If you are in the process of planning your wedding for next summer, you may already have a good idea what type of wedding you want. You may have even visited some venues already or visited a few wedding fairs. Even though it seems like you are being swept along on the crest of a wave and it seems really early in the wedding planning process, you do need to spend some time considering who you want to invite.

The number of invitees at a wedding can sometimes be decided by the venue you have chosen, or you might already have a set number of people in mind who you want to invite, so you need to choose a venue based on that number.

One thing to bear in mind, especially if you are planning a summer wedding, is that your guests may be booking their summer holidays for next year about now. And if they don’t know the date of your wedding, you may have a situation where a few of the guests who you want to be there cannot make it.

For the reasons above, it’s a great idea to use save the date cards. If you send out save the date cards to those people who you really want to be there now, the card can be a constant reminder to them so they don’t book anything else on the same day.

Half the fun of organising a wedding, is deciding on how the reception venue will be decorated. You will probably have decided on a colour scheme, so this should help you to decide on a lot of the decorations, but there are some finishing touches that can make all the difference to your celebrations.

Firstly, you should draw up a wedding table plan so that everyone knows where they are sitting for the meal and they can find their seats quickly and easily. You should choose wedding table names to match the theme of your wedding, for that special personal touch.

On the tables, you could choose to have some disposable wedding cameras. By putting a couple on each table, you will encourage your guests to capture those special moments from the wedding reception. You could combine these photos with your professional photos in some wedding photo albums for a really special souvenir from the day.

Something else which can really add the finishing touch to your wedding preparations is the use of wedding guest books. These can be passed around at the wedding reception for guests to sign and leave notes in. That way, you will have something lovely to look back on after your big day is over.

Once you have sent out your save the date cards, you can breathe a sigh of relief. You no longer have to worry about some of your guests double booking themselves and having prior arrangements on your big day so you can relax into your wedding preparations.

A lot of people struggle to know where to begin when it comes to planning a wedding, but one thing that can really help you to get a focus is deciding on a theme.

A theme can help you to make decisions about all sorts of aspects of your wedding. For example, if you have a flower theme, then this can help you to decide on your wedding stationery. You could choose a wedding invitation with a rose design or wedding invites with sunflowers on them to match your theme.

You could then choose your wedding table names to tie in with this theme. So you could opt for a different flower name for each table and have the design on the wedding table names to reflect these.

Once you have chosen a theme, it really helps you to bring your whole day together and to create a co-ordinated event that everyone will remember.