Category: Engagement

Sweetly Paired Wishes all newly engaged couples a HUGE congrats!

2/15/2020

Yay, so you got the ring! What next? Here are some good steps to follow so the beginning of the planning process is smooth, and sets you up for success!

It's really exciting when things happen to change the course of your life - and getting engaged is certainly one of those times. We work with tons of newly engaged couples to find dates, venues, and get on the path to planning their curated, experiential wedding... but there are lots of couples who find pitfalls instead of rainbows - and here are some tips to avoid having a stressful beginning to your wedding planning process! These are 6 tips to help you start off on the right foot with planning your wedding!

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Wedding Planning Tip #1:
Hire a wedding planner right away, don't wait until you have a venue and a date! The planner can help you find a venue, because they know the venues' rules, needs, costs, and pros and cons like the back of their hands.... or at least WE do! We have multiple lead planners on the team, so you won't be limited by date by hiring us first - You'll get the full force of our team's expertise in Colorado's wedding venues, and have an awesome planning team by your side the entire way!

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Wedding Planning Tip #2
Set your budget with your planner BEFORE venue hunting. This allows you to not find yourself what we call 'venue poor' - The wedding equivalent of being 'house poor'. This occurs when you spend too much of your budget in one place. If you don't know your budget yet, and start touring venues - you could end up in big trouble. A good wedding planner can help you sort out your budget, and understand the implications to guest experience if you do decide to splurge in a certain category - and this includes venues!

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Wedding Planning Tip #3
Take your planner venue hunting! This may (or may not) cost you a little extra, depending on the package you choose with the planner - but it's worth it. They know all of the ins-and-outs of the venues, including all the blemishes that the venue sales person won't show you. They know when it's a difficult space to work in, or if the staff at the venue is amazing and easy to work with or a mess and constantly replacing sales and operations staff. These things make a huge difference in your planning experience, as well as the guests' experience on the day or weekend of your wedding!

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Wedding Planning Tip #4 -
Give yourself time! Most weddings take 12-18 months to plan. You can plan faster than that, of course, but know the stress of making all those decisions can weigh on you and your relationships. We can plan a wedding for 150 people and 100k budget in a month... but the decisions have to be made in like a week. An average wedding takes hundreds of hours to plan, because it takes some thinking to make all of the decisions that weddings and events require. Think about how you make decisions, and how your fiancee does... and how that will affect any other decision makers in the process.. I know 6 months sounds like forever away, but truly, it's right around the corner!

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Wedding Planning Tip #5
Choose your date carefully! You have already considered other important days in your lives - birthdays, holidays, months you love or hate, etc. Now think through the date with another lens. What will the weather be like? Are you wanting the leaves to be green? fall-colored? covered in snow? What experience do you want your guests to have? Keep these things in mind:

Fridays and Sundays are often less pricey than Saturdays, and more often available.
Off-season dates can be cheaper, but weather and other factors are why! Think that through before booking an off-season date.
It can be tempting to go for half-days or shorter time periods for price, but keep in mind what that may do to your timeline!

Wedding Planning Tip #6 -
Don't fall into the all-inclusive trap - unless you're in Mexico! This is a huge trap. There seems to be an uptick in all-inclusive venues - handling everything from the food and beverage to the DJ, officiant, photographer, and flowers. What you're really getting with these venues is what EVERY wedding they've done before you, and every one after has gotten... all packaged in a boring, repetitive box!

The food is bad. Like memorably bad. Almost infallibly. They have no reason to make it better, you guys. No competition.
The images look like a 1990 flash-photography wedding. They use the cheapest photographers, and pay them crap. You're better off finding a photographer on your own, and curating your look with them. Getting to know them, and getting comfortable with them.
The looks are dated, and boring. Trust me, an experienced planner and designer can do so much more with less!

Moral of this story - hire a wedding planner at whatever level you can afford.

