Newly engaged? Start here! From engagement to your first plans

If you’re newly engaged, start planning your wedding with us here! The summer brought us weddings, long dinners, late nights and plenty of new rings. To everyone heading into late summer as newly engaged couples, congratulations! This is the start of your journey.

It’s easy to go straight from ‘we’re engaged’ to venues, Pinterest boards and the inevitable question: Have you set a date? But you don’t actually need to have all the answers just yet. The early stages are less about planning every detail and more about setting the direction. What sort of wedding do you want? How do you want it to feel? Who do you want to share it with?

1. Start with the atmosphere. Before you decide what the wedding will look like, decide how you want it to feel.

Forget the colour palette for a moment. How do you want it to feel when your guests arrive? Intimate and relaxed? A long dinner that flows into dancing? A city wedding? Three days somewhere on the Mediterranean? The feeling sets the tone for almost everything that follows.

PRO TIP: Choose three words that describe your dream wedding and use them as a filter when you’re faced with lots of decisions.

2. Talk about the budget. An initial budget isn’t about putting a price on every detail, but about understanding which priorities will shape the day.

It’s not the most glamorous part of the engagement, but it’s one of the most important. Set a rough total budget and discuss what you actually think is worth prioritising. For some, it’s the food. For others, it’s the photographer, your outfits, the flowers or the chance to bring everyone together for a whole weekend.

PRO TIP: Choose three things you really don’t want to compromise on and build your budget around them. It’s a good idea to set aside 5–10 per cent for unexpected costs.

3. Draft the guest list. Before you find the right venue, you’ll need at least a rough idea of who’s going to be there.

You don’t need to start crossing names off a list over a glass of champagne. Not yet, anyway. But it’s good to know whether the wedding you’ve pictured in your minds will have 40 guests or 140. The number of guests affects everything from the venue and budget to the format of the dinner and the overall feel of the day.

PRO TIP: Start with a generous, preliminary list. You can edit it later as the rest of the wedding starts to take shape.

4. Choose a season, not necessarily a date. Start by deciding when the wedding feels right, rather than tying your entire planning to a single Saturday.

August next year? A winter weekend? Italy in June? You don’t need to start with an exact date. A season and a few possible weekends will go a long way at this stage. When you then start contacting venues, flexibility will give you far more options.

PRO TIP: It’s a good idea to have two or three possible dates, especially if you’re dreaming of a popular summer Saturday.