Stress Free Wedding Planning Tips: When & Where -

Sarah Tugwell of Sprinkle of Magic Wedding Planners and I have put our heads together to produce a helpful e-book – imaginatively titledStress Free Wedding Planning – on how to plan your wedding in as stress free a manner as possible. The ebook is free – woo hoo – and is available now. To get your copy, click here. I’m also serialising some of the content here on my blog, so as many brides-to-be as possible can benefit.

Today, two more fundamental topics – when and where to have your wedding.

This shot was taken in August, near Buxton in Derbyshire. Summer rain can be no bad thing!

When to have your wedding

Rachael’s wedding was in Birmingham in October, and we had lovely light.

Many weddings take place in the summer, but thats by no means the only option. Summers here in the UK are often wet anyway, so consider another time of year too!

A a photographer, I love the sideways light of winter, autumn colours can be beautiful and theres something fresh and clean about a spring wedding.

One thing I always say is that the weather is the least important factor anyway – lovely people having a lovely time is where it’s at.

Saturday is still by far the most popular day to get married, but why not consider another day? Many venues have greater availability during the week, and are often cheaper too.

This trend probably won’t last forever though – Fridays and Sundays are already almost as popular as Saturdays, and venues are cottoning on to this.

Timing of the wedding

Think also about the time of day you want to get married. This has a knock-on effect on the rest of the day.

Do you want to get up super early and get ready for a morning service?Would you prefer things to be a little later, to give you a bit more time to prepare in the morning (what Sarah calls “Girly Time”)?

If you’ve got a big gap between when the wedding breakfast ends and when the evening guests arrive, what will your guests do for that time? if young children are coming, how well will they cope with a long day?It affects the budget too – as you might have to feed your guests twice, or spend more on entertainment. A longer day will cost more.

On the other hand, you might want a long day to make your wedding day last as long as possible, to be slightly tautological about it.

Golden summer evening sun in Disley, Cheshire.

Where to have your wedding

Carol & David got married underground in a cavern in Derbyshire.

Choose where to have your wedding early on in your planning. This might sound obvious, but it’s worth saying. Once you have your venue sorted, other things will start to fall into place.

There are a myriad of different places you can get married these days. The environment in which you’re celebrating has a dramatic effect on the feel of the day, so choose what you want and don’t be influenced by anyone else!

Do you want the whole day to take place at one venue (which is often simpler in terms of logistics, and less stressful); or do you want to get ready in one location, get married in another and have a party in a third?

If you’re going for the multi-location approach, think about how you and your guests are going to get from one place to another, and how this will affect the timing of the day.

Do you want to get married in a church? Or a traditional-looking country house type hotel? Or would you prefer something more contemporary?

Take the time to look at several options, you’ll know when it feels right!

Getting married abroad is becoming much more popular – however that’s a subject for a whole other ebook and series of blog posts!