HOW TO START PLANNING A WEDDING
The first things to do after saying “yes” — without trying to plan everything at once
You’re engaged. You’ve celebrated, stared at the ring approximately 400 times and probably already have a camera roll filled with wedding inspiration. Now comes the question almost every newly engaged couple asks: where do we actually start?
Planning a wedding can feel overwhelming because there are suddenly hundreds of decisions competing for your attention.
Venue or date first? When do invitations go out? Do you need a wedding planner? When should you book a photographer? And exactly how early is too early to start thinking about stationery?
The good news is that you don’t need to plan your entire wedding today.
You just need to make the right first decisions, in the right order.
Here’s where we’d start.
01. ENJOY BEING ENGAGED
Before opening a spreadsheet, creating a wedding email address or requesting 14 venue brochures, give yourself a minute.
Getting engaged is a milestone in itself.
Tell your people. Celebrate. Have the champagne. Take the photos.
There will be plenty of time for logistics.
You don’t need to have a wedding date three days after getting engaged.
02. HAVE THE BIG CONVERSATION
Before you start looking at venues, sit down together and talk about what you actually want your wedding to feel like.
Not what Pinterest says you should have.
Not what your parents expect.
And not what the last five weddings you attended looked like.
Ask yourselves:
Big or intimate?
Formal or relaxed?
City, country or destination?
Traditional or completely your own?
Lunch, cocktail or sit-down dinner?
You don’t need every detail figured out.
You’re simply creating the framework that will make all the decisions that follow much easier.
03. SET A REALISTIC BUDGET
It’s not the most romantic part of wedding planning, but it may be the most important.
Before booking anything substantial, establish roughly what you’re comfortable spending — and whether anyone else will be contributing.
Then think about your priorities.
Maybe the venue and food are everything to you.
Maybe you’ve always wanted incredible photography.
Perhaps flowers, fashion, entertainment or beautiful stationery are the details you’ve dreamed about.
Your budget doesn’t need to be divided equally.
Spend more on the things that matter to you and simplify the things that don’t.
04. WRITE YOUR FIRST GUEST LIST
You don’t need everyone’s middle name and postal address just yet.
You do need an approximate number.
Your guest count influences almost everything: the venue, catering, stationery quantities and ultimately your overall budget.
Start with your absolute must-haves, then build out from there.
And remember: there is an enormous difference between planning a wedding for 60 people and planning one for 180.
Knowing your approximate number before falling in love with a venue can save a lot of heartache later.
05. FIND YOUR VENUE
Now the wedding starts to feel real.
Your venue will establish your date, location and often the overall aesthetic of your celebration.
When comparing venues, look beyond the beautiful photos.
Consider capacity, inclusions, wet-weather options, ceremony locations, accommodation, transport, catering requirements and what furniture or styling is already included.
And pay attention to the feeling of the space.
Can you picture your people there?
If the answer is yes, you’re getting somewhere.
06. LOCK IN YOUR KEY SUPPLIERS
Once you have your date and venue, start securing the suppliers who can only service a limited number of weddings each day.
Think:
Photographer · Videographer · Celebrant · Planner or stylist · Florist · Entertainment · Hair & makeup
If there is someone whose work you’ve followed for years and you absolutely want them involved, enquire early.
Popular wedding suppliers can book well in advance, particularly for Saturdays and peak wedding season.
You don’t need to book every tiny detail immediately.
Secure the people who matter most first.
07. CREATE YOUR WEDDING STYLE
Now for the fun part.
Start collecting imagery that represents how you want the wedding to feel, rather than simply collecting individual things you like.
Look for recurring themes.
Maybe you keep saving crisp white tables with black typography.
Perhaps everything is soft, romantic and tonal.
Maybe you’re drawn to rich burgundy, chocolate and olive tones.
Or perhaps you love classic European styling with beautiful paper, candlelight and abundant flowers.
Your venue should play a role here too.
The strongest wedding styling doesn’t fight against the space — it works with it.
08. THINK ABOUT YOUR STATIONERY EARLY
Your invitations are one of the first tangible pieces of your wedding your guests will experience.
Before the flowers.
Before the dress.
Before the tablescape.
They quietly tell your guests what kind of celebration they’re about to attend.
Once your venue and date are confirmed, you can begin thinking about your stationery suite.
That might include:
Save the dates · Invitations · Details cards · Envelopes · RSVP information · Wedding website details
Later, that same design direction can flow into your venue stationery — menus, place cards, seating charts, welcome signage, table numbers and bar menus.
At Paper Chic, we love considering the entire stationery journey from the beginning so everything feels connected rather than pieced together at the last minute.
09. DON’T TRY TO BOOK EVERYTHING AT ONCE
This is where wedding planning can become unnecessarily stressful.
You don’t need to choose your cake, first-dance song, napkin colour and welcome sign in the same week you book your venue.
Work in stages.
Start with the decisions that affect everything else:
Budget → Guest List → Venue → Date → Key Suppliers → Style → Invitations
Then move into the finer details.
A wedding is made up of hundreds of decisions, but very few of them need to be made on the same day.
10. REMEMBER WHAT YOU’RE ACTUALLY PLANNING
It’s incredibly easy to become consumed by what a wedding is supposed to look like.
But the most memorable weddings aren’t necessarily the ones with the most flowers, the biggest budget or every current trend.
They’re the ones that feel like the couple.
Choose the traditions you love.
Skip the ones you don’t.
Invest in the details you care about.
And don’t add something simply because you’ve been told every wedding needs it.
You aren’t planning a Pinterest board. You’re planning a celebration with the people you love most.
YOUR WEDDING PLANNING STARTING POINT
If you’ve just become engaged and have absolutely no idea where to begin, remember this order:
Celebrate the engagement.
Then establish your budget and approximate guest list.
Find the venue.
Set the date.
Book your most important suppliers.
Develop the visual direction.
Then start bringing all those beautiful details together.
And somewhere along the way, your wedding will stop feeling like a collection of bookings and start feeling like your wedding.
AND WHEN YOU’RE READY FOR THE PAPER…
Your stationery is where all those decisions begin to take visual form.
At Paper Chic, we design and print wedding invitations and venue stationery in-house, creating considered pieces that carry your wedding style from the very first envelope through to the final place setting.
Because the smallest details often become the ones you remember.
PAPER CHIC
Wedding Invitations · Save the Dates · Venue Stationery · Signage · Bespoke Design
Designed & printed in Melbourne.