First things first: Who is paying for this joyous occassion?
I don’t think there’s an exact order of how things should be planned, but figuring out a few things first will make wedding planning much easier down the road.
I’d say the easiest place to start is figuring out who is going to be paying for the wedding.
Traditionally in American culture it’s been the bride’s side of the family who pays for the wedding and the groom’s side who pays for the rehearsal dinner. In some Asian cultures, the Groom’s family foots the entire bill. But these days there seems to be a more modern approach.
3 way split
- Bride and Groom pitch in 1/3
- Bride’s side pitch in 1/3
- Groom’s side pitch in 1/3
This usually means each party invites 1/3 of the guests as well.
Bride and Groom
- Bride and Groom pay
This option is for the couple who has been working at least a few years with some money of their own saved in the bank. Families seem to get a lot less involved (unless of course you want them to be) in the whole planning process.
Whatever I can get
- No set percentage of who pays for what
- Whatever the couple can get. Any help is a good thing.
The families can help out here and there by offering to pay for a rehearsal dinner or florist or photographer etc. The families may not be contributing evenly but the couple will be happy with whatever contributions their families can afford (or would like to give). If you pick this route, things should be discussed early on and agreed upon before starting to plan. One thing to be careful about is that the families may want to have more of a say on the items they are paying for which may not be a good thing for “certain” types of brides.
Every couple is different so there is definitely no wrong or right approach. From there you’ll be able to determine budget and start creating a very rough guest list. Happy wedding planning!
