10 Useful Wedding Planning Tips from Experts

There’s no doubt that planning a wedding is incredibly exciting, it’s a once in a lifetime experience, after all. But for the same reason, the process can be an incredibly stressful one. While you can’t control everything that happens on your wedding day, there are preparations you can make in order to ensure that your big day runs as smoothly as possible. The good news is, you’re not the first person in the world to host a wedding, and after hosting hundreds at The Grove at Centerton, our team of experts has developed a core list of 10 useful wedding planning tips to guide you to the aisle.

1 – Set up a wedding website.

Set up a wedding website using a platform such as The Knot or WeddingWire. This way, all the important information about your big day will be posted in one central location that you can easily share with guests, vendors, and members of your bridal party. You can funnel questions and concerns to your website and free yourself from answering constant text messages, calls & emails.

2 – Create a separate email inbox.

We recommend creating a separate email inbox for your wedding communications. This way, it will be easy to reference messages coming from your guests including gift registry alerts, organize your vendor communications, and keep track of order confirmations. Be sure to send messages from this email address & use it to register for your wedding website to keep things consistent.

3 – Hire a wedding planner.

Wedding planners have lived and worked through countless wedding days, so it’s a no-brainer that hiring one for your big day will be a major stress reliever. They handle all the details and make sure that your vision is executed to perfection. They coordinator vendor drop-offs and so much more. If you choose to get married at The Grove, a private wedding event space in NJ, an experienced wedding coordinator is included in your package.

4 – Order extra invitations.

Invitations are often sold in sets, but we recommend ordering about 20% more than you think you need. It’s nice to have extras on hand for invites that get lost in the mail, last-minute guest-list additions, and in case any invitations are damaged during delivery.

5 – Use flowers sparingly.

Floral arrangements can get really expensive, really fast, and while they add elegance, they may be overlooked by guests and unnecessary in certain places. Consider using venue-provided decorations to accent the bar and bathrooms to save on cost so that you can focus your budget on your bridal bouquet, boutonnieres, and aisle runners. Being open-minded about flower choices and substituting a more cost-effective option in place of costly ones can help you save without sacrificing on style.

6 – Consider a “cutting cake.”

A cutting cake is a small cake that allows you to partake in the classic cake cutting in front of all of your guests without the need to produce a several tier cake to feed the crowd. You can still save the top layer for your one-year anniversary, plus you may be able to select more daring flavors in a sheet cake than you could for a less stable tiered one.

7 – Choose edible wedding favors.

Edible wedding favors are great for a variety of reasons: guests can enjoy them as a late-night snack to fuel their dancing, out-of-town guests don’t have to worry about breakage during travel, and you don’t have to worry if it matches everyone on your guest lists’ aesthetic preferences. Consider cookies, chocolates, or even airplane bottles of your favorite alcohol for guests over 21.

8 – Allow time for clothing rentals.

Many rental locations will ask men to pick up their suits and jackets the day before the wedding. However, this does not allow adequate time to address mistakes, if any have been made. We recommend choosing a formal wear company that provides an earlier delivery/pick-up date or one that schedules in a final fitting approximately 2 weeks out from the wedding.

9 – Communicate with your vendors.

As long as you do your research and reference your venues vetted vendor list, you should have no problem communicating with them clearly about your preferences. But -they only know as much as you tell them, so be honest about what you like and don’t like in order to achieve the look your envisioning and avoid frustration.

10 – Provide accurate & detailed directions.

Nowadays, people rely on GPS, but you should always triple check your directions. Make sure all direction cards provided to guests are accurate, easy to follow, and clearly posted on your wedding website for reference.

Your wedding is a once in a lifetime event and it should exceed your every expectation. Make your special day the best it can be at The Grove, a rustic farmhouse situated in quaint woodland surroundings. Contact us today to learn about our inclusive wedding packages.