How to organise the perfect wedding

One of our Marble wedding planners, Zanna Gibson, shares her exclusive top tips for planning your 2020 wedding. With everything from budget to buskers, and wedding speeches to sustainability, this is the ultimate low-down of how to keep the organisation of your big day to a few simple steps.

Making the budget work harder

One of the main things wedding planners have to do is manage and control each client’s budget. Be realistic in what you want to spend and understand that you may have to forego some luxuries on the day. Find areas that aren’t priorities and instead make them intimately personal by doing them yourself or asking a friend/family member to help out.

Take on the stationery design and print at your local printers, or hand the task onto one of your artsy friends. Challenge a family member or friend to making a simple wedding cake. We’ve had couples use buskers as reception entertainment and friends to sing during the signing of the register. The talent is out there, you just need to ask.

Work out your priorities

First things first, you know you’ll need a venue, some food and some booze. But are you happy to go for rustic finish, rather than a lavish one, if it means booking that band you’re desperate for? Pinpoint your priorities and accept that this might change up the format of the wedding.

We had one couple whose priorities were flowers and music, so this meant they chose a burger van to cater the wedding at a much reduced cost (only 1 course), producing a very relaxed and playful atmosphere. The personalised bibs were a fantastic napkin alternative too!

Traditional vs contemporary

Don’t fancy implementing a receiving line but want to see all your guests? We see couples wrestle with the old traditions and contemporary informalities in order to find the right balance for them. If you love the traditions, definitely stick with them but we would suggest keeping them slick and snappy to ensure the guests are kept occupied and the day doesn’t drag. Brief your photographer thoroughly in order to make those group photos quick and painless. Keep the MC but lose the formalities; ensure this person is up to speed with the day’s events, is bossy enough to get guests moving (in particular to their dinner seats) but light enough to keep the guests laughing when disturbed by speeches and announcements.

We’ve also seen grooms and Fathers of the Bride give their speech during the reception and couples take their first dance before dinner, thereby sticking with the wedding traditions but making them work to a new schedule.

Eco Friendly alternatives

If the environment is your jam (as it is ours), we’re seeing a trend towards eco-friendly and environmentally thoughtful weddings, particularly when one of the big ‘wasters’ are flowers. Couples are choosing seasonal and local, native flowers over consumer flower farms and flowers brought over from abroad. This could work in your favour if you are planning a destination wedding!

Florists are also adhering to this trend by creating their own smaller florist farms where they grow and pick the majority of flowers they work with. Using potted flowers over cut stems also increases longevity and gives you the opportunity to plant some of the flowers from your special day.

Photo by Marble Private Weddings, Words by Zanna Gibson