Planning your wedding should be enjoyable - not difficult

Your wedding may be the happiest day of your life, but planning your wedding could be the worst experience of a lifetime - if you don't think ahead. As popular movies like Father of the Bride and The Wedding Planner have so humorously documented, planning your wedding is both stressful and costly, and can affect your relationship with your family, friends and, most importantly, your intended future-spouse! However, as weddings become ever more lavish affairs, there are a burgeoning number of sources that brides and grooms can use to plan their wedding effectively - such as hiring a wedding planner if your budget allows it.

While a number of websites, magazines and other publications provide a plethora of information that couples can access, it is always helpful if you create a wedding checklist at the beginning of your plans, in order to give yourself a clear vision of the path ahead to your big day. Firstly, once you have announced your engagement to all relevant parties, it is important to start making calculations for your budget and compile a guest list. It is then important to check whether these are compatible: remember, if your budget doesn’t allow you to invite 500 guests, you can't do it!

It is then worth considering whether you'd like to hire a professional wedding co-ordinator to plan the more complex parts of your celebration - such as liaising with caterers, negotiating with wedding cake manufacturers and ensuring that all the arrangements for your wedding and your rehearsal dinner are in place. Many hotels, such as the Conrad Hotel, offer wedding planning services if you're holding your wedding at their establishment. This can take a huge weight of your shoulders and make the general passage of your wedding much smoother.

Even if you do relinquish the reigns to a wedding planner, there are still a number of tasks that the bride, groom and their families can carry out with little help. These include addressing and sending invitations, creating a gift registry and generally giving your wedding planner guidance on the way in which they want him or her to go about organising the wedding. And don't forget to choose your best man, maid of honour and bridesmaids well in advance, so that they'll have plenty of time to plan your bachelor or bachelorette party!

Don't forget: wedding planning does not need to be a stressful task. The important thing is to ensure that you are organised, and, if possible, to employ an effective wedding planner. And even if hiring a wedding planner is beyond the realms of your budget, your wedding is sure to be a success if you stay on top of things and try your best not to exceed your budget.