Jasmine Birtles
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Plan Your Own Wedding With This Free Tool
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Vicky Parry from MoneyMagpie thinks about the logistics of planning her own wedding and speaks to one incredible woman who has done that… using free website bark.com
I actually got engaged last year, but like many people during a cost-of-living crisis we had to put plans on hold due to a whole mountain of extra life expenses (isn’t that always the way!?). However, after my glorious success of arranging things with the fantastic (free to use) Bark.com, I started wondering if, to keep costs down, I could in fact plan the majority myself?
Contacting the company myself, they put me in touch with the incredible Beccy Cooper: A blushing bride-to-be who in fact did just that.
Wedding Planning Checklist
To start with, if you are going to plan your own wedding, you will need a really good checklist – a list of all of the different elements of your wedding and a month-by-month rundown of when you will need to do and sort each element.
We have created one for you. You can also download a free PDF version to print off here.
What Are the Stages of Planning a Wedding?
Lots of people often get deeply overwhelmed when it comes to getting married. And, rightly so – Psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe asked patients to “score” life events in terms of stress and it was discovered that your wedding was in fact one of the top ten most stressful life events a person can experience.
Bride-to-be Beccy Cooper said the element that is stressing her the most is the budget. “Everyone says weddings can be expensive and there are ways to cut the cost but it does come with some sacrifices. Really having to question which parts of the day are most important to us and priortise that way.”
Therefore, nailing down the above stages can actually make each one pleasurable, rather than a chore.
How would you Go About Planning Your Wedding With Bark.com?
Bark are essentially a site that assists you in finding virtually any service you need while securing competitive quotes. By collecting details about your requirements, urgency, and budget, they connect you with a perfect match for your needs. They are a service matchmaker.
Therefore to use Bark to plan your wedding you would need to:
- Say “yes”.
- Secure your venue, numbers and sort budget with partner
- Open a free account with Bark
- Look at the checklist above and start doing your callouts. The first one you will need to book will be your Photographer, Videographer and Band (these are normally booked up far in advance).
- Make your first callout live, starting with your desired budget, location, style etc
- People will start to get back to you quickly.
- Then work through the above planning guide, following these first initial steps.
We asked our bride to be Beccy whether she will be ok booking this herself with a product like Bark?
“Yes, I have been using Bark! I live in a pretty remote part of Norfolk so searching for suppliers via Google hasn’t been very good as I keep getting targeted by larger companies who actually live miles away and would have charged extra for the transport, or just be very difficult for me to see them in person! Thankfully I have found local wedding cake and florist suppliers through Bark.”
Why Bark?
We asked Beccy what elements had given her the confidence to plan her whole special day using Bark. She gave the following reasons:
- Free to use
- They do all the research for me
- Amazing selection
- Can work to budget
- Saves a huge amount of time (you won’t need to make all of those phone calls stipulating your own needs – as they will be in the initial callout.)
An alternative idea
Beccy also says that the organisational element may overwhelm some. “There are so many moving elements. The hardest part for me is keeping track of what you need to get from all the suppliers and if they can’t supply, remembering to follow up and find it from somewhere else. For example, I am getting the marque and table decorations from three different suppliers because I am picky!” – she says if this just becomes absolutely impossible to track for you then… “go back to Bark and request a planner. You can specify the budget you want to spend so if you really can’t hack the above, then they can still help.”
With all of this in mind, and my handy checklist above, I think I am ready to have a go at this for my own nuptials.
Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed financial advisor and therefore information found here including opinions, commentary, suggestions or strategies are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only. This should not be considered as financial advice. Anyone thinking of investing should conduct their own due diligence.
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