While you’re planning your wedding, there are so many details large and small that need to be decided upon. From guest count and venue selection to color palettes and how you will walk down the aisle, your to-do list of questions to answer may feel never ending. As you’re likely well aware by now, we’re always on a mission to ease your mind as you plan your wedding by providing as many facts and details as we can. In our constant mission to educate you, we turned to the very best group of pros we know – the members of The V List!

Below, some of our favorite wedding professionals from around the country are sharing their tried and true advice about what they wish they knew (or what their clients often want to know!) while on their wedding planning journey. Read on, y’all, and take a deep breath – you’re doing just fine.

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Wesley Leytham

Rae Leytham Photography

www.raeleytham.com

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1) Decide the style of your wedding first.

“Decide what “style” of wedding you want when you first start planning. Be realistic about your venue choices and match your wedding style to your venues. If you love beautiful outdoor wedding photos with lots of greenery and golden sunlight, don’t book a church in the city at dusk with no first look and expect your photographer to make magic.”

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Zoie Burgess

Memories for You Weddings & Events

www.memoriesforyouevents.com

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2) Enjoy!

“Enjoy the engagement! The planning process can become so hectic. Also, when planning the wedding consider what is important. When I got married I had 272 guests… if I could do it again, I would have probably about 50 and make it much more intimate and personal.”

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Rodolfo Montilla

Rudy + Marta Photography

www.rudyandmarta.com

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3) Hire a planner!

“Hire a planner! It takes so much stress out of the entire process.”

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Jordan Williams

Ever After Planning

www.everafterplanning.com

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4) Know what you want.

“Get a solid grip on your aesthetic, vision, mood etc. so that everything blends together cohesively. This goes hand in hand with nailing out a good solid budget in the early stages. It’s better to find “extra” money in the budget than to have to steal from one budget item to pay another. Also determine your most important items well ahead of time. Example// videography (almost every bride who doesn’t do it, regrets it), real flowers vs artificial, etc. The list goes on and on.” 

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Cat Lemus

Cat Lemus Photography

www.catlemus.com

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5) Be true to yourself.

“Be true to yourself. There’s no rules in weddings anymore… Want to see each other before? Want to get married in bora bora? Want centerpieces made from your favorite farmer’s market items? Want both parents to walk you down the aisle? You can do anything that suites who you really are and it makes it that much more special.”

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Elizabeth Hague

Post Film Design Co.

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6) Not everything will be perfect. Be okay with that.

“I’m 3 weeks from my own wedding and the best advice I can give about the planning process is to not be obsessed with perfecting things that don’t matter. The day is about love and celebrating you as a couple. No matter what style of wedding you’re having, you can’t be 100% perfect. Spend time on what matters most: making memories, loving each other, and bringing happiness in to everything you do. And for the love of all that’s holy, trust me, that DIY on Pinterest is 5,000 times harder than you think. Just buy one that’s already made.”

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Jamie Sloan

All Grand Events

www.allgrandevents.com

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7) Bigger isn’t always better- especially when it comes to guest count.

“The higher the guest count, the more expensive your wedding will be. That seems like a no-brainier, but I’m sure we’ve all been surprised when someone with 300 guests doesn’t understand why their estimate is so expensive. For designers, even if the clients have the simplest centerpieces and decor, the amount of people they’ve invited quickly adds up. That is one thing that our brides with 250+ guest counts sometimes don’t understand. Even though they have a simple centerpiece, it has to be created about 32 times! We explain it as nicely as we can, but there are couples that don’t truly think about the overall costs of a large wedding. They understand that more people means more food, but it doesn’t always translate into other vendor prices such as designers, etc.”

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Rachael Osborn

Rachel Osborn Photography

www.rachaelosbornphotography.com

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8) Hire vendors you love and trust so you can enjoy your time being engaged.

“Enjoy being engaged. Stop feeling pressured or stressed to make other people happy – this really is a time to celebrate you and your partner. Hire vendors you love, trust, and connect with personally who understand your style. Do engagement photos with the same photographer shooting your wedding – not only will you get a sense for how you work together but when the wedding day comes, they should feel like an old friend coming to document your day (and I’m not kidding, many of my brides are now dear friends of mine because they really did hire me because we clicked. It pays off.) ENJOY THIS. Take time to savor this special time. It is over in a blink of an eye!”

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Andrea Layne

Andrea Layne Floral Design

www.andrealaynefloraldesign.com

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9) Be present on your wedding day.

“Take several moments during your wedding day to really stop and take in the feel, the sights, the smells, the sounds and the emotions of what is happening and the details you spent so much time planning and stressing over. That day is going to fly by with so many amazing things happening and being presented to you and your new spouse. Seeing these moments in the photos weeks later is nice, but remembering how you felt while it was happening is priceless, especially with the love of your life by your side. So be present, pay attention, and keep it in your memory forever!”

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We of course 100% agree with all of this great advice from our V List Members! Want more tips and insight? Be sure to check out all of our wedding planning tips and advice via the button below!