CHASE COURT

 

18 East Chase Street Baltimore, Maryland 21202 (410) 727-1112

Baltimore Maryland Wedding Planning First Things To Do!

Baltimore Maryland wedding venue Chase Court with bride and groom in wedding ceremony garden.

Five Hot Wedding Planning Essentials
Want to make planning your Baltimore, Maryland wedding easy and stress-free? Here are five all-important wedding planning first things to do to get started right, and make the best use of your wedding professionals.

Baltimore wedding venue Chase Court indoor wedding ceremony in the Gothic great hall.

1. Know your numbers.
The two most important numbers in your wedding planning are your guest count, which is the number of people you plan to invite; and your budget, which is the amount of money you have available to spend. These two parameters guide every planning decision. It’s really important to know these numbers before your start planning. You and every wedding professionals (or if you’re rockin’ Do It Yourself, all of your DIYers) will be making decisions based upon your budget and the size of your guest list. It’s okay right now if the numbers aren’t perfectly accurate. Knowing your budget within a thousand dollars or so and your guest list within ten people will be enough. 

Baltimore Maryland wedding sign at Chase Court

2. Start ASAP!
As a world-class procrastinator myself, let me tell you, it is absolutely possible to plan a full-on wedding in two months or less, but you will be much happier and way less stressed if you give yourself nine to twelve months to get everything done.

Moreover, wedding professionals — venues, caterers, photographers, florists, DJs, bands, and the like — book up much faster than you might think, often a year or more in advance. The earlier you start planning, the greater your chances of getting the wedding professionals you want. Give yourself the gift of an easy, stress-free planning experience by getting right to it once you’ve made your decision to get married.

Baltimore Maryland wedding venue Chase Court Lord of the Rings wedding

3. Know what you want.
Have as much of an idea as possible about how each of you, separately and together, would like your wedding to look and feel. Two good questions to ask yourselves are: “what’s important to me about this experience?” and “what do I want to see, hear, and feel?” Write it down if you like, and see how your two visions compare. Another fun way to flesh out your collective vision is to make a “things we want” list and “things we don’t want” list. 

You’re doing all of this to save time, money, and that blank look the first time a wedding professional asks, “so, what do you two have in mind for your wedding?”. The more you know about what you want and don’t want—and you do not have to know everything at the start—the better. 

Related to that…

Baltimore wedding venue with bride and groom in costume.

4. Be open.
Do a brain dump with your wedding professionals. Tell the truth. Be revealing. Tell them everything that comes to mind about your vision, your thoughts, your needs, your desires  for your wedding. Ask your questions, which you have, ideally, written down in a form that allows you to record their answers. Oh, and don’t be coy about the money. Tell them about your overall budget. All of the professionals know how your budget is likely to be allocated, and how to make the most of each piece.

Baltimore wedding venue Chase Court with elegant table setting

5. One thing at a time.
You’ll make yourself crazy trying to work on everything at once. Focus on one part of your planning at a time, in an order that makes sense to you. You’ll almost always want to start with the venue, which will give you place, date, and time. Next is catering, which is likely to take the lion’s share of your budget. Once you have a caterer under contract, it’s time to look at entertainment, photography, decorating, ceremony music, and officiants. The order of these last five is determined by which is most important to you, and where, if anywhere, you need to economize. For example, if the budget is tight I often recommend that decor be left until last. While talent and skill are components in all of these areas, what you do with decorating is much easier to scale up and down.



Baltimore Maryland wedding venue owner David Egan

David Egan is the proprietor and steward of the castle at Chase Court, a wedding ceremony and reception venue in the fantastic Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland.

Visit chasecourt.com and follow @ChaseCourtWeddingVenue on Instagram, and check out our videos on YouTube!

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