They are worth their weight in gold. They often save you as much as their fee costs in not making mistakes, getting the right vendors for you r budget, and showing you cost-saving tips and tricks!
Whether it's us or another planner - They're the only person in your day who has your best interest at heart in EVERY decision that's made.
Planners are a wealth of knowledge - it's why they do what they do. They know all the things, and all the people. That's part of what you're buying with a wedding planner's services!

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Tips for newly engaged couples planning a wedding!

11/29/2017

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some tips from a wedding planner to make the beginning steps of wedding planning Easy and stress-free!

So you're engaged... now what? We're using December... the month of engagements... as a chance to share these tips with newly engaged couples and set you up for success! Planning a wedding can be stressful if you don't have all the knowledge you need, and that's where we come in! We have planned, designed, and executed more than 1000 weddings, and we have contacts all over Colorado for many types of vendors. We can help you make the right decisions in the wedding planning process so that you have less stress through the planning process and don't make mistakes. Mistakes are the most expensive part of planning a wedding. We help you to prevent them!

Check out our Instagram feed for daily tips and advice about your new engagement!

Tip #1: Now that you're engaged, you need to pick a season. That's the beginning of the process! It will guide you in picking a venue, style, and getting the ball rolling. It will also help you know how much time you have, we recommend 12-18 months of planning. Many venues and wedding planners book out that far, so you want to give yourself plenty of time to get going. Spring weddings can have rain, sometimes snow, and the temperatures can be unpredictable. Summer weddings can be hot, with rain in the afternoons. Fall weddings are always lovely, but again, often unpredictable! Winter weddings are often cold and snowy! Think through how you want your wedding to feel - do you want the winter wonderland at the top of a mountain, or the summer afternoon on a lake ?

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Photo by Valeria Heine

Colorado Wedding Planner - Photo by Laura Murray

Tip #2: Start out by thinking big picture. Design the scope of your event as a whole. Don't worry about the details at this point. Start coming up with an idea of a guest list and idea of a budget. Use all of your resources, sit down and chat with any financial contributors about what your options are. This way you have a better idea of what to expect when you start chatting with wedding planners, venues and various vendors. Your wedding is a project, and you need to know the scope of work so you can make the best decisions!

Tip #3: The next step is to find a wedding planner that you connect with. Someone you feel comfortable with, and enjoy talking to is a good choice. Typical wedding planners have several options for packages from help on just the day of through full wedding planning. Figure out what you can afford based on the budget you have, and find a planner with a package that matches it. A good planner can help you through your venue search, to make sure your budget is not unbalanced and the needs of the project are met. Find the right person for you. Read reviews, check out portfolios, and make certain that they are experienced enough to handle your event.

Photo by Sarah Goff

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Want to get engaged? We do custom Wedding Engagements

11/29/2017

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Sweetly Paired can help you plan a custom elopement!

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Check out this gorgeous image by Ali and Garrett Photographers! Custom proposal by Sweetly Paired!

So you want to propose. You've found the one for you! Well, we can help make it memorable, unique and stress-free. We plan custom engagements in Colorado. Want something quiet with some snowshoes by a serene lake? Top of the mountain on skis? How about a snowmobile trip in the wilderness where you might spy a moose? How about a gorgeous cabin on a river with a private hot spring pool? We have locations all over Colorado that are perfect for a stunning proposal! Let us help find the photographer, the romantic flowers, a fantastic dinner after your love says yes, and the perfect location and make that memory perfect for both of you.

This gorgeous couple chose a spectacular location for their engagement. Kelly Tasker with Kelly Erin Photography captured this moment!

Check out this stunning engagement captured by Brittany with Alchemy Creative.

Love the blanket that this groom chose to bring to his engagement! Collen Kelly Photography captured this great shot of the happy newly engaged couple!

Sweetly Paired is a wedding planning firm based in Denver, specializing in Vail, Beaver Creek, Aspen and Summit County. We are happy to help with your engagement planning, and of course with planning the wedding as well! We are your engagement planner, proposal planner, elopement planner... let us help take away the stress and find just the right vendor team!