For a short-notice wedding, choose the best of available wedding venues and make it good. Also, keep your options of venue types open – it must not be a big hotel or indoor venue. Other venue types are also great. Additionally, be open to a weekday wedding, if you find that a great venue is not available on a Saturday which is preferred for weddings in Nigeria.
We’re seeing a trend where some Nigerian couples are fixing their weddings through Mondays and Fridays, and Akah and Claire’s celebrity-style wedding in Lagos showed us that Nigerian weddings can be even better on weekdays. HINT: Some hotels offer a good discount on their event halls on any weekday when those halls are usually vacant. You can ask for a discount if they forget to tell you.
Step 8: Book the Wedding Ceremony Officiant
An officiant is a person that will join the couple during your wedding, such as a Pastor (for church weddings), an Alaga (for Yoruba traditional wedding). Depending on whether it’s a church/ worship house wedding or a court registry wedding, or traditional wedding, arrange and book your wedding with them, and lock in the date.
Step 9: Book Wedding Vendors (Month 1)
Book the major vendors first (and make deposits to lock them down) to avoid disappointment, as the best ones are in high demand. Ensure to only book local vendors who are not far from you and your wedding location, to make working with them easier.
You need to start booking vendors as soon as possible – caterer, wedding cake, photographer, MC, DJ/ Band. Be sure to pay them a deposit to confirm their attendance. Also, only book the vendors that people recommend as trusted to show up, and also good at what they do.
Step 10: Make Your Invitation List (but Keep it Simple)
Keep your Wedding Invitation List (Guest List) Simple. Know that you must not invite everyone you know to your wedding. So, make a list of people first, and trim down the list to only the sure-to-come guests. Only invite close friends and family you are sure will attend.
- READ ALSO: Why Nigerian Weddings are Expensive and What to Do
- How to Trim Down Your Guest List Fewer People
Step 11: Print and Address the Invitation Cards (Month 1)
Printing a card may be unnecessary if most of your guests are close friends and relatives – they won’t mind receiving invitations via text messages and WhatsApp or email, or bulk sms.
If you have to make printed invitation cards, be sure to ask around for tried and trusted Invitation card printers, to avoid disappointment.
Do not waste your invitation cards on the maybes. Only send out invites to the few you are sure of. The notice is short, and only your closest people will attend your wedding even if they have to cancel their other pre-scheduled events. There’s no time to invite the maybes. There’s no need to invite people you don’t regularly see/ speak to or haven’t seen in a long time – such as old classmates, long-lost relatives, and friends.
When thinking of who to invite, start with the people who are presently in your life. You may not be able to invite too many people in this short time. Some people need a long notice to commit to an event, so leave that kind of people out. To decide on who to invite and who not to, follow our steps in steps to reduce a wedding guesl list.
Step 12: Send out Invitation Cards (in Month 1 or Week 5)
Once you fix the wedding date, it’s time to start sending out invitations to the people on your guest list. It’s important to do this as soon as possible so that your guests do not commit to other events on your date, and also give them time to keep your wedding date open. Depending on how much time you have, you can send out a paper of digital invitation cards.
If there’s not much time (say, less than 3 months), use every means (not only paper invitation cards) to spread out your wedding invitation. For more tips, read our tips on Common Wedding Invitation Card Questions: Our Answers
Send text messages via phone and WhatsApp, send emails and make phone calls to tell your friends and family of your wedding date, and also ask of their availability. It’s okay to skip the paper invitation cards and opt for only text messages and emails. Be prepared to hear some people tell you that the time (notice) is too short and they cannot make it. That’s okay, invite the other people.
Step 13: Choose and Buy/Rent Your Wedding Attire (Month 1)
When planning a Nigerian wedding within a short space of time, sewing the wedding gown or groom’s tuxedo/ suit may not be the best option, because many Nigerian tailors are known to disappoint clients. Unless you can get your wedding attires ready in the first month, the best option is either to rent or buy a ready-made bridal dress or groom’s suit.
