"I'm Engaged! Now What!?" The 5 Most Important First Steps for Wedding Planning in Cleveland
Congratulations Rachel and Taylor! Engagement photo courtesy of Astrid and Aria Photography in Cleveland, Ohio.
The moments following a proposal are filled with "ooohhss and ahhhhs" as family and friends come together to congratulate and celebrate the newly engaged couple.
Quickly however, the "How did he do it?" questions are replaced with, "When's the wedding? Where will you have the ceremony? What about the reception?"
It's unknown why Great Aunt Maggie thinks you know these details mere minutes after getting engaged, but it sure seems important to her…and the rest of your aunts. Sure, they all mean well as they probe for detail after detail, but woah Mags, slow down.
The answer for most newly engaged couples is, "I don't know!"
Unfortunately, the excitement of getting engaged is often quickly overshadowed by the incessant reminder that now you have to plan a wedding.
Which according to Great Aunt Maggie, you better hurry cause your "biological clock is ticking" *sigh*
Truly, wedding planning can overwhelm even the most organized people, which is probably why some Cleveland couples take years to complete the task. Putting off the extensive to-do list and never-ending decisions is definitely easier than checking them off, especially if you try to tackle wedding planning yourself.
So now that you've got that gorgeous sparkler on your hand, what do you do?
Well, that's a loaded question and one that takes a lot of time to unravel. But let's start with the first five steps toward planning your Cleveland wedding.
Rachel and Taylor are beginning their wedding planning journey.
5 Crucial Wedding Planning Steps for Cleveland Couples
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1. Create a Wedding Budget That Works for You
Creating a wedding budget may seem easier said than done. There are so many factors that go into this decision. Most notably, the number of guests you plan to invite to witness and celebrate your big day.
Why is the number of guests the largest factor in your wedding budget? More guests equals more tables at the reception. More tables? More centerpieces, food, chairs, linens, cake, alcohol, and the list goes on.
So within the first step of wedding planning, you'll also need to have a close estimate of your guest list.
Another important factor when it comes to the wedding budget is location. It's no secret that if you're planning a wedding in downtown Cleveland at The Cruz Building, costs will differ from a rustic vineyard wedding at Sapphire Creek Winery or a lakefront celebration at Shoreby Club.
A clear budget breakdown helps you allocate funds wisely across all wedding expenses.
No matter what your total budget amount, I have a simple breakdown of how to spend that money based on percentages, so whether you plan to spend $10,000 or $100,000, these percentages can work for you.
Typical Cleveland Wedding Budget Breakdown:
Venue & Catering: 40-50%
Photography & Videography: 10-15%
Flowers & Décor: 8-10%
Entertainment: 8-10%
Wedding Attire: 8-10%
Invitations & Stationery: 2-3%
Miscellaneous: 5-8%
If you're unsure of a budget, or if your parents are stuck on the wedding prices of 1987, I've got you. Helping couples establish (and stick to) a realistic budget is just one of the many perks of hiring a Cleveland wedding planner.
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2. Hire a Cleveland Wedding Planner (Your Secret Weapon!)
Some engaged couples (especially my type A brides) may feel that hiring a wedding planner isn't a necessary investment when it comes to wedding planning, so I'd like to reframe the "do it yourself" idea for a quick moment and ask a question.
If you were spending $50,000 on a home renovation, would you ask the experts for guidance in order to help you make good design choices, avoid wasting money, and avoid going over budget?
In most cases, the answer is yes. Spending a LARGE amount of your hard-earned money typically necessitates an expert opinion to guide you along the way.
Professional wedding planning helps couples like Rachel and Taylor enjoy their engagement without the stress.
With so many decisions in wedding planning, having an expert Cleveland wedding planner will not only help save you time (because she already knows everything you're going to have to research about Northeast Ohio venues and vendors), but she will also save you money.
She knows the ins and outs of the Cleveland wedding industry and all of the local vendors you'll need to make your day come to life—from Chagrin Falls to downtown Cleveland to the lakefront venues—which leaves you with less research to do and more time to enjoy being engaged.
Dare I say…your wedding planner may be the most important decision you'll make in the wedding planning process.
She will be the person to answer your every question, calm your nerves, help you make tough decisions, give design inspiration, plan the venue tours and vendor tastings, find the best vendors, and keep the planning on track.
But most importantly, she will ENSURE that your actual wedding day is stress FREE.
You just sip a glass of champagne and enjoy getting ready the morning of your wedding while she makes sure EVERYTHING else is ready and waiting for your arrival at the venue.
3. Choose and Reserve Your Cleveland Wedding Venue
Sapphire Creek Winery offers stunning vineyard views and rustic elegance for fall weddings in the Chagrin Valley.
