Just Engaged? The insiderâs guide to planning a wedding in the North West - Ribble Valley, Yorkshire Dales, South Lakes and beyondâŠ
Congratulations!
Youâve done it, you said âYes!â Youâre engaged đ
In the past 24 hours youâve got the ring, cried happy tears, told your mum and proposed to your bride-squad!
But after the champagne bubbles settle, a sudden realisation hits: you actually have to plan a wedding! Wtf? Where do you even start?
Your Google search history is suddenly allâŠ
How to plan a wedding?
Wedding checklist
Wedding venues near me
Wedding planning timeline
Wedding budget
Average wedding cost UK
Who pays for what in a wedding?
What are the wedding trends for 2026, 2027 and 2028
How to politely say no children?
How to politely ask for cash as a wedding gift?
Videographer and content creator, do we need both?
Registrar or celebrant UK, whatâs the difference?
How much does a celebrant cost UK?
When should I try on wedding dresses?
Can you get married anywhere UK?
Personalised wedding ceremony UK
Wedding suppliers Yorkshire and Lancashire
Who is the best wedding celebrant in Yorkshire and Lancashire?
Now what? How do you begin to plan a wedding?
Pinterest and Instagram are brilliant at selling you the dream wedding day, but honestly, where do you even begin?
Well, take a deep breath and stick around even if youâre not from the North West of England, because youâre very welcome here and youâll definitely learn some wedding planning tips and inspo from my blog posts! Itâs easy to spiral into panic mode, but planning your wedding should be (mostly) fun.
To help you navigate the chaos, Iâve stripped it down to the essentials, Iâm a professional wedding celebrant, but I am also the former wedding manager of a busy country estate hotel venue in the Yorkshire Dales and Iâve planned, delivered and coordinated hundreds of weddings in various settings from barns and ceremony rooms, to church, forest and lakeside.
From morning ceremonies, to afternoon and twilight and from romantic elopement for two, to luxury weddings with 245 guests.
As a specialist wedding celebrant for the Ribble Valley, Yorkshire Dales, and South Lakes areas, I conduct ceremonies across the North West and beyond. From Kendal to Haworth and all thatâs in between! Including Chorley, Burnley, Bolton, Blackburn, Harrogate, Lancaster, Leeds, Bradford, Keighley, York, Halifax, and Huddersfield.
So youâre in very in safe hands here, this is not my first rodeo, I know weddings inside out and Iâm sharing all the wedding industryâs best kept secrets, hints and tips with you completely free, no catch!
Here are a first few important things to get you started on your journey from "Newly Engaged" to "Just Married."
Discuss and Set Your WEDDING Budget
This is the awkward, unsexy part, but it is the foundation of everything else. You need to sit down with your fiancĂ©(e), preferably when neither of you are tired or hungry and have the "Money Talk." Do it on neutral ground, so thereâs absolutely no arguing, no third party interference, no guilt trips and no bribes!
Discussing and setting your budget early will ensure you are both on the same page. The biggest cause of wedding stress is when one partner is envisioning a "budget" DIY village hall bash and the other is secretly dreaming of "luxury" seven course dining for 200 guests at a stately home.
Be honest about what you can save, what parents might be contributing, and what you are comfortable spending. Once that number is set, stick to it.
The WEDDING guest list - Guestimate your numbers!
You literally cannot do anything without this:
Write a rough guest list immediately.
Agree if you are having a child friendly wedding or not, then stick to it!
You don't need a final count, but you need to know if you are inviting 50 people or 150.
An âintimate barn" might only hold 80.
A "grand hotel" might have a minimum spend requiring 100 guests on a Saturday in Summer.
Sit down and categorise people into lists in order of how much you both want them to attend:
A-List: The "must-haves" (Parents, siblings, best friends).
B-List: The âwant-to-havesâ (Couple friends, family).
C-List: The "would-like-to-haves" (colleagues, extended family/cousins, parents friends).
D-List: Evening only
Categorising means you can be clever and stagger invitations to one list at a time, eg. if you have enough guest places to invite everyone from A-List and B-List and some decline, you then invite people from the top of C-List and promote the top of D-List into the bottom of C-List.
Knowing your numbers prevents the heartbreak of falling in love with a venue that is too small, or blowing all of your budget on a venue that is way too big.
What does your Dream Venue look like?
Now for the fun part. Close your eyes. When you imagine your wedding, what does it look like? Donât think about what your friends did or whatâs trendy on Instagram. What feels like you? What fits within the budget?
Are you picturing:
Traditional: A formal stately home with manicured gardens? A historic hotel with a sweeping staircase, or grand ballroom?
Rustic: The traditional stone barn with exposed beams and flagstone floors?
Industrial: A converted warehouse with brick walls and filament bulbs?
Relaxed & Outdoors: A tipi in a camping field, a ceremony by a lakeside, or a festival vibe in a forest?
Unique Heritage: Marquee on the family farm, vineyard, independent brewery, a heritage railway station, or even a private museum?