- 7 Things to Consider Before You Buy that Wedding Gown
- Wedding Gown Shopping Tips to Help You Save Time and Money
- These Are the Best Wedding Gowns for Your Figure (with Photos)
Step 14: Choose Bridesmaids and Groomsmen, And Choose their Attire (Month 2)
For a quick wedding within 3 months, it is recommended to keep the number of bridesmaids and groomsmen very few, or skip having them. We have seen many beautiful weddings where the couples did not have bridesmaids and groomsmen.
If you decide to have bridesmaids and groomsmen, you’ll have to quickly decide on what they will wear, and buying ready-made bridesmaids dresses and groomsmen suits will save time.
It’s risky to go have a tailor sew your bridesmaids and groomsmen outfits, given that most Nigerian tailors are unreliable. Unless you really know that tailor, maybe you can pay extra for express service and an agreement to get the outfits in less than 2 weeks, so that you have some time to do any amendments if required.
Tips for Planning a Successful Nigerian Wedding in 3 Months
The secret is to execute your plans as quickly as possible. Here are tips for successfully planning Nigerian wedding in 3 months:
- Keep your to-do list short, and your plans very simple
- Execute all your wedding plans in Month 1 – you need speed.
- Start with venue rental – in Month 1, Week 1
- Use Month 2 for Follow-ups, and a Few To-Dos that you could not execute in Month 1
- Leave Month 3 blank – for any activity that spills over
- Keep number of guests very few, to make planning manageable
- Hire only venue, wedding officiant and local vendors within the state/ city of your wedding, to make it easy to work with them.
If the idea of short engagement appeals to you, then go for it and start planning your wedding right away. Whether you want to have a short period of engagement before the wedding or just prefer to plan a quick wedding, ensure to take care of the basics (budget, date and guest count) first before booking a venue or vendors.
Be sure to print the above 3-month wedding planning checklist to keep all your to-dos handy as you go along. Just remember to keep things as simple as possible and skip anything or vendor that would take too long or that you’re unsure of – because there’s no time to gamble with uncertainties and packing nervousness. Finally, know that many brides have successfully pulled off amazing weddings in less than 6 months, in less than 4 months and in 3 months. So you too can! Go for it!
MORE WEDDING PLANNING TIPS:
- Nigerian Traditional Wedding Planning (Checklist)
- Nigerian Wedding Reception Planning Checklist
- Day of Wedding Coordination Checklist (to Hand to Your personal-Person)
- 10 Tips to Avoid Common Wedding Photographer Disappointments
- Common Wedding Reception Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Conclusion
That’s all on how to plan a Nigerian wedding in 3 months, or in a few months. Take action and it will go well. Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed reading, please share this post on your social media pages by clicking the social sharing buttons down below. Also, consider subscribing and joining our wedding community, so that you will be the first to know every time we publish a new post.
MORE WEDDING PLANNING ARTICLES:
- How to Plan a Traditional and White Wedding Same Day
- How to Plan a Wedding in 12 Months (Checklist)
- How to Plan a Wedding in 6 Months or Less
- Nigerian Wedding Planning Scenes and Tips from SGIT Movie
Before you leave, I want to hear from you – do you think it’s better to plan a wedding within a few months or within 12 months or more?
Good morning please my wedding is Dec dis year
And we just pick d date last month only ave 1m how can I do it without any issue please 😟
Hello Kikelomo.
1) The starting point in wedding planning is setting a budget, which you have done (your N1m).
2) Next is to make a budget breakdown to plan how much to spend on what. I created an automatic wedding budget calculator that can do a starter-breakdown for you. Go to that page, type in your budget amount and copy the suggested budget allocation. You can later tweak it to suit your needs.
3) Make a list of your non-negotiables. Those are where to allocate the most money and detail. For many Nigerian brides, it’s photography and the look + couple’s outfits, and a good DJ. What’s yours?
4) Follow my tips on how to guarantee that your wedding day will be perfect as planned, with no issues.
5) Prepare a wedding day emergency kit to help you quench any sudden unpleasant issues, if they do happen.
6) Read this to know what usually goes wrong at weddings, and use the tips to avoid them on your big day.
7) No one plans a wedding alone. So, form your personal planning squad. Invite others to help you, and tell them early.
8) Book your venue early, and be armed with my list of what to look for in a wedding venue.
