Most wedding advice is about choosing things. The decisions that actually save couples money and arguments are the ones made before any of the choosing starts — and almost nobody puts them in order. Here are the first two, free.
Everything else in a wedding negotiates around the date — the venue, the people you want standing next to you, the price of nearly every service. Pick it first and hold it. Couples who leave the date open while they compare everything else end up choosing between a venue they love and a month they never wanted.
Almost every number downstream multiplies by headcount: catering, rentals, cake, favours, transport, the size of the room you need at all. Cutting twenty names does more for a budget than haggling with six vendors. Write the list before the spreadsheet, and write it honestly.
Building the timeline backwards, the rain plan you decide at booking rather than in the week of, the question to ask every vendor that is not the obvious one, the costs that ambush people, and the one job you must hand to somebody who is not you.
Planning one on a farm, or just wondering what that looks like?
Cedar Pond Farms