You said yes, celebrated with your favorite people, admired the ring more times than you can count, and have probably already heard, “So, when’s the wedding?” Now comes the fun part.
Getting engaged is exciting, but there’s no need to turn it into a project plan overnight. The best weddings tend to come together when couples first decide what kind of experience they want to create, then build the details around that vision. Here’s our recommendation on where to start.
1. Enjoy Being Engaged
Before you start comparing venues and building guest lists, give yourselves a little time to enjoy the moment. Breathe.
Plan a celebratory dinner. Pop the good bottle of champagne. Take engagement photos. Spend a weekend away. However you choose to celebrate, this is one of those seasons of life worth slowing down for. The planning can wait a minute.
2. Decide What You Want the Wedding to Feel Like
Before getting into logistics, talk about the experience.
– Do you picture an intimate dinner with your closest people or a larger celebration with a packed dance floor?
– A garden ceremony followed by cocktails outdoors?
– A formal reception?
– A relaxed coastal weekend where guests arrive early and stay a few extra days?
Side note: We can support all of the above ^
This is also the time to talk about what matters most to you. Maybe it’s incredible food and wine. Maybe you want live music during cocktail hour, an oyster bar, thoughtfully designed lounge spaces, a statement floral installation, or an elaborate dessert table instead of a traditional cake. There isn’t a right formula. The goal is to identify the details that will make the day feel distinctly yours.
Feel free to gather inspiration from our gallery of past weddings by clicking here.
3. Establish Your Budget and Guest List
Once you have a sense of the experience you want, establish a comfortable overall budget and a rough guest count. You don’t need every name finalized, but knowing whether you’re inviting 50 guests or 150 will shape nearly every decision that follows.
It’s also worth deciding where you want to invest. Some couples prioritize photography and videography. Others care most about entertainment, florals, food, specialty rentals, or creating an entire weekend for their guests. Knowing your priorities early gives you more freedom to spend intentionally later.
4. Start Touring Wedding Venues
With a general budget, guest count, and preferred season in mind, it’s time to start touring. Your venue becomes the backdrop for nearly everything else, from the ceremony and reception to portraits, cocktail hour, and the overall flow of the day. Being one of the newest wedding venues in Wilmington, NC, we can support weddings of various calibers. A Wilmington wedding can easily become a full destination weekend, with guests enjoying the beaches, downtown dining, shopping, boating, and everything the coast has to offer between events.
When touring with us, we recommend paying attention to how the entire experience comes together. Where will you get ready? Is there a beautiful transition from ceremony to cocktail hour? Are there multiple settings for portraits? Can the reception space be transformed to fit your vision? Will your guests enjoy being there for an entire evening? Simply, yes, we can support all of this, but when touring it is important to start envisioning how the day will play out.
You’re not simply choosing a room. You’re choosing the setting for one of the biggest celebrations you’ll host.
5. Book the Vendors You Care About Most
Once your date and venue are secured, begin building your vendor team. Your planner, photographer, videographer, caterer, florist, and entertainment are often among the first professionals worth booking, particularly if you’re planning a spring or fall wedding. We supply a vendor list to make the process even easier! We’ve worked with each vendor and only support the best and a variety of options. This is where your wedding starts becoming more personal.
Maybe a string quartet feels right for the ceremony and cocktail hour. Maybe you’ve always wanted a vintage getaway car. Perhaps you envision an open-air photo booth, raw bar, specialty cocktails, or beautifully designed lounge areas where guests can settle in between dances. Choose vendors who understand the experience you’re trying to create, not just the individual service they’re providing.
6. Move Into the Details
Once the major pieces are handled, you can start enjoying the smaller decisions. Engagement photos, save-the-dates, wedding websites, attire, registries, welcome parties, transportation, and guest experiences can all begin taking shape.
Engagement photos are especially useful because they can carry through to save-the-dates, invitations, your wedding website, and even displays during the wedding weekend. Couples who book Canterbury Stables also have the option to schedule engagement or bridal portraits on the property, giving you the chance to experience the grounds before the wedding day arrives.
Ready to Start Planning Your Wilmington Wedding?
You don’t need to have every detail figured out before touring a venue. Sometimes seeing the right setting is what makes everything else begin to fall into place.
Set on 12 pastoral acres in Wilmington, NC, Canterbury Stables offers couples room to create a celebration that feels elevated, personal and entirely their own, from the first photos of the day through the final send-off. And with the coast and downtown Wilmington just minutes away, your wedding can become much more than a single evening.
Schedule a tour of Canterbury Stables and start imagining what your wedding weekend could look like.