What to do next?

McRogol

I need a little help knowing when to do some of the smaller details of our wedding.  We've handled what feels like all the "big" stuff...

We've got:

venue

caterer

photographer

transportation

flowers

dress

bridal party

rehearsal dinner location

brunch location

room blocks at nearby hotels

an officiant

talking with music (local band - need to iron out details)

When do I:

Do a hair and make-up trial?

Book honeymoon?

DIY guestbook table things? (I would like to avoid having a bunch of stuff collecting in my house...)

DIY Table runners?

Do the invites?

Are there things I haven't mentioned but need to do?    The list of "To-Do's" from The Knot overwhelms me, so I wanted to hear from the other July 2013 brides!

Thanks for your help!!

Getting2Vowels

You can start those anytime really. My HM is already booked. My invites are designed, just playing the waiting game with them at this point. I also have an idea for favor tags and all the other little things that can wait till March/April. Do things when you can. I feel its better to start earlier....it'll relieve stress later on.

kerryberry13

I bought all of my bridal party & parent gifts when they were on sale (after Christmas is a pretty good time to catch big sales if you know what you want). I ordered personalized napkins & straws and then put everything in a big rubber storage bin away in my closet.

Now I'm collecting photos and making my own sideshow that is going to play during the entrees at the reception. Collecting the baby photos is my favorite part and was surprising time consuming so I'm glad I started it now.

Next up for me is picking invitations and booking the honeymoon, both asap.

I'm not doing my hair and makeup trial until the spring because I've got dry, pale winter skin right now so I look nothing like I will in July after a little sunshine.

There's definitely a bt of a lull right now & unsure of what to start because it's too early for most things. Good luck!

emmyroo

My stylis recommended doing a trial somewhere around a month before.  Similar to KerryBerry, I've got my winter pale on right now and I've got winter color in my hair, so closer to summer would be better.

Honeymoon, I think you could do any time, maybe even the sooner the better.  FI and I are going on our 1 year, so I may not be the best to answer that.

DIY projects can be any time too. I'd recommend getting them done in plenty of time, though, so you're not scrambling right before the wedding to finish them!

Invites, I think depend on what you're going to do.  If you're having someone do them or are ordering them, make sure they'll be done in plenty of time.  If you're going to DIY them - depending on how complicated you're going to get, I'd say start ASAP, since those should probably go our in about 3 months for our July weddings!  I'm doing DIY with my mom and we're going to start very soon!

Don't forget bridal party attire - especially the men!  You didn't say anything in your post about tuxes or whatever attire you choose to go with.  Your FI should look amazing too!   The Knot's checklist recommends going to pick those out about 6 months ahead and making sure everyone's ordered by about 3 or 4 months out, so that might be a good next project!

keyaira04

Ma'am, you have an impressive list completed! Good for you! Much of the things I was going to hit on, pp addressed. Hair and make-up trial: I dont have issues with winter skin/hair, so Im doing mine in March or April for my b-photos. More bang for my bucks. Book honeymoon: FIs area, but he is looking into this now and trying to figure it out. Depends on what you are trying to do and where. Starting to look at prices and packages could not hurt right now. DIY? Most of my DYI are completed, taking the advice from TK ladies like those above to start as early as you can. Create a list of everything you plan to do, then knock it out. Create a deadline to get everything done, like a few weeks before the wedding. And leave lazy time between projects. Sometimes, we just get sick of wedding stuff and need to put it on hold. But just thinking about the three items you listed. For me, The guestbook was easy and took me 3 hours to do, a few days to get everything I needed for it. The invites took alot of time. I wanted to do DYI pocketfolds and they took a few weeks, then I scraped the idea and took 3 hours to redesign them and get them to VP printing requirements. It is something I would recommend starting now! The runners, this depends on how many and if you are using a sewing machine. Then you need to go select all your materials. Other To dos Attire ( GMs, groom, Mothers, BMs, FGs) Website (if having it. This was another time consuming venture) understanding marriage license requirements Wedding coordinator Lastly, devil has been in the details for me. So thats my focus right now.

blondii428

Sounds like you are doing great!! If you haven't started looking at HM destinations yet, I would start.  If you're indecisive like me you may find that there are a lot of options and decisons to make!  Oh and if you don't have a Passport remember those take some time to get so don't put it off too long!

I think Spring (around April) is a great time to do the hair and make up trial.

I'm going to start doing my DIY projects in the next week or so because in the past I have found that my crafty projects that seemed simple ended up being more time consuming than I thought.  Give yourself some bumper room for problems and relieve the stress later on