Top 15 Common Mistakes Couples make when Planning their Chicago Wedding
Wedding planning comes with lots of puzzle pieces that are hard to figure out, and as you probably know already it can be stressful to keep everything straight and make sure you are on top of things. Having a coordinator on your side means that we can help you keep things straight as much as possible, and one of those ways would be to tell you the common mistakes that couples make while wedding planning. We are hoping to help you ease some worries and make sure you can focus on having fun on your wedding day by planning accordingly.
Not setting your priorities first
Many couples will immediately start their wedding planning with searching for their venue, but really there are many steps before that that need to be settled to make your wedding planning journey as smooth as possible. You and your future spouse need to sit down together and plan what actually is important to you and what things you are okay with skipping for the sake of your budget. That way, you won’t get stuck with a venue you love but that breaks the bank meaning you have to cut in other areas to make up for it.
Not keeping an eye on the budget
Even after some couples plan their budget and start booking vendors, they don’t really keep tabs and just start booking things that sound good without consulting how much they actually have to spend. It’s important after booking each vendor to see where that puts you in your budget spreadsheet to know if you need to adjust for the next few vendors you’re booking.
Not factoring in your sunset time for photos
Depending on the time of year you’re getting married, you’ll need to factor in the sunset time to know when you need to get your photos done by. Of course you can do indoor photos with electric lighting to combat this, but it’s better to have natural lighting for your photos to have the best quality.
Not checking postage requirements before sending the invites
Many couples will order custom stamps and custom invites without putting those two pieces together, and it means that you’re at risk of the stamps not actually covering the weight of your invite. If you have a chance to go to a post office prior to mailing them and bring the stamps you plan on using (or just buy them at the post office), you won’t run into any issues!
Buying invites for each guest and not each family
A very common mistake that couples make while wedding planning is that when ordering the invites and the Save the Dates, they have their total guest count in their head and not the amount of families attending their wedding. It’s important to check through your guest list and list out the amount of homes rather than total guests to help you save costs and paper!
Setting your RSVP date the same day as your final guest count due date
This isn’t usually a huge problem, but it usually means that you have to nag your guests into responding sooner than your RSVP due date to get the final count in time. As annoying as it is, most of the time your guests will wait until the very last minute or forget to respond entirely even if they are guaranteed yeses, so giving yourself about a week before the final guest count is due for the food and the venue is great to give you some time to catch up with your stragglers that haven’t responded.
Forgetting to factor small things in the budget
There are SO many little and big expenses that go into your wedding day. What we think is important is to sit down with the smaller expenses and decide if that’s coming from your “regular, living budget” or your wedding budget just so you can plan accordingly. Most couples don’t factor in things like your transportation, hotel, tips or gratuities for your vendors, gifts to ask your wedding party or gifts for the wedding day, or even your wedding bands and rings. make sure to set aside at least 10% of your budget for miscellaneous items like these so that they aren’t huge surprises to your wallet when the time comes for them.
Picking your wedding party too early
We have unfortunately heard and seen the tale of the dreaded wedding party - sometimes, as soon as someone gets engaged they will start mentioning or even ask their wedding party to be members too quickly, but then things go sour and they’re stuck with people they aren’t necessarily excited to be standing with them. No matter the circumstances, you’ll want to give yourself the time to think about if you really will be happy with those people standing by your side in the long term. We also highly recommend that you give your wedding party you’re asking to have a way to say no if the time, money, or energy commitment is just too much for them - it might end up saving a relationship or two to just let them attend as a guest or reconsider having them involved in general.
Forgetting that your marriage license is for the county your wedding ceremony is, not your home
We will always talk with our couples before the wedding about the marriage license because this is really the biggest detail you don’t want to mess up. If your ceremony is offsite from your reception, it’s especially important to know that you need to have the marriage license for the county of the ceremony itself. It also is a common mistake that couples think that it’s for the county they live in - this is also not the case. Many folks that are worried about this or don’t live in the area of their ceremony will actually more commonly have a courthouse ceremony prior to their wedding day just so there aren’t any hiccups with the legality. Totally understandable whatever you decide, but make sure you are doing the right location for it to be valid!
Sending Save the Dates too early
Along the same lines of sending your Save the Dates or invites to all of your guests or not getting them weighed, we also often see couples send their Save the Dates too early to their guests and end up regretting it one way or another. If you are sending them too early, there is always a possibility that you don’t want to invite those same amounts of people and now you’re stuck sending them an invite anyway, or having a really sticky situation. We usually recommend waiting between 6-9 months before the wedding unless you are having a cross-country destination wedding, because if you decide it costs too much, you don’t talk to or like the people, or any other reason, it’s hard to go back on your word with the Save the Date and they will expect an invitation.
Not setting time limits for speeches
We see this one all the time - couples will be excited to hear their beloved family and friends talk about their love story, but they won’t tell them any time limit for their speech. If that’s the case, we often see speeches that are 10-15 minutes a piece on average. We also have seen specifically parents give incredibly long speeches if you’re not stern about it halting dinner and dancing - and when we say long, we are saying 18-30 minute speeches. So for the sake of your guests, getting your dinner, and getting on the dance floor, we recommend setting a time limit of 2-3 minutes and expect them to still talk for 5. If you really don’t want to limit them, in that case you can have them give their speech at the rehearsal dinner so there is nothing that hangs up the timeline of your wedding day and you still hear all of the sweet words they prepared for you.
Not adding in buffer time
This one we make sure to do with all of our couples: add in plenty of buffer time! Everything on your wedding day will take far longer than you’re expecting, so it’s good to add in buffer time for things like traffic, hair/makeup end times, and for photos to really make sure that things are unlikely to fall behind. We all want to make sure you don’t feel rushed or stressed on your wedding day, so this is something we highly recommend doing throughout the day to make sure it’s as accurate as possible.
Hiring “friendors” instead of vendors because it’s cheaper
We do see this often happen, and more often than not it really just adds stress to your wedding day. You aren’t sure how to set expectations for your friends, and if they really aren’t professionals in the wedding industry, we find that it makes things a bit more awkward or clunky. We have also had actual mishaps happen with friendors - the family DJ has a mic issue that lasts through the entire ceremony and speeches, the florist forgot to put together a bouquet, the person bringing that key piece of decor didn’t measure their car so it didn’t fit … the possibilities are endless. We recommend just biting the bullet and hiring professionals in the field to ensure that things run as smoothly as possible.
Not having or not liking your rain plan
We have had so many couple book a venue solely because they loved the outdoor ceremony location…. and absolutely despise the indoor space. Then, when the weather is looking bad because it’s too hot, windy, cold, or rainy, they are so stressed out and unhappy on their wedding day. No matter what time of year you’re planning your wedding, it’s really important to be okay with your rain plan alternative, or else you’re very likely to be stressed and upset on your wedding day.
Waiting too long to book key vendors
Vendors book up incredibly quickly, so waiting too long to book your vendors may mean they aren’t available for your wedding. It creates a lot more stress on your end to search for more vendors that you might be interested in booking just to find out they are unavailable and having to start from square one again, so it’s best to just book the people you want to work with as soon as you can so you don’t have to worry about finding vendors that will work best for you.
Wedding planning can surely be a headache, so our goal is to make sure to keep your wedding planning journey as stress-free as possible. We want you to avoid these common mistakes as possible, but if you need additional help then we would love to help coordinate your wedding planning and wedding day! You can reach out to us at our contact page and let us know what you’re struggling with.
