Setting the date

Setting the date of your celebration can often be influenced by other commitments such as work, social and family commitments. You must take these into consideration if you are to ensure that key people are able to attend. Whatever your requirements and celebration date we recommend that you approach it with a business like commitment to make it a success. If you dont, it may lead to underestimating the amount of planning required which will certainly fall short of expectations.

We recommend you should set yourself enough time in order to plan your successful event. We recognise this may not be easy or appropriate when fitting this into an already busy life but it is worth noting that research suggests it takes 240 hours to plan an average wedding. Six working weeks! We recommend you use this as a general guide. For example, if your wedding date is 12 months from now you will, on average, require around 20 planning hours a month. In our experience people want a memorable wedding not an average one and this can take even more planning.

You will need to consider who is going to manage the event. If its your celebration you will want to have some input into the planning. You need to be sure that whoever is organising your event for you will allow you to have what you want and that youre not given what they think you want or they feel you should have. Unfortunately, this often happens when well meaning friends and relatives get involved. Professional organisers take the strain of the actual organisation away from you but make sure that you are constantly involved with making choices so that the celebration truly reflects your wishes.