Perhaps you've known the answer to step 3 for nearly your entire life. Maybe you've dreamt of where you'd exchange vows since the day you met your fiancé, but here's the most important question: is it available during your desired season or month?
If your heart is set on a specific Cleveland area venue—whether it's the vineyard romance of Sapphire Creek Winery, the urban sophistication of The Cruz Building, or the lakefront elegance of Shoreby Club—that location may actually dictate the date of your wedding because you'll find yourself at the mercy of available dates.
At times, this could mean waiting two or three years before exchanging vows depending on how highly sought after that particular location is for couples. For some, it's worth the wait to have the venue they desire no matter what date is available.
The Metropolitan at The 9 in downtown Cleveland provides a stunning modern backdrop with exposed brick and industrial elegance.
But many couples have an ideal season or even month that they want to get married.
Fall weddings in Northeast Ohio are particularly popular, with stunning foliage in the Chagrin Valley creating a breathtaking backdrop. Those couples may be more open to various locations in order to ensure the best date available based on their schedules.
Enter…the wedding planner.
When you speak with your Cleveland wedding planner about your big day, one of the first questions she will ask is, "What do you envision for your wedding day?"
So give it some serious thought, and look around the endless options on Pinterest or ask your wedding planner to give you some Northeast Ohio venue options.
Do you envision an outdoor location, a church ceremony, a downtown loft, a rustic vineyard, a black tie affair, or a casual garden vibe?
Popular Cleveland Area Wedding Venue Styles:
Lakefront Elegance: Shoreby Club, Windows on the River
Urban Sophistication: The Cruz Building, The Metropolitan at The 9
Vineyard & Rustic Charm: Sapphire Creek Winery, Mapleside Farms
Country Club Refinement: Hillbrook Club, The Country Club
Historic Venues: Glidden House, Tudor Arms
Shoreby Club in Bratenahl provides a stunning lakefront setting for Cleveland weddings. Photo courtesy of Style & Story Creative.
Taking your vision, budget and guest list into account, your planner will be able to narrow down a list of Cleveland area locations, schedule the tours, and even go on tours with you to ensure that all of your questions are answered by the potential venue.
Do you work full time and dread the idea of your weekend being consumed by tours of venues across Northeast Ohio?
Let your wedding planner do the leg work for you! She will be your eyes and ears on the tours, get the answers to all of the important questions, and narrow down the location options even further so that you don't have to spend your free time driving from Chagrin Falls to downtown Cleveland to Avon.
Remember, part of her job is to save you TIME in the wedding planning process, and this is just one of the many ways that she can.
4. Establish Your Wedding Vision and Vibe
Before you start reaching out to Cleveland wedding vendors and signing contracts, pause for a moment. This step is crucial, and it's where many couples jump ahead too quickly only to realize later that their vendor choices don't quite align with what they actually wanted.
Take time to really define the feeling and atmosphere you want to create—both for yourselves AND your guests.
This isn't just about deciding between roses or peonies. It's about the experience you want everyone to have from the moment they receive your invitation until the last dance of the night.
Questions to Ask Yourselves:
What do we want our guests to FEEL when they arrive at our Cleveland wedding? Welcomed and embraced? Wowed by elegance? Relaxed like they're at a Chagrin Valley garden party with old friends?
Every detail matters when planning your perfect wedding day. Photo by Trail and Lens Photography.
What emotions do we want to experience throughout the day? Romantic and intimate? Joyful and energetic? Sophisticated and timeless?
When you look back at photos in 20 years, what's the one word you want to describe your wedding day?
Are we going for elegant and sophisticated? Relaxed and fun? Romantic and garden-inspired? Energetic and celebratory? Rustic and cozy?
Creating Your Vision Plan
If you've hired a wedding planner, this is where she really shines. She'll sit down with you and help translate those abstract feelings—like "romantic garden party" or "elegant but not stuffy"—into concrete decisions about Cleveland vendors, design elements, and even your timeline for the day.
Your planner will help you create a vision board, a color palette, and a clear direction that guides every single decision moving forward. When you know your vibe, suddenly choosing between Northeast Ohio florists becomes so much easier because you can immediately tell who "gets it" and who doesn't.
Doing It Without a Planner?
You absolutely can establish your vision on your own—it just takes dedicated time and intentional planning.
Set aside an evening with your fiancé. Pour some wine, order takeout, and really talk about what matters to you both. Create a Pinterest board together, but look beyond just pretty pictures. Save images that capture a FEELING, not just a look.
Pull together music that evokes the emotions you want. Find color palettes that speak to you. Describe your ideal guest experience in detail: What's playing when they arrive at your ceremony? What's the lighting like? Are they mingling with cocktails at high-top tables or seated for an intimate dinner right away?
Write it all down. Create a one-page "vision statement" that you can refer back to throughout the planning process.
