Post Wedding Checklist | You’re Married, Now What?
Before we delve into the post-wedding checklist and think about what to do now, let me first just say a massive congratulations! I hope you had an awesome wedding and are still riding high on the buzz from it. Now, let’s talk about the next steps. There are tonnes of lists of things to do throughout the planning process but they don’t always cover what happens afterwards, so what should you do?
Every couple’s situation will be slightly different and we’re massive fans of people doing their own thing, whether that be to do with their wedding or life, and not feeling like they need to follow tradition. So if you’ve already done anything on the list, or it doesn’t feel relevant to your just skip on to the next thing and if you think I’ve missed anything major drop a comment below and I’ll be happy to add onto this list!
Post Wedding Checklist
Plan Something Fun Such As A Holiday
Okay, so full disclosure, straight after our wedding we simply didn’t have the time, mental space to plan, or money for a big holiday or honeymoon, but we did manage a lovely minimoon – a few days in St Ives in Cornwall (our happy place). A few months later however we went on an amazing holiday to New York and, after the buzz of the wedding had subsided a little, it was absolutely amazing to have something exciting to look forward to. So my first tip is to think about something fun like booking a holiday!
Oh, and make sure to tell the hotel or other accommodation you’ve just got married – they’ll probably leave you a little something! We were greeted with a lovely bottle of bubbly on our minimoon and actually, because of a little mix-up about our name on a booking (it’s a long boring story), we had to tell a hotel we stayed at last summer we were married (we didn’t mention it was 7 years previously!) and they gave us a bottle of bubbly too!
Share Your News
Whilst many of your friends and family will have been with you on your wedding day, it’s still worth shouting about it to the rest of the world! So, when you’ve got a few sneaky peak photos from your photographer (we always send some over within a couple of days) share your stories on social media, tell your workmates, your friends & everyone!
If you really want to share your awesome wedding and want to get your wedding published in a blog, particularly if you did something awesome, talk to your photographer or approach some blogs yourself. There are loads of blogs out there and all your suppliers will love you for getting their work featured!
Get Excited About Your Wedding Photos & Film
Whether you’ve used us as your wedding photographers or not, you should by now know how long it’ll take to see your photos and film (if you’ve got one on the way!) – we normally say about six to eight weeks for photos but this can change a bit depending on the time of year and how big our editing pile is.
It’s also worth considering at this stage whether you’re interested in any prints, frames, or a wedding album. Frames are the best for big stand-out moments such as an epic confetti shot, a portrait of you and your partner, or a particularly special family group shot.
Albums however are the perfect way to share your wedding with friends or family without making them regret asking after you offer up 500 images to flick through a screen! They also don’t rely on you remembering which file they’re stored or remembering a password to the online storage allowing you to look at them whenever you choose. Albums really come into their own by sharing the story of your wedding – all those in-between, candid moments such as the look of love on your elderly grandad’s face when he saw you, that time everyone broke down in fits of laughter during the speeches when your child interrupted you to ask if she could go for a poop, or when your mate did a back flip on the trampoline (yes, these have all happened at weddings we’ve shot!)
I could go on but it would be much more fun to chat in person over tea and cake right?
Send Some Thank You Cards/ Emails
What’s the phrase, it takes a village to raise a child? Well in so many cases it’s similar to weddings. Were you bridesmaids or best men awesome in helping out in the run-up or on the day? Did your parents help with paying for your wedding or with their experience and advice? Did you tap into your friend’s or family’s many hidden talents to help you out? Were there any suppliers that went above and beyond?
Whatever it was, anybody involved would absolutely love to receive a little thank you to show how much you care. As a photographer, it absolutely makes my day when we get a card through the post from a satisfied couple!
Give your suppliers some love
If you’ve had an awesome wedding and suppliers have shown off their wonderful talents and gone above as beyond as so many do, there are a few things that would make them love you that little bit more. The majority of wedding suppliers are tiny little companies and often one man bands, as a result, no matter how awesome they are it can be pretty tough to get noticed and book weddings. It’s also hard to know that you’re doing a good job unless people tell you and who are the best people to tell us, well the lovely couples that booked us in the first place!
So, the first thing to do is leave a review and if you can add some photos that’s even better (if we were your photographers you can leave us a review here). Beyond this, a thank you card/ email will make their day!
Preserve Your Wedding Flowers
Obviously, if you used dried flowers or another type of alternative bouquet you won’t need to worry too much about this step. However, if you’ve used real flowers and want to preserve them there are actually quite a few options to check out – this blog over on Brides.com has plenty of good ideas and inspiration.
Outfits
Think about the best ways to make use of your wedding outfits. For those wearing a suit, it tends to be quite a simple way of reusing their suit – simply wear it to any occasion you would normally wear a jacket! That could be anything from friend’s weddings to a fancy date night with your partner. For me it meant wearing it to every wedding I could for the next few years until, honestly I had put on a little bit of weight and ended up splitting the trousers (whilst shooting a wedding actual – fun story).
The answer for those wearing a dress can be a little more complicated. Firstly, if it’s not a big traditional white dress you can probably get away with wearing it to other events and weddings. If it is a more traditional white dress there’s all kinds of different options, you could clean and/ or preserve it, donate, sell or alter it. Check out this blog over on Wedding Spot for more ideas.
A few fun photos before the legal/ boring but important stuff!
Legal/ boring but important stuff
There are a few less exciting things that are worth considering after getting married. The most obvious for a lot of people will be changing your name(s). Whether you’ve taken your partner’s name or vice versa, or you’ve combined or double-barrelled your names there’s quite a few people you’ve got to inform.
Not all of these will be relevant to everyone but here’s a list of things to consider (obviously some are more urgent than others – I’d start with the DVLA if I were you, check out the reason below!):
- Passport – this is one you actually don’t need to do immediately as it currently costs £82.20 but so long as you’re prepared to travel with your marriage certificate you don’t need to change your name until your passport expires.
- Driving license and vehicle registration – apparently, you can be fined up to £1,000 if you fail to notify the DVLA about the names change
- HM Revenue and Customs
- Your employer
- Child Benefit
- Student Loans Company
- Your mortgage provider
- Your pension providers
- Your bank or building society
- Local Authority (Council tax and electoral register)
- Credit card companies
- Your phone & broadband provider
- Your doctor
- Your vet
- Your gym
- Your dentist
- Your breakdown cover company
- Utility companies (gas, water, electricity providers)
- Your insurance company (motor, home, travel, pet)
- Store cards & online accounts
- Loans companies
- Magazine subscriptions
It’s also worth considering whether now is the right time to be buying life insurance and/ or getting a will. It’s often a big moments getting married or buying a house that you just have a moment to sit back and reflect on things and it’s also a great time to be considering whether you need to protect yourselves and your family.
The last thing to do is enjoy and go easy on yourself – getting married is a pretty full-on thing and no doubt something you’ve been planning for a while and after all the excitement it can feel like there’s so take some time to chill out, enjoy married life & being together.
And if you want to keep reading our blogs about things to do after you get married consider this cheeky number below!