Congratulations on your engagement! You must be excited to start planning your wedding but do not know to do and where to start. To help you start at the right footing, here are the first few things you should do.

The first thing you need to do is get a good sense of the type of wedding you and your future spouse wants. Below is a set of questions to serve as a guideline for discussion between you and your future spouse to help you to narrow down your choices.

1. Do you want the traditional wedding/reception, or something different such as private ceremony and larger reception, or destination wedding and party afterward? If you’re getting married in the Philippines, expect your parents to insist on a traditional wedding/reception but of course the last say is always yours.

2. Do you want your ceremony/reception to be indoor or outdoor? If you want an outdoor event, how will rain and toilets be handled? Is it in a 5-star hotel or your family’s ancestral home? Garden wedding or destination wedding? Be sure to schedule your wedding during the drier season or summer. The formality of your wedding will be reflected first and foremost in your invitation, second will be the location. Your dream wedding will fall into place when you decide where you what to get married and celebrate your union.

3. Do you want morning, afternoon or evening wedding? Formal or informal?  If you’re going all-out formal, you might appear in a classic long gown with train and your fiance can wear a classic piña barong tagalog or a suit, with guests in evening dresses and barong tagalog. At an informal wedding, almost anything goes.

4. Do you want a traditional reception or just a party? Traditional receptions would include the usual ceremonies like cake cutting, toasts, first dance, garter and bouquet throwing etc.. The program can vary depending on your taste. Some of our clients decided not to have the traditional dances and garter-bouquet ceremony.

5. Do you want a wedding entourage or just one person to stand up with you?
Now is the time to honor family and friends who have been with you during your ups and downs by making them part of your wedding entourage. If they agree to be part of your wedding party, you might want to ask them to help you with your wedding preparations. So who do you choose?  People who have touched your life, best friends, childhood buddies, siblings, a mentor or coach. You are not obligated to include your siblings if you are really not that close to them.

6. What is the maximum number of guests you will accept? When creating a guest list, you’ll have to consider the venue and food. Do you want an intimate wedding of 50 guests or a once-in-a-lifetime party for all your friends and family? Are you tight with the budget?  Obviously, the more people you must invite, the larger your list will be. And more guests, means more cash, as food is generally calculated on a per-head basis. So in addition to location, your budget will be a strong determiner.

7. Do you want dancing?  Do you want a live band or a DJ? You definitely hate guests who would just eat and run on your wedding day. Give them more reason to stay by having a live band or a DJ to play songs that everyone can dance to. If you think your guests are shy, hire a dance instructor to get everyone dancing.

8. Do you want a sit-down dinner, buffet dinner, or just standing reception?  The type of service will affect the price tag. Formality: the more formal the wedding, the more expensive. Ultra-formal affairs take place in the evening, and you’ll have to match the site, food, and music to the overall feel and look. Date and time: Certain months and times of day tend to be pricier (December to February; weekends). Food: Dinner usually costs more than breakfast, and seated service is more than a buffet. Location: Celebrations in 5-star hotels are obviously going to cost more than garden receptions at Intramuros.

9. Do you want kids at your wedding? How do you envision their participation – hanging out with their parents or separate entertainment provided for them? This is something you should consider since you wouldn’t want to have kids running around as if your wedding reception is a children’s party. You can provide activity materials or a playpen to keep them entertained.

10. Where do you want the ceremony, church or reception site? For Catholic and INC weddings, you are limited to just having your ceremony inside the house of worship. Christian weddings can be held outside the church such as a garden, hotel or beach. If you decide to have your wedding ceremony at your reception site, this can actually save you money, time and effort.

11. How far from the reception to the wedding site will you accept? With so much traffic, going around the Metro can take so much of ones’ time and energy. Try to find venues that are close to each other so that you and your guests won’t feel so stressed when you reach the reception site.  

12. What is the maximum you want to pay for your wedding? A wedding budget is absolutely essential to planning your wedding. One of the best things to do right from the very start is to discuss who is going to pay for what or how much of a contribution, if any, parents are willing to make. Traditionally the bulk of the costs falls on the groom’s family but things have changed. Recent studies show that about 50% (if not 100%) of weddings are now paid for by the bride and groom, 30% by the groom’s family and about 15% are paid for by everyone contributing in varying degrees. Visit Before I Do to download our “Wedding Budget Planner” to help you compare vendors and identify who will fit your budget.

We hope this has helped you get things started. If you are based overseas or needs a little more help in planning your wedding, feel free to email us at simply.beautiful.events@gmail.com.