to seek out a few of them whose work you like. 

Hiring the right planner is honestly the best investment you can make to make sure you have the wedding you want. Based on what your vision is, they will put you in touch with all the other vendors that you need. They are the expert wedding people! This is what they do, so let them do it! 

If hiring a professional wedding planner is not an option, consider a day of coordinator. Most planners offer day of coordination services (which is more realistically month of coordination), and many of them offer a list of their preferred vendors when you hire them. So that quickly saves you hours and hours of finding and other wedding experts. The relationships your planner has with other vendors are built over years of collaboration so they are valuable to all vendors and [wink wink] a lot of wedding vendors treat these referrals with higher priority and flexibility.

Book your venue / Pick a Date

Booking a venue and picking a date go hand in hand. You might start with a date first and then book a venue that has availability on your date, or choose your favourite venue first and then choose one of their available dates. 

However you approach this, having a venue and a booked date is the first thing everyone asks to check their availability on your date and then to book your event.

Hire the rest of the team

Depending on your wedding, its size, your traditions, you will need to hire the following wedding professionals:

  • A wedding photographer 
  • An officiant
  • Wedding decorator/ designer/ rental
  • Cake designer / Wedding Bakery
  • Wedding videographer
  • Make up artist / Hair stylist
  • Dress designer / retailer
  • Suit designer / retailer
  • Jeweller / Jewelry designer
  • Florist
  • DJ / Band 
  • Caterer 

Here is a list of all our favourite wedding professional and vendors in BC, Lower Mainland and Vancouver area. Keep in mind, many of them are able to travel to our of town, or even internationally so if you like their work ask them if they are available for travel too. 

Trust your wedding professionals and wait for the big day! 

Once you have booked all your wedding vendors, you just need to trust them and the planning will become less hectic! you may have to occasionally follow up or confirm some details with some vendors depending on what they are doing, but generally things slow down until closer to the wedding date when you need to pay any remaining balances and finalize some details, but if you have a planner or a reliable coordinator they also help tie up any loose ends. 

Thanks to Belluxe Studios for the photos for this post

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