Use your long weekend for wedding planning, your future self will thank you

It’s the season of long weekends. With Easter and Anzac Day, we’ve all been given the best gift of all: time! But if you’re in the throes of wedding planning, this time can be ideal to tick things off your list. Your future self will thank you!

The Easter long weekend isn’t just for chocolate and hot cross buns. It can be an amazing time for long lunches, catching up with family and friends… and getting ahead of some of your wedding planning. So, whilst you’re topping up your glass of bubbles, embrace this time to tackle some of the things on your checklist. Whether your wedding is six weeks or six months away, here’s how to make the most of this bonus time off so your future stressed-out self will send you a mental high five.

Your long weekend of wedding planning

For those just engaged

Is that ring only new on your finger? If you’ve just gotten engaged, your wedding day will feel like a million years away. But this will creep up fast! Take some breaks in between admiring your latest piece of jewellery and chip away at the little things while you’ve got a bit of downtime.

 Day 1: Inspiration day

Start with the fun stuff! Your inspiration. Using your long weekend for wedding planning doesn’t have to be endless emails, it can also be getting inspired and creating your vision or mood board. 

• Make a Pinterest board or start a shared photo album of wedding vibes. If you’ve got your friends, mum and sisters around you, this is an ideal time to get inspiration from those who know you best.
• Browse real weddings for venue and style inspo. 
• Set a theme: romantic, modern, rustic, coastal.

Day 2: Start the planning

It’s time to tick off a couple of easy things to do that will kick off the wedding planning process. For many couples, finding a venue is the first priority and the first thing to book, as getting the correct date can be the hardest.

• Sign up to Easy Weddings – this will keep all of your research and planning in one place. Instead of getting lost in a sea of Google Docs and Excel spreadsheets, you can stay organised.
• Download the Easy Weddings app. Are you the type of person who has ideas on the go? Or you want to show all of your potential vendors to your friends? You’ll need the Easy Weddings app so that instead of trying to remember the who, what, where, you can have it all conveniently saved right there in your pocket.
• Start bookmarking! You don’t need to make any firm decisions, but you can start to bookmark some places.
• Follow Easy Weddings on Instagram to stay up-to-date with the latest in wedding trends.
• Make a shortlist of local vendors by category (photographers, planners, florists, etc.)
• Check out their work, reviews, and pricing on your favourite supplier listing platform.

Sign up for Easy Weddings today – it’s free and will keep your planning in one place. Click here.

Day 3: Choose a season or shortlist some dates

Your wedding date is important! It will be all your anniversaries, the date to remember for the rest of your life. So, if you have an important date in mind, or even a time of year, it’s great to get that conversation done early. Now is the time to align with both your fiance and your family on the ideal date.

• Don’t need an exact date yet — just narrow down the season or preferred months.
• Look at public holidays, long weekends, and guest availability.
• If your family has to travel or has work commitments on, get that information early so that you can know which dates are blacklisted.

Need more help? We’ve put together our guide to choosing a wedding date. Read here. Or, for those who are a little superstitious, here are the lucky (and unlucky!) wedding dates.

Day 4: Create a wedding email address

There are bound to be a lot of emails in your wedding planning process, and it’s information that’s important to both you and your fiance. To keep it all in one place and not getting lost in your inbox of thousands of unread emails, we think a wedding email address will make sure you don’t miss any important comms.

• Stay organised and keep wedding planning separate from your personal inbox.
• Use it to sign up for checklists, communicate with vendors, and track RSVPs.

Download our free printable wedding checklist that will become your guide to not missing a thing.

For those on the final countdown

If your wedding day is just around the corner, this is the best time to ensure you’ve got everything ticked off and are ready to walk down the aisle.

Day 1: Set the scene, write your wedding day timeline

There’s a lot of moving parts on the wedding day. From making sure your hair and makeup artist knows where to be and what time to getting your aisle song finalised and briefed into the sound people – this is the time to make sure the run sheet is perfect.

• Revisit your master plan and checklist
• Send emails confirming timings on the day.
• Check with everyone that they know where they need to be.

Find some inspiration for a wedding day schedule here.

Day 2: Final numbers

Still have a couple of friends dragging their feet when it comes to RSVPs? If they’re also enjoying a long weekend there’s no excuse to not let you know! 

• Reach out to those who haven’t yet confirmed and ask them to submit their RSVPs.
• Finalise dietary requirements and send over to the caterers.

Day 3: Practice, practice, practice

From the first dance to speeches, there’s a lot of attention on you and your partner on the wedding day. This is the perfect time to practice! From dances to vows, nail the basics, and you’ll be less nervous on your wedding day.

• Decide on your first dance song and give it a go. Even for the most awkward of dancers, this will help with a little practice.
• Do your speech to a family member or friend. They’ll be honest with you, and doing a run-through will give you a clearer and more concise voice during the day.

There’s a lot to practice before the wedding! We’ve put together a guide to help you know what can be done on the fly and what will need a little work.

Day 4: Put together your emergency wedding day kit

It’s known as Murphy’s Law – if it can go wrong, it will. To counteract this, you should have everything in place and some emergency supplies so that it cannot go wrong!

• Needle and thread! From a button to a sleeve, there could be some emergency sewing that needs to be done on the day.
• Sanitary items – because that always appears at the most inopportune moments. Yes, even your wedding day.
• Pain killers – because headaches don’t know when it’s your wedding.

In fact, we think that there are 48 emergency items you’ll need for your wedding day. Find out what we think is necessary as a ‘just in case’ supply. Read more.

Take some time for you!

Whether you’re newly engaged or your wedding is mere weeks away, one of the most important tasks to do on the long weekend is relax. Pour a glass of wine, go for a walk on the beach, go swimming, bake a cake. Whatever it is that makes you happy and is your downtime. Because the wedding planning is important, but so is this time to yourself with your loved ones.