Your wedding is one of the most important days of your lives, and of course you want it to be special. The more time you have to plan for your wedding the more finer details can be added, but if you want to be married quickly, some of the extras may need to be left out. There are six basic areas to cover; all of which are important to you and your guests enjoying the day.

Once you have the date set, create a budget. Sit down with whoever is paying for your wedding day and have an honest, frank discussion about how much you will be allowed to spend. From there you can decide what is most important to you, the priorities and what can be ignored. Once your budget is set, it is in stone. The beginning of your marriage will go much smoother if you are not arguing with your new spouse, parents, or in-laws over money. Try not to go into debt for your wedding day; you’ll enjoy your wedding so much more if you are not worrying how you are going to make the payments on it.

Now that your budget is created, you’ll need to decide who, what, and where. Who are you going to invite: close family and friends, just family, or your extended family, friends, and acquaintances? Keep in mind that the more people you invite the more expensive your wedding day will be. You will need to find a space that can accommodate the people on your guest list too, so the larger your list is, the larger the space must be, and again the amount of space you are going to rent can cost you a little or a lot. Another consideration is one venue or two; will you have your ceremony and reception together or in different locations? If you are planning on having your ceremony in your church, you will have to have your reception elsewhere; otherwise you can probably have the two on the same premises.

Next you are going to want to hire the wedding vendors and service providers will help you make your day special. Rome was not built by one person alone, and neither will your wedding day. Your budget, choice of venue(s), and the type of ceremony you have will determine who you need to help you, but a general list is: a wedding planner/coordinator, stationer, officiant, caterer, deejay/band/other entertainment, florist, wedding photographer, and a car hire company. If your budget is smaller, you will want to cut some of these people out, and/or do some of the jobs yourselves, but only you can decide which people are indispensable. When hiring these people, be sure to read your contracts carefully, since they may cover areas that will save you money or they may have rules about who they are willing to work with.

If you are doing some, or most of the work yourself, do as much as you can ahead of time. Waiting to do a job until the last minute will cause you undue stress and make your wedding day seem like a chore and not a joy. Also be sure to recruit help; doing a job with friends and family is always more fun than by yourself, and the work goes quicker with many hands instead of just two.

Remember, what your wedding day is like is entirely is up to you, it’s your day after all. Taking the stress out of the day is easy if you plan things well in advance. You now know the basics to a wedding, so make a budget and a checklist, and make your day yours.

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