Wedding Checklist, 1 Year Before

Congratulations on your engagement!

Take time to savour the moment!  After all, not everybody gets the chance to marry the person they will spend the rest of their lives.

But, make sure to give yourself at least a year to prepare for the dream wedding you deserve.

The first item you need to decide on is your wedding date.  It is possible to plan a wedding with a shorter timeline, but you would have to compromise on a lot of things.  Some would allocate 2 years, but ideally, a year is good enough.

There are a lot of considerations in choosing the date.  

• Significance of the Date
• There are couples that chooses dates to coincide with their life milestone.  It can be an anniversary, birthdays, or holidays.  If the chosen date is non negotiable, its better to plan ahead to ensure the availability of other wedding essentials. 
• Outdoor or Indoor
• The climate in the Philippines is unpredictable.  It you choose an outdoor venue, make sure it falls on the peak months of summer, usually falling Mid-March to April, otherwise, plan for contingencies.
• Peak Months
• The peak for weddings is during December to January, but please take note of block off dates.   Some venues do not accept booking for Christmas and New Year Holidays.  Its best that you book your venue, church or ceremony, and other non negotiable suppliers ahead of time.   You can make initial block off payments as a guarantee.  Flowers are more expensive during Valentines Day, and expect a surcharge.
• Traditions and Beliefs
• Some conservative families postpone their wedding because of deaths or a wedding within the family.  Consult your elders and get approval. There's nothing wrong with ensuring positivity and luck on your wedding day.

While deciding on the date, try to visualise your dream wedding.  The best tool to do is to create a mood board.  I will be giving tips on creating a mood board on my succeeding blog entry.  In the meantime, try to collect photos from the internet with Google, Instagram or Pinterest.  Follow @brideguide.ph on instagram for some inspirations.

Randomly collect photos for the following items:

• Wedding Gown and Suit
• Entourage Gowns and Suite
• Bridal Bouquet 
• Entourage Flowers
• Church or Ceremony Arrangement and Flowers
• Reception Entrance
• Reception Photo Area
• Flower Centerpiece
• Presidential Table
• Overall Styling

This will help your stylist and florist get acquainted with your design aesthetics and style.  They could easily fill in the missing details and put it all together for you.

Once you're settled on the date, book your church if catholic, ceremony and reception venues for others.

Things to consider in choosing the church and ceremony venue:

1. Popular catholic churches gets booked fast as early as 18 months before, make sure to visit and block your date ahead of time.  
2. Secure church requirements on your visit and process the necessary documents.
3. Take note of church restrictions as to the set up, length of use, and external supplier guidelines.

Reception Venue Considerations:

1. For Christian Weddings, get a venue that could accommodate both.
2. Plan contingencies for outdoor venue.
3. Any venue outside of Metro Manila would entail an out of town fee for suppliers you would bring in.
4. Maximize local suppliers for destination weddings.  Make sure to provide airfare, meal allowance and accommodation for those coming with you.
5. Check the capacity, inclusions, and restrictions of the venue.
6. Some venues only allow accredited suppliers, run through them and choose the best option.
7. For Hotel and Venue Listings at www.brideguide.ph, click on the icon:

Hotel

Venue

This step will help you in preparing your budget.  Attending bridal fairs would gives you opportunity to get good deals and give you an idea on the suppliers prevailing rates.  Check out www.brideguide.ph for bridal fair schedules.

Book ahead suppliers that only accommodates one event per date, otherwise settle for their 2nd team.  These are the following:

• Photo and Video Coverage
• Wedding Planners
• Hair and Makeup
• Entertainment 
• Professional Emcees

The bulk of your budget would go to the food and venue, and the items discussed above.  By this time, you have an idea of your running cost, but still has quite a lot of items to cover.  Put a figure in each of the items.  Check where you would want to splurge and save.  Try to put a cap, but make sure you have provisions for contingencies and on the day and last minute purchases.  

Create your entourage lists.  Attached is the breakdown:

Principal Sponsors (Ninongs and Ninangs)

Maid of Honor and Best Man

Secondary Sponsors (3 Pairs, Candle, Cord, Veil)

Bridesmaid and Groomsmen

Flower Girls and Bearers

Parents and their Proxy

Decide on whether you will provide the gowns or will ask them to pay.  Once decided, send them a formal invite, inform them of the gown arrangement and wait for their confirmation.

Now that you know your bridal party, its time to decide on the colour palette.  Choose a range of colours that would match their built and complexion.  My tip if your undecided, is to collect photos of entourage gowns randomly.  From there, choose the common colours you see, and start with that.  Consult your gown designers for the accent colours.  Click on the icon to visit our designer listing for your bridal fashion requirements.

Bridal Fashion

Hiring a planner early on in the preparation helps in minimising mistakes.  They can help you decide on suppliers, plan your schedule, execute the program and ensure you get the best value for your money.  But if you have the time and want it to be as personalised as possible, they offer on the day services as well.  

Click on the icon for our complete list of wedding planners.

Wedding Planners