Starting Your Wedding Planning Journey
If you’re planning a wedding for 2026, the hardest part can be figuring out where to get started! There are so many options and services available that it can be hard to narrow down who the right vendors are, but if you start your planning with 3 simple steps, you will find the whole process to be much less daunting and easier to navigate!
Step 1: Create Your Basic Checklist
Before starting your research or anything else, it is helpful to establish a baseline of what you want to ground you throughout the research and booking process. Knowing how many people you will have on your guest list, the “vibe” you would like for your wedding, and what key vendors you will be needing is a great start to help you feel less blind.
1) Guest Count: Write a list of everyone you would want to invite if budget isn’t a factor. Don’t worry about having an exact count, but getting a rough number will help you narrow down your venue and give you and potential vendors a sense of the scale of your wedding.
Tip: As you’re adding people, if you can’t think of a reason you would want them at your wedding, that’s a sign that they don’t need to be there! You can add them to a separate list or just keep them off entirely! There is no shame in having an “A” and “B” list to help you prioritize who the most important people are (just don’t let your guests know which list they landed on!)
2) What’s the Vibe?: Do you want your wedding to be casual, formal, semi-formal, or black tie? Do you want your wedding day to feel like a grand event or an intimate celebration? Don’t feel like you have to know exactly what you want the day to look like, but having a rough idea will help you prioritize the most important parts.
3) Vendors: Every wedding has essential vendors that you will need to hire. Typically, a venue, day of coordinator, photographer, videographer, DJ, makeup artists, and decorator are going to be your core team, but depending on your situation, you might need fewer or more vendors. Maybe you are getting married on your family property or are planning to do DIY decor. It will help reduce your work if you can determine who the most important vendors are to you.
Step 2: Go to a Wedding Show
Once you have a baseline of what you are looking for, attending a couple of wedding shows is the best and simplest way to meet professional vendors in person, discuss your wedding, and gain a better understanding of where to start. There will be many different types of vendors you can talk to, so knowing what is and isn’t important to you will help you sift through all the options and narrow down your search.
While completing step one is not necessary before attending a wedding show, it will help create more intention and get a greater value out of the show. You’ll be able to share more info with the vendors to get more personalized information. Rather than getting a bunch of business cards that you don’t know what to do with, you can tailor your show experience and walk away with meaningful contacts to follow up with and ask more to after the show!
The upcoming wedding shows in Vancouver are the West Coast Wedding Show on November 2 at Paradox Hotel, the Inspiration Wedding Expo at Stanley Park Pavilion on October 26, and the Lux Wedding Soiree at Fairmont Pacific Rim on November 8! We have a couple of complimentary tickets left for the West Coast Wedding Show! Contact Natalie at natalie@keyeventsandweddings.com if you are interested in claiming yours!
Step 3: Hire a Planner!
Planning a wedding is something you (likely) will only do once in your life, which means the whole experience is going to be brand new. Having a wedding planner to guide you through the process of all the work ahead of you is a lifesaver!
You will have an expert in your corner throughout the entire process, gaining advice and recommendations you wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else. If Step 1 is feeling overwhelming, skipping right to picking a planner may be the right step for you! She can lead you from ground zero, asking the right questions and getting to know you to provide personalized recommendations.
Hiring a planner doesn’t necessarily mean booking full-service planning. While full-service is the perfect route for couples who don’t have the time or energy to manage most of the planning themselves, day of coordination and month of management have become essential to modern weddings.
Partial planning is becoming the most popular option for many couples as it provides that perfect balance of being able to take on the key parts of the wedding planning process while having someone there to tackle any items that you are not excited about handling and provide guidance throughout the lead up to your big day. If you are ready to have a planner step in and help you out, message us! We are open for all 2026 bookings and are happy to discuss your wedding further to help you determine which of our packages will be the right match for you. Contact us to receive our complete service package and schedule your free inquiry meeting to learn moH
