Oh friends, we have an awesome guest post for you today! I SO wish I had more wedding planner friends when I got married because I would have loved for some of these tips! We’ve got Amanda of A Styled Fete back to give you 5 tips for planning your wedding!

Amanda is a co-owner of A Styled Fete which is a Fine Art Floral and Wedding Design Studio. Amanda was previously a wedding planner and has so much knowledge when it comes to making the entire wedding planning process go smoothly! She now helps brides create a cohesive wedding style through the creation of meaningful florals and wedding day details. At A Styled Fete, they love to create unique environments that illustrate your love story and ensure that each guest feels cared for.

Early in the planning process I tell all my brides to decide on their top 3. By this I mean that I want her, and her groom, to choose the top three things that are most important about their wedding celebration. Choosing early on what elements to focus in on make the planning process a lot less stressful because it has already been decided where time, energy and budget should be focused. A solid top three can range from hiring an amazing photographer to including a remembrance of family members who aren’t able to share in the celebration- big or little if its important to my couple I want to honor that element throughout.

So much wedding planning stress can be avoided by sitting down and having a few key conversations early on. I’m talking about the sometimes icky and uncomfortable chats that no one really wants to have. Talking as a couple about how your life will look after the wedding, sitting down with parents to get their guest list input and perhaps the most awkward of all… budget discussions. Before a date is set its important to put in the work and talk through these things. Making assumptions and not knowing where another party stands on important issues will cause problems and hiccups down the road- every.single.time.

When you find yourself in the world of wedding planning you will quickly learn that most major decisions revolve around numbers, firstly the guest count and secondly the budget. Establishing both of these figures at the start of the process helps eliminate a wider field of choice, which in the wedding space is a good thing. Knowing your numbers lets you focus in on choices that are going to be a good fit for you and your day.

Looking for decor ideas or vendors in your area? take to the internet and search by wedding and local hashtags. Pinterest will continue to be a great resource for image searching but what a lot of brides don’t realize is that many of those images have been kicking around for quite awhile and are recycled when someone else re-pins them. Searching on Instagram by hashtags will give you fresh content down to the second. For example #escortcards will inundate you with current trends and fun ideas for escort displays. #phillywedding and #PAwedding could help you find wedding venues in your area. Search for vendors by hashtags too; #phillyweddingplanner, #PAweddingphotographer will show pros who are out there actively working rather than linking you to someone who hasn’t updated their website in three years.

As a planner I natural love to plan out all of the details and keep on track with my timeline. An important reminder that I like to share with brides is that they should, however, leave room for magic. Having a game-plan is great, but having space for delightful unexpected moments can be truly amazing. Don’t plan your day-of timeline so tight that you aren’t able to enjoy the celebration and unexpected blessings.

Thank you so much Amanda for sharing these valuable tips!