Lucy and Hayden Burke know a thing or two about planning a wedding…
The husband-and-wife team founded custom wedding furniture and prop hire company, Louisiana Lucy, in 2015, and as they tell us in the current issue of Fashion Quarterly Life, working within the wedding industry has taught them the importance of getting it right behind the scenes. “There’s no room for error when someone’s big day is at stake,” says Lucy.
With that said, we could think of no better person than Lucy to share her tips for a stylish and stress-free wedding…
10 tips to a stylish and stress-free wedding
- Start with a list that you can add and subtract from but always, always have a list.
- Gather a range of ideas from Pinterest, blogs and wedding magazines. From there, create a theme, colour scheme or just a general feel for how you want your wedding to look and the feeling you want to create.
- Get in early! No matter how crazy it may seem, book your vendors as early as possible to secure the ones you want. We have brides booking over a year in advance, as dates book out quickly.
- Enlist help. Whether it is your bridal party, your parents, friends or a wedding planner, having help makes the planning and the actual day run so much smoother and more enjoyable.
- Set a budget and keep referring back to it. Who wants to blow their entire budget on flowers and have no tables to put them on? Don’t get caught out! Talk to vendors to get an initial idea of costs, then sit down and set a realistic budget you can stick to.
- If your wedding is outdoors, make sure you have a Plan B. We have been to too many weddings where there hasn’t been a wet weather option and you can see the stress of the bridal party from a mile away.
- Remember what is important – it’s the people who are sharing this special day with you. When writing your guest list, factor in who you absolutely cannot imagine your day without. Who will still be in your life in five years? Don’t feel guilty for keeping the guest list tight and within budget.
- Three things – good music, good food and enough alcohol! No one wants to run out of wine on their wedding night so make sure you factor in the big drinkers who love a free glass of bubbles.
- Great furniture! The right furniture is a building block for your day. Think about your guests, your overall creative vision and your budget, but remember, your guests need to sit, eat and drink!
- Don’t stress. We know you will, but in reality, it will all fall in to place and if something goes wrong, roll with it. You are marrying your best friend. That is all that matters at the end of the day.
As for Lucy and Hayden’s own wedding? “It was extremely mellow and simple,” says Lucy. “Hayden and I got engaged after knowing each other for two weeks, and we were married a year later, so we never really had that much time to plan anything.” The pair married on Hayden’s family farm “with a really small guest list, no fancy furniture at all and the flowers were just picked from the garden. It was really just a party more than a wedding. It was perfect!”
With their industry knowledge, would they do anything differently if they had the day over again?
“I wouldn’t change a thing about our wedding,” says Hayden.
Well, maybe one thing.
“Our furniture would be a lot nicer,” says Lucy.
