Hi and welcome to Whimsical Wonderland Weddings, a daily wedding blog providing daily wedding inspiration in the form of real wedding reports, engagement shoots, inspiration shoots and much more. You can stay updated via my facebook page, or through twitter or you can sign up to the RSS feed. Don’t forget to check out the vendor love page for some amazing wedding suppliers.

One of the most asked questions i receive from bride’s is about how to have a fabulous wedding on a small budget. So i thought i would create a post dedicated to budget weddings. With some of my top tips.

Firstly, let me show you some links to budget weddings on the blog, i want to do this so you can see for yourself you can have a gorgeous budget wedding…

{real budget weddings}

♥ One of my favourite weddings i have featured on {www} was Gemma and Dan’s DIY homespun farm wedding, with a budget of £3000. It is gorgeous, packed full of details. Gemma has provided a very thorough report on the day and how they planned it. Thinking outside of the box is key, with a free reception space and plenty of DIY details to cut costs. Budget needn’t be lacklustre and this amazing couple prove that.

♥ Dave and Karen’s Beautiful. Budget. Wedding. was another gorgeous day. The couple had a budget of £1000 would you believe!!?? It was a small affair with a focus on love. Karen looks beautifully boho and her dress was from the high street, but you’d never guess.

♥ This Jenny Packham bride cut costs by buying her dream dress second hand, drafting in relatives to help and making lots of the wedding details herself.

♥ Emily and Jeremy had a gorgeous fresh countryside wedding, but had their reception at their local village hall. It was gorgeous, and undoubtly saved them some £’s. Look for village halls with character, open space or newly built ones in your area.

Now don’t get me wrong a budget wedding is not an easy option, you will have to do a lot of work to save money. But it will be so worth it in the end, and the sense of pride you will have in knowing you created your day alone will be amazing.

All images below are from the above weddings :-)

Now lets take a look at the details a little closer and let me share my top budget saving tips… (more…)

Hi and welcome to Whimsical Wonderland Weddings, a daily wedding blog providing daily wedding inspiration in the form of real wedding reports, engagement shoots, inspiration shoots and much more. You can stay updated via my facebook page, or through twitter or you can sign up to the RSS feed. Don’t forget to check out the vendor love page for some amazing wedding suppliers.

After the success of the previous two wedding planning tools on the blog, i am continuing in the series. I think it is agreed that one of the first things to consider in your wedding planning is of course the venue.

When it comes to your venue hunt, decide your vision for the day. If you think outside the box you could find a real gem which isn’t a conventional wedding venue, but be prepared to put the work in. If you are flexible with your date, whether it be low season {winter apart from Christmas} a weekday or last minute, you could find a real bargain.

So i have compiled a comprehensive list of everything you could ever think of when searching for a wedding venue, questions you should ask on a visit and a costings list.

Feel free to chop and change the resource as needed, and print out pages when you need them, take them to your appointments and pop them in your wedding folder.

There is a word version which can be used online or customised and a PDF version ready to print and go.

Wedding Venue Checklist WORD Version (1549)

Wedding Venue Checklist PDF Version (1757)

I hope you have found this useful. Please leave a comment, i’d love to know your thoughts for future wedding planning tool ideas. Feel free to leave any venue tips to couple’s below, where are you getting married, how did you discover your venue, and if you are already married do you have anything you wish you considered?

See below for the other wedding planning tools for download……

♥ Wedding Planning Timeline.

♥ Wedding Budget Planner.

Hi and welcome to Whimsical Wonderland Weddings, a daily wedding blog providing daily wedding inspiration in the form of real wedding reports, engagement shoots, inspiration shoots and much more. You can stay updated via my facebook page, or through twitter or you can sign up to the RSS feed. Don’t forget to check out the vendor love page for some amazing wedding suppliers.

Well after having a really interesting discussion this week on twitter over wedding planning timescales, i thought it would be the next logical step in the wedding planning tool series on the blog.

Several photographers have been receiving wedding enquiries as far in advance as 2012 and 2013. Some photographers take the bookings, while others will only book up to a year or eighteen months in advance.

So what should you do if you are recently engaged and planning a wedding years in advance? I understand that many couples have to plan so far in advance to save up for the wedding and to ensure their favourite vendors are available. While other’s are lucky enough to be able to plan a last minute wedding, whilst taking the risk that they may not get exactly what they wanted for their day or planning a budget day.

I would say the first thing to think about which is often the priciest is your venue, dates can get booked up very far in advance for popular wedding venues. Alternatively you can get last minute deals if you are flexible with your date. If you are having a service at a separate location, it’s best to arrange this too, so that the date is secure all round.

I think it’s best to prioritise what you want for your wedding day, whether you want the perfect dress, photographer, cake baker or florist. If they book up fast it may be worth an enquiry early on, but if they say they do not book up that far in advance, contact them once they open their diaries to get yourself booked in.

All in all i think each wedding planning journey is unique and so different.

If you are a vendor, how far in advance do you open your books? If you are planning a wedding or have planned a wedding, how far in advance are you arranging everything? I’d love to hear all of your opinions on this matter so vendors and couples know what to expect and avoid disappointment when planning their day.

I shall leave you with a little checklist and timeline i have constructed, it isn’t the gospel, so chop and change it where you will, it’s more of a reminder so that you don’t end up disappointed when planning your wedding. There is a PDF version for you to  print out and put into your wedding file and a fully customisable excel version for your pc. I hope you find it useful :-) Do let me know your thoughts ;-)

{www} Wedding Planner Timeline Checklist PDF (2749)

{www} Wedding Planner Timeline Checklist EXCEL (1848)

Hello, hello!! Welcome to {www} if it is your first visit, this little wedding blog updates daily, with some beautiful real weddings and much more, so do pop back from time to time :-) And if you are recently engaged then congratulations, i think you will find this particular post useful in the beginning of your planning journey.

I was thinking of some new feature ideas, when i thought, hold on, lets make {www} a one stop shop for brides and grooms. Let’s give my gorgeous {www}ers all the tools, hints and tips they need when planning their day. I am notoriously organised and love a good list, so to indulge in my obsessions i bring you the first of a series in new {www} wedding planning tools.

First up i have constructed a wedding budget planner for you all. I think the wedding budget is a sensible place to start, as let’s face it, you need to work out how much you have and what to spend it on. Take this list with a pinch of salt, you needn’t have everything on this list, it’s just a comprehensive guide so that you can consider your own wedding needs. I will be discussing wedding budgets on the blog soon, so stay tuned. But don’t be shy, you can contact me directly at whim.wond.wed @ gmail.com if you would like some help.

I have an excel version of the document which is fully interactive to use on your computer and i have a pdf version which can be printed out so you can pop it into your wedding planning folder and doodle all over ;-) See i covered all bases hehe!!

Don’t forget to check out the blog sponsors as potential wedding vendors for your big day! Now go download and start planning eeekkkkkk…..

{www} Wedding Budget Planner PDF Version (1966)

{www} Wedding Budget Planner Excel Version (1411)

I hope you found these useful, look out for more planning tools coming soon. If you encountered any problems with the downloads let me know, as i haven’t tried this before hehe!! Thanks, big love xoxo