Why This Step Saves You Time AND Money
Here's the truth: when you establish your vision early in the wedding planning process, you won't waste hours researching vendors who don't align with what you want.
If you know you want a relaxed, intimate vineyard vibe, you won't spend three weekends touring grand ballrooms in downtown Cleveland that seat 300 with crystal chandeliers.
If you're going for romantic and timeless, you won't get distracted by trendy decor options that'll look dated in your photos.
Your vision becomes your filter. It helps you make decisions faster and with more confidence. And that means less second-guessing, fewer vendor meetings, and staying within your budget because you're not tempted by things that don't serve your overall plan.
🎯 Feeling Overwhelmed? Get Your Free Wedding Timeline!
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5. Choose Your Cleveland Wedding Vendors
Ceremony Musicians - Cle Music Group brings elegance to your wedding ceremony.
Okay buckle up, step 5 is a doozy. It seems so simple in one short two-word sentence, "Choose vendors," but the list of vendors needed for a Cleveland wedding is extensive and grows even more extensive depending on the location of your ceremony and venue.
White Flour Cake Shoppe creates stunning custom cakes for Cleveland weddings.
Now that you've established your vision and vibe, you'll be able to choose Northeast Ohio vendors who truly understand and can execute what you want. Every vendor you hire should contribute to the overall feeling you're trying to create.
Take a breath before reading the bare minimum list of vendors that you'll need to make your Cleveland wedding come to life.
Essential Cleveland Wedding Vendors:
Photographer (like Trail and Lens Photography!)
Videographer
Florist
Baker
Transportation
Ceremony musician
Reception DJ or band
Caterer (if not provided by venue)
Officiant
Invitation/Stationery specialist
Hair stylist
Makeup artist
Linens (if not provided by venue)
Now, if you prefer an outdoor wedding venue in the Chagrin Valley or a location like Sapphire Creek Winery, that may require everything to be rented from outside companies.
While it WILL be gorgeous and it's completely possible, the list of vendors needed grows because you'll need rental companies that supply:
Happy Camper Bar Car
Rental Essentials for Outdoor Cleveland Weddings:
Aris Rentals Cleveland
Tents
Tables
Chairs
Bars
Cocktail tables
Lighting (Nothing fancy yet - this is so you can see each other!)
BATHROOMS (Yes, your guests will need restrooms throughout the event even if your location is a gorgeous spot in the Chagrin Valley!)
Table settings (dishes, water glasses, wine glasses, alcohol glasses, silverware, etc.)
Having an outdoor wedding means that you have to rent everything down to the spoon Great Aunt Maggie needs to stir her evening cup of coffee.
But we haven't even gotten fancy yet! This is where your Cleveland wedding planner will really help your imagination soar…or reel you in if you need to stay within the budget.
Get that Pinterest board out that you've been filling up since your first date because it's time to DREAM BIG. The various choices and design possibilities are endless when planning a Cleveland wedding.
Elevated Wedding Design Elements:
Boxwood wall rentals with custom neon lighting create stunning photo backdrops for guests.
Calligrapher to make custom signs
Live painter to paint a specific portion of the wedding events
Photo Booth with custom backdrop
Lighting Designer (uplighting, gobo monograms, ceiling washes)
Lounge furniture, rugs, pillows for a sophisticated cocktail area
Ceiling treatments (draping, chandeliers, greenery installations)
Dance floor decals or custom lighting (Check out that monogram below!)
If you can dream it, it can be done!
Believe it or not, there are even vendors available to help you include your four-legged friends in your Cleveland wedding.
Doggy I Do, LLC in Northeast Ohio specializes in transporting and accompanying your beloved furbaby to your wedding so you don't have to stress.
Rachel and Taylor are ready to celebrate their love with family and friends. Photo by Trail and Lens Photography.
I know that this list of Cleveland wedding vendors can overwhelm even the most Type A bride, but here's the good news…a company exists for everything you NEED and WANT.
And your wedding planner has worked with ALL OF THEM throughout Northeast Ohio, so leave the hard work to her!
Ready to Start Planning Your Cleveland Wedding?
So, let Great Aunt Maggie know that all of the wedding planning is covered.
You've hired Sterling Event Services, and Janet Abbey is going to take care of EVERYTHING.
📋 Ready to Get Started? Download Your FREE Wedding Planning Timeline!
Take the first step toward your dream Cleveland wedding with our comprehensive month-by-month planning checklist. Know exactly what to do and when to do it—from engagement to "I do!"
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE TIMELINE NOW
Contact Sterling Event Services today to schedule your complimentary consultation and start planning the Cleveland wedding you've always dreamed of.
Special thanks to Rachel and Taylor for sharing their beautiful engagement photos, and to Trail and Lens Photography for capturing their love story!
