Over the years I have spoken with many families and clients, brides & grooms about their wedding planning and a few common mistakes have transpired over the years which I am happy to write about with a view to future planning considerations when booking and planning a wedding or function and this will form the basis of my next few blogs. The first in this series is about your wedding ceremony timings:

I have written before in previous blogs about timings. The number 1 thing that will control your whole wedding day is the time of your wedding ceremony. With budgeting in mind, some couples will choose a late wedding ceremony of, say 5pm and book it with the vicar or registrar. The logic for this is understandable as the plan is usually to only have one meal to provide for the guests instead of, say, a wedding breakfast for the day guests and then an evening buffet/hog roast for the day & evening guests. Therefore, they can invite more guests and roll the wedding into the evening party with only one meal to provide at a much-reduced cost compared to a traditional wedding breakfast and thus save a considerable amount of money.

So, what is the problem you may ask? There is no problem with this plan. It’s your wedding and you can plan it whichever way suits you best. However, the mistake can arise when there is a change of your ideas and plans and a regret that an earlier wedding would give you the chance to enjoy a whole special day with all your family and friends instead of cramming a magical memorable day into a late afternoon and evening. But it’s too late as the registrar or vicar is booked, the invitations have been sent out and everything is planned off that ceremony time.

So, the advice is, plan your wedding whichever way suits you best, but make sure it is what you truly want. If it’s not quite what you want because of possible costs and you cannot quite afford what you want, then if possible, wait a year. Save up a bit more and have the wedding that you truly want so there are no regrets.