9) Hire tried and trusted vendors. Ask friends and relatives for recommendation. The best planning can be ruined by bad vendors. Therefore, choose your vendors carefully.
10) Prepare a day-of-wedding schedule that details the flow of things on your big day, and assign one of your trusted persons as your wedding-day-coordinator. Hand a copy of your wedding day schedule to that person. *This is the person that makes sure everything runs smoothly while you’re having fun on your big day. To help you our, I wrote a post on the duties of a day-of-wedding-coordinator.
11) I wrote some helpful tips to avoid other known common wedding planning mistakes:
Tips to avoid common wedding reception mistakes
Many weddings were either ruined by a bad photographer or one that never showed up, and it’s common. You can avoid that by using the tips in my wedding photography planning mistakes to avoid.
Finally, if you are too busy to commit time to planning your wedding yourself, hire a wedding planner to plan the entire thing for you or plan the early part and hire a planner to be your day-of-wedding coordinator.
Hope that helps. Happy planning!
-Stella
Nice write up.
I prefer planning in the shortest time possible because I’ll be up and doing, and give it my best shot!
Great job!👍
Hello Amazing. You’re not alone – some people get worked-up when planning a wedding takes too long. That’s why I wrote this quickie wedding planning checklist.
I’m glad you like it. Thanks for your feedback.
Good day how can I plan a wedding with 500k with a guest of 80
Hello Favour. First, you need to make an expense list and then specify how much to spend on each one. Total them up and be sure that they do not exceed your N500k. Use that as a guide to shop and hire venue and vendors.
You can use a calculator, pend and paper to do this. If you hate stress, use NaijaGlamWedding’s budget calculator – just type in your budget amount, press enter and you’ll see the breakdown displayed on your screen. Feel free to adjust things to suit you – it’s just a guide.
Let me know how it goes. Happy wedding-planning!
Hi, Gooday I just came across ur page by God’s grace my wedding is may 2021. How do i plan with 1million, with 500 guests thanx.
Welcome here, Gloria. I’m glad to have you around. Thanks for your question. Here’s my reply:
1) See examples from other people’s N1 million Naira wedding budget. See what they spent on and how much they spent on different things. It always helps to know what to expect if we see how others did what we are planning to do.
2) One million Naira is a lot of money, but when you have 500 guests that will break down to Two Thousand Naira per guest on food alone. That means you’ll have to look for extra money on the other wedding things like couple’s outfits, venue hire, photography/ video coverage, etc.
3) An idea could be:
-N500k on catering (food and drinks). Find a caterer that will charge N1k (one thousand Naira) per plate of food and a drink – meaning N500k on food and drinks;
-Use the remaining N500k (five hundred thousand Naira) to cover every other expense.
MY SUGGESTIONS:
It’s your wedding, and you have made up your mind on the number of guests you want to have, but I think that you can have a fancier and quality wedding if you cut down on the number of guests.
That way, you’ll have more money to get better quality things, such as a better venue, better wedding gown and groom’s suit, quality photographer and vendors.
A very large number of wedding guests (500) is too many to work with N1m wedding budget, due to the cost of things in present-day Nigeria.
So, there you have my tips on how to make your N1m work for 500 guests and my suggestion for you to consider reducing the number of guests (as an alternative).
Hope that helps.
Your blog is quite insightful. Thanks for sharing. I will follow you on ig, kindly reciprocate.
Aww! Thanks. Here’s everywhere that you can find and follow us, just in case.
Good day, I just came across your page, it’s really helpfully going throug it, please my wedding is the last week of December 2020, how do I plan with 500,000, with a 100 guess.
Hello Jessica, thanks for being here, and for the positive feedback. I made a sample N500k wedding budget breakdown (click) that you could pick an idea or two to plan yours. I hope it helps you.
If you also want some cost-saving tips, take a look at this post ==> How to Plan an Inexpensive Wedding in Nigeria (19 Practical Ideas).
I like that you’re clear on your wedding goals – the exact budget (N500k) and the exact number of guests (100). Well done on that – that’s how we advise couples to start, but most brides don’t do that.
I hope those tips help. Feel free to comment again if you have another question.