Hitched welcomes you to our wedding planning guide with links to material throughout the site. We hope that this can act as a checklist, keeping you organized throughout the wedding process Furthermore; this detailed guide can provide you with useful information on all aspects involved in wedding planning. Enjoy the guide and we wish you all the best on the big day!
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Wedding are becoming increasingly expensive and so it is important to establish a reasonable budget beforehand and be realistic about the costs of a wedding. It is also very important that when you set your budget for the big day, you must stick to it. By adding extras that you did not originally include along the way, the costs will certainly mount up. Visit our wedding diary planner to help you work out an ideal budget for your wedding and tips on how to stick to that budget.
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When considering your wedding date, you must ensure that you’re chosen venue coincides with that date. Although it is good to have an ideal venue of perfect date in mind, this could limit your choices. We can provide you with a very useful venue finder, with an endless number of venues across South Africa to choose from, many of which would be ideal for your special day. Once the date is set and the venue confirmed, hopefully all other pieces of your wedding will begin to fall into place. A further aspect of picking a wedding venue to consider is whether the venue also has a hotel for guests to stay in, this may help you narrow down our exhaustive list of venues to help you choose the right one. Visit our wedding venues pages for more information.
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Weddings amount to quite a lot of money nowadays and so we advise getting wedding insurance to put your mind at ease. There are many venues that do not book a wedding unless you and your partner have taken out insurance on it; hopefully this provides extra incentive for you both. Feel free to visit our wedding insurance section for more information.
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Choosing your wedding rings can be a fun and intimate experience for you both and should be a reflection of your personalities. Our wedding rings section offers advice on everything wedding-ring related, with details about shapes, colours, sizes and gems and what to look for when shopping for the most significant piece of jewellery you will ever purchase.
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Step 5: Your Guest List
The budget, as determined in step 1 and the venue, determined in step 2, will both have an impact on choosing your guest list for the wedding. This limit will make it much easier for you to compile a guest list with having to worry about having hundreds of attendees. Begin with those closest to you and work your way down until you come to your limit. It is suggested that 75% of your guest list will be easy to decide as it will mostly contain close family and friends. The final 25% will be slightly more difficult as it will mean having to choose between certain people, you are your partner will need to work closely together for this part of the invite list. There will of course, be some people you just can’t not have there and so there should be no question as to whether to invite them or not. Writing a guest list does take quite a bit of time and it will be a difficult time for you but there is no better feeling than when you have that final guest list prepared.
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Choosing the wedding dress will be a very emotional time for any bride as she has probably dreamed of it since dressing up for a pretend wedding when she was just a little girl. We have many reliable wedding dress stockists who have many tricks up their sleeve to help you in finding the perfect dress to compliment both your figure and the style of your wedding. Visit our suppliers section for an extensive list of bridal wear shops throughout South Africa.
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Many relatives will hopefully be aware of your upcoming wedding through the announcement of you and your partner and the excitement of your friends. Making it official is an exciting step and sending out invitations is a perfect way of saying to your friends and your family that you want them there for one of the most important events in your life. There are endless pieces of stationery to choose from, all coming in different designs, style and wonderful colours. Thank you cards, place cards, order of service cards all need to be considered when choosing your wedding invitations. Ordering in bulk from one supplier will significantly lower the cost. Visit our suppliers section where you will find a long list of suppliers to choose from. It is also important to keep in mind that your stationery should ideally match the colour theme for your wedding and should be sent on behalf of the bride’s parents.
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Take a break from the stress of planning your wedding and enjoy setting the plans in motion for booking your honeymoon. This is a good chance to spend some time with your fiancé and plan a honeymoon that caters to both your needs. Ensuring that your passports, visas and any other necessary pieces of information are up to date is the very first step. The bride’s name does not need to be changed on the passport until after the honeymoon. Once this is taken care of and a destination is chosen, you will need to do some research into the country where you are staying regarding visas, as they may have customs and protocols that you are not aware of.
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Not too many more steps to go now and the photographer is the next one after booking your honeymoon. This is another important part as the photos taken at the wedding will be a lasting reminder of your special day and will be shared with friends and family for the rest of your lives. A good photographer is like gold dust and when you see the undoubtedly beautiful pictures, you will be glad you did some research when choosing a photographer for your big day. Flowers, the design of the wedding cake and the wedding car should all be considered around this time also.
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Receiving wedding gifts at the reception can be a very fun part of the wedding process and is a small reward for you and your partner after all the effort you have put in. These gifts will be mainly decided by you, which makes creating a gift list an essential part of the wedding planning process. They are your safety net for ensuring that you do not end up with ten toasters and four sets of crockery. Allow your guests some peace of mind when choosing your gift as they will know that it is useful to you because it is an item you included in your wedding gift list. Follow this link for more help on composing a wedding gift list.
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Now that your wedding invites have been ordered and received, you are ready to send them out. Obviously, the sooner the better but a good time guide is 8 weeks before the wedding date. For guests that are coming from overseas, 12 weeks before the big day is an ideal time to send out the invites. Allowing this much time gives you the opportunity to wait for replies and make any necessary adjustments to the guest list should some people not be able to attend. It is helpful to create a reserve list to fill any empty places.
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The stag and hen parties are an infamous tradition and are chance for the bride and groom to experience one last night as a single person. The best man will traditionally organise the stag party, as will the bridesmaid for the hen party. These are often wild parties with a lot of drinking and dancing the night away. Although many stag and hen parties have been held the night before the wedding, we advise that you have yours the weekend before the wedding, as there is nothing worse than being hung-over on your special day. Elaborate and extreme stag and hen parties can be planned depending on your budget left over after everything for the wedding day has been taken care of.
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The finishing touches will largely depend on how the previous 12 steps have unfolded. Every wedding will run differently as each one is unique and so your finishing touches may be slightly different to the ones we have listed below. Commonly, seating plans, speeches, poems, readings, rehearsals, transportation, thank you gifts and favours will need to be given a final check to ensure everything is as it is supposed to be. Log in to our forums for any questions you may need answering. You will find a very helpful community on there who we are sure, will help you in any way they can with any concerns you may have about your impending wedding. We wish you both all the best and hope you have a truly wonderful wedding and magical honeymoon!
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