The Venue

Next up on your agenda will probably be the wedding venue. If you've chosen to have a Church wedding or a civil ceremony at a registry office, you will need a venue to hold your reception. If you're having a civil ceremony somewhere like a hotel, you're likely to be getting married and having your reception in the same place.

You can have your reception pretty much anywhere now, from your back garden, to a National Trust stately home. Obviously, where you choose will come down to many factors, but the main one is likely to be cost.

It's a good idea to look at a range of different reception venues, as they all have different things to offer. The more you see, the more you can get an idea of what you do and don't want!

Some things to look out for:

• Capacity. Will there be enough room for your guests to sit comfortably? Is there enough space for dancing? (Especially if you plan to invite additional guests to the evening reception.)
• Suppliers. Does the venue insist on using their caterer/florist/DJ? Are you happy to use their suppliers or would you rather use your own?
• Restrictions. Most venues will have a time you must leave by in the evening, but others will also have regulations concerning additional factors, for example; Have you found an amazing band? If your venue has neighbouring houses they might not allow loud music. Check with the venue first.

I found our venue hunt quite tricky - especially as we only had about 3 weeks to find it before moving to Singapore! We found it helpful to make a preliminary guest list so we knew roughly the numbers we needed to accommodate.

I hope this helps!

The Ceremony

The Wedding Ceremony really is the main part. The part when you and your fiancé become husband and wife and someone says 'You may kiss the Bride'!

If you belong to a particular religion or feel very strongly one way or the other, this may be a no-brainer for you. If you still need to weigh up the options though, continue reading!

Civil weddings must take place at licensed premises, which must be a permanent structure with a roof. They must not have any religious references (i.e. readings or hymns), and in order to be legally married you must say vows and sign the register.

More information about the legal side of marriage can be found here.

Regulations for Church weddings will depend on your denomination, and in some cases the minister marrying you. For example in the Church of Scotland, you can have your wedding wherever, provided the minister is authorised. In the Church of England there may be restrictions upon where you live (if it's in the parish in which you want to marry it should be fine) and if you have been married before.

To find out more about Church weddings, click here.

Save The Date

The date is the first really important thing you deal with when planning a wedding. Whether you have a preference of season, weekend or weekday, time and availability will all have an impact on your big day.

Some important things to consider:

1. How long will you have to plan your wedding? For example: if you get engaged at Christmas, and have your heart set on a summer wedding, will you have time to plan your dream day in 6-8 months? Or wait until the following year?

2. Cost. Summer weddings are more popular on the whole, and therefore vendors can command higher prices. If you are planning a winter wedding you might be in a good position to haggle on price with some suppliers.

3. Availability. Again if you plan to marry at a popular time of year you might find your dream venue/florist/photographer is not available. Be prepared to compromise and start doing your homework well in advance.

4. The tone of your wedding. Do you want a very traditional wedding or something more relaxed and informal? This can influence your choice, for example if you want a BBQ outside where everyone helps themselves, July would be a more obvious choice than January!

My favourite season is Autumn, and so our wedding will be in October. This left us with 13 months to plan our big day!

(And thanks to several wedding planning apps, I now know that we only have 333 days left!)