Wedding Planning: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

Starting to plan your wedding is one of the most exciting times in life, but it can also feel overwhelming. Where do you start? How do you keep track of the budget? Here at Bröllopsguiden, we’ve helped thousands of couples navigate the maze of bookings and decisions. Here’s everything you need to know for successful planning.

Wedding planning checklist – the timeline

12–18 months before: Set your budget and choose a theme. Now is the time to sort out the financing for the wedding and decide on the overall framework.

12 months before: It’s high time to book the venue and the church or wedding venue. The most popular dates get snapped up first!

9 months before: Start looking at outfits, book a photographer and send out ‘Save the Date’ cards.

The basis for successful wedding planning

Your wedding day is sure to be one of the greatest days of your lives, a day you’ll always remember, a day to tell your children and grandchildren about. And it doesn’t matter whether you choose a simple barefoot ceremony on the beach or a grand church wedding with several hundred guests – what matters is that it’s your wedding, a wedding exactly as YOU want it.

However, the key to a successful wedding, whether large or small, is that you start planning well in advance. There are a few simple rules of thumb you should follow when you begin planning your wedding. Most importantly, of course, the bride and groom must be in agreement.

Discuss in detail what sort of wedding ceremony you want so that you’re both planning the same wedding. Naturally, it’s often money that dictates things; weddings cost money, and sometimes a great deal of it. You’ll therefore almost certainly need to make some compromises and concessions, so it’s good that you both know your priorities.

If planning isn’t your strong point, or if you simply find the idea of organising your own wedding stressful, hire a wedding planner. The wedding coordinator can tailor your entire wedding to your needs, or simply help with the most time-consuming planning tasks, or act as a sounding board and problem-solver.

Get inspired

You can, of course, find great tips for your wedding by reading wedding magazines, browsing the internet, or visiting wedding fairs and shops. Ask friends and acquaintances to tell you about their weddings and how they went about organising them. Perhaps you’ve been to a fantastic wedding yourself – think about what it was that made that particular wedding so special; all good ideas are worth borrowing.

Find out about the different wedding traditions – Swedish or international – and the rules of etiquette that apply, so you’ll know what suits your wedding best. Themed weddings are becoming increasingly common, and it’s rather lovely when the invitation cards match the floral arrangements in the church, which in turn match the crockery at the dinner, and so on.

Make a checklist

A good place to start is by making a checklist of everything that needs to be organised. It can be handy to divide the list into broad categories: the bride, the groom, the guests, the church, the wedding reception and so on, and then go on to plan the details under each heading.

Go through the list carefully; there are a thousand and one details to sort out. Try to get help from others as much as possible; family and friends will be more than happy to get involved. Perhaps you have a musician in the family, a relative who knows all about flower arrangements, or a friend who has an empty venue you can borrow for the reception?

Once you’ve agreed on the broad outlines, it’s time to draw up a schedule, perhaps using Bröllopsguiden’s interactive planning calendar. A schedule means you won’t have to worry about forgetting any small but important details, and it’s a smart way to ensure you can spread the costs over a longer period rather than making all the expensive purchases in the same month.

Then it’s simply a case of getting down to work. Some things, of course, need to be sorted out before anything else – a made-to-measure wedding dress, for example, is difficult to arrange at the last minute. If the wedding rings are to be made to order, it’s worth bearing in mind that most jewellers are closed during the summer. Hairdressers and florists should probably be booked in advance; perhaps you’d like a soloist in the church or a band to play for the evening’s dancing?

Always try to ask for written confirmation so that you know the price you’ve agreed on, when and how you need to pay, and what the cancellation policy is. It’s also a good idea to choose the best man, bridesmaids, pageboys, toastmaster and host couple at an early stage. Most people tend to take these honorary roles seriously, so you should give everyone plenty of time to prepare.

Start with the wedding venue

But the very first thing you should do is probably to book a church or other venue for the ceremony, especially if you want to get married on a specific date. Popular churches are always booked up quickly, often a year in advance. Bear in mind that wedding venues in town halls and council buildings can be small, so if you’re expecting a large number of guests at a civil ceremony, other venues might be more suitable.

Once you know where the wedding is to take place, you should also decide on a venue for the subsequent party or reception. If you’re planning an outdoor dinner, it’s obviously a good idea to have a backup plan in case the weather turns against you. Do you have many guests travelling from afar? It’s always appreciated if you make provisional hotel bookings and perhaps even arrange transport between the wedding venue, the reception venue and the hotel.

Photographs make for lovely memories

Once you’ve decided on the date and venue, it’s also a good idea to contact your chosen photographer as soon as possible. Photographers are often very busy, so whether you want them to document the whole wedding – known as ‘lifestyle photography’ – or are simply thinking of a traditional photo of the bride and groom during the ceremony, it’s best to get in touch well in advance.

If you’d like to compile your memories and photographs into a scrapbook, it’s obviously a good idea to plan for this right from the start. Polaroid cameras, disposable cameras, friends and acquaintances – make sure as many people as possible capture what is sure to be one of the most memorable days of your lives, a day well worth all the hard work and planning.

But remember – in the final days before the wedding, the bride and groom shouldn’t have any tasks scheduled at all, but simply lie back, relax and get some rest. Because the most important thing of all is that getting married is absolutely brilliant fun!

Are you planning a church wedding? On the Church of Sweden’s website, you can read more about the wedding service and how to book a church

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