A Note on "Non-Licensed" Venues Donât be afraid to look at non-licensed venues. âLicensed" venue just means they have paid the council a big fee (itâs like a venue wedding tax) to ensure a registrar can legally marry you in that specific room, with x number of guests and adheres to fire regulations.
Whether you choose a non-licensed venue (like a restaurant, sports club, village hall, family garden or a cool Airbnb) or a licensed venue like a hotel, you can do the "legal bit" quickly (3 mins) and cheaply at the register office beforehand for ÂŁ68.50 including one certificate, and then have a totally personal celebrant-led wedding at your venue with your family and friends. This often opens up so many options for you, totally bespoke, this is the heartfelt ceremony thatâs been written and delivered by someone who gets to know you and isnât a stranger on the day. You choose the ceremony time, no getting left with the crappy 11am or 3.30pm ceremony because thats all thats left with the registrar, meaning hair & MUA arrived at 5am or you miss half the day and bonus, no awkward government strangers, just your friends, family and hand picked suppliers.
How to Set the date for YOUR wedding
When you closed your eyes did you imagine your ceremony to be:
In a bright room in Springtime, pops of lavender (very on trend for 26/27), cherry blossom or bright daffodil yellow.
Outside on a glorious sunny Summers day? Think roses, sunflowers, dahlias and sweet peas.
Maybe youâd love an Autumnal or Halloween themed wedding inside a barn or stately home, surrounded by burnt orange and russets, pumpkins and sparklers?
Perhaps youâre savvy and have decided on a Winter wedding because venues are dressed for Christmas, read my blog post on December weddings for inspo!
Looking for a bargain date, off peak days are Monday - Thursday and off peak months are October to March, you can usually save thousands on the packages and since Covid if people want to attend your wedding, they will take time off work, even if it is on a weekday (so donât over invite or you might get a shock!). Bridebook 2024 wedding report stated that only 51% of weddings happened on a Saturday, I predict by 2026 and 2027 the weekday wedding will be a normality.
Do you have teachers in your family? Consider term times in the different local authorities.
Are you happy to share your day with a big football match or popular sporting event?
Wedding vibe
Most couples spend 90% of their time planning the after party and 10% planning the actual ceremony. But the ceremony is the whole point and couples really donât realise until itâs too late that itâs their ceremony which sets the tone and determines the energy for the whole day!
What is the focus of your ceremony?
God, the Government or You Two?
Who gets the "main character energy"?
Should it be faith, the laws of the land, or you and your love story?
There is no wrong answer, but you need to decide what matters to you before you book the officiant.
God? If you are religious, the church and scripture will get the main character energy.
The Official Government Process? If you go with a registrar, everything focuses on the process, itâs officious, solemn, with two government strangers arriving around 30 mins before your ceremony and their only reason for being there is to complete the administration and recite the fixed templates, tick the boxes and witness the signatures, then theyâre off to the next wedding to do it all again. They are not there for you, it is not personal or celebrant led (despite their marketing glow up), they are strangers on the day and your content is policed.
You Two? A celebrant-led wedding puts your love story front and centre, you two get the main character energy. There are so many reasons why celebrant led weddings are the topping the searches on bridal platforms, the freedom you gain is huge! Ceremony time, location, content all chosen by you, no strangers, you leave the officious energy in the register office and celebrant your wedding with intention and connection. If youâre a feminist this is the ideal way to reclaim your wedding day from the patriarchy, the establishment and the church! đȘ
Do you need wedding Insurance?
Sorry to put a dampener on your excitement, but itâs really cheap to cover your big day and unless you can afford to lose the entire cost of your wedding, itâs pretty essential!
In my time as wedding manager I saw a disproportionate number of broken limbs and feet, weirdly it was always brides and usually connected to their hen parties or staircases. One bride tripped over a toy dinosaur on the staircase, she had no insurance and they couldnt afford to postpone. They made the best of their day and even managed a first dance (she hobbled) to the Ed Sheeran song that begins⊠âwhen your legs dont work like they used toâ. Yes really!
Some venues do insist on insurance before you can book them, this safe guards you both. The hospitality industry and venues have had a rough ride since covid and many are struggling to pay back government loans and balance the cost of living increases. Every year a number of venues and suppliers go into administration, sometimes the ones that might surprise you, so make sure youâre covered with your insurance from the start.
Ready to Plan a Stress-Free wedding?
This is just the tip of the iceberg, so if you want to keep your sanity intact read all of my blog posts https://www.celebrantled.com/blog and donât forget to sign up to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!
Iâve done the heavy lifting for you and Iâve brand new blog posts on all kinds of subjects including handfasting, how to write perfect vows, the best bridesmaid dresses, plus many more! Youâll get my honest guide to navigating the wedding minefield, plus exclusive access to my âinsider secretsâ that I don't publish anywhere else.
Letâs get this wedding planned and congratulations!
Katie x
Celebrant Led đ§Ą
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