Where to start when you've just got engaged!

You're newly engaged, you're on Cloud 9 and you've been celebrating for the past couple of weeks... Then once the celebrations begin to die down, the realisation starts to set in... It's time to plan a wedding!

It's important of course to savour the moments after getting engaged, and really enjoy that engagement bubble. Some couples might enjoy this for a few weeks, and some for months, but once you're ready to get the ball rolling (and have ideally discussed your budget and guest list) it's useful to know where to start!

Book Your Venue

And where else to start than Your Venue? The venue will play a huge part in your wedding day and is potentially one of the most important decisions you will make in the planning process (so choose wisely)! This will be the backdrop to the biggest day of your lives, so you want it to feel like 'you' and and offer the flexibility to accommodate exactly what you are hoping for.

Whether you are looking for somewhere to host a small intimate ceremony for immediate family only, a lavish party for 100, or something somewhere in between (Dodmoor can do all three!) - once you have locked down the location, you will feel much calmer about the rest of the planning.

Getting your venue booked sooner rather than later will also mean having a better choice of ceremony times with the registrars (as these can get booked up quickly so we would always advise securing your ceremony booking before confirming your venue booking) or with your chosen church or celebrant.

Send out the Save The Dates

Securing your venue of course means securing your date, so you can then send out your 'Save The Dates' to ensure all of your loved ones have your wedding day in their diaries! The date will also influence the style of your wedding day, meaning you can start visualising the dress or suits you might wear, the decor to personalise the day, and the food you will serve to your guests.

The beauty of Dodmoor as a venue is how it works so well in all seasons.

Spring and Summer offer outdoor ceremonies, drinks receptions in the courtyard, garden games at the lawn and the barns are light and airy.

Alternatively in Autumn and Winter, candles are lit throughout the barns and fairy lights cover the courtyard and trees, making the venue feel cosy and festive.

Find your Caterer

Once you have a venue & date and have a good idea of the 'vibe' for the day, you can start thinking about food. Caterers are most certainly one of the 'big' things you want to tick off quite soon, as catering firms can get booked up fast and many will only cater for weddings at a couple of different venues on each date.

Dodmoor House can recommend a selection of recommended caterers we work closely with, or you have the flexibility to find your own, so there's lots of choice (but also lots of help in making that big choice!)

Prioritise specific suppliers and get them booked

Once you have started your wedding journey with Dodmoor House, our team will not only be on hand to help and guide you with the next steps but will also introduce you to our list of recommended suppliers (many of which you could meet in person at our regular open evenings, held around 4-5 times each year).

We would always advise prioritising suppliers like a photographer or band and getting them booked quite soon after catering is sorted, as they are also within the bracket of suppliers who can get booked up fast (and can only do one wedding on each date!)

Once the likes of catering, photography and evening entertainment are sorted, you can then start to have some fun thinking about other suppliers such as cakes, florists, venue dressers, content creators and stationery (or working out which bits your family and friends can help with!)

Consider accommodation

If your guests are travelling quite a distance for your big day, it's wise to think about accommodation options fairly early on! There are lots of hotels and AirBnBs in the surrounding areas to Dodmoor, so your guests won't be short of somewhere to stay.

We also have specific links with two local hotels - the Mercure Daventry Court Hotel and Staverton Park Hotel. They offer bed & breakfast as well as free transport back to the hotel at the end of the night for those staying on the Dodmoor Rate. You can see details here

As you will see, to set up your Dodmoor Rate allocation, you would need to contact the hotels directly. Once this is set up, you would be given an allocation code which you can then pass onto your guests to use when booking rooms at these hotels.

Guests can then get booking their hotels and perhaps even book two nights to make a weekend of it!

Have a breather!

Once you have ticked off at least some of the 'big things' to start with, you can have a bit of a breather! Have some time in the engagement bubble again and enjoy thinking about things like dresses, suits and shoes!

The time will roll around again to get back into planning mode and start pulling together the table plan and finalising menus and drinks choices, and the Dodmoor Team will be on hand to help with that too!

Bringing it all together

We will get in touch with you around six months ahead of your wedding day to invite you to schedule a date for your main planning meeting, which takes place on a midweek date in the daytime for around 2-3 hours. This is when you meet your own designated wedding coordinator and they will talk through all the plans of the day with you, producing a detailed plan so they can use this to liaise with you and your suppliers over for the last few weeks.

This is a good target date to set for your RSVPs to be returned, so that you have a clear idea of guest numbers and table plans, leaving the last few weeks to make any final tweaks to your plans

We are here to help you to bring it all life together, so please rest assured that booking Dodmoor means you get your own personal wedding support team!

We really want to help you enjoy the steps after getting engaged, so contact us now to arrange a viewing and start your planning process with us!

Love from the Dodmoor Family x