how soon is to soon to start planing?

pinithin1

i am a new bride and have no idea how or when to start my planing. my wedding is currently about two years away. in the summer of 2012. when should i start planing my wedding dress and the booking the venue?

katheriner89

We got engaged in March 2010- wedding day is July 2011.

I've had enough time to plan all of the big stuff.
If I were you, i'd go ahead and get the venue booked.

JadziaDax

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_chit-chat_soon-soon-start-planing?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:14Discussion:01f08efc-4970-40fd-a7c1-fc59d6a2b191Post:58e63162-df14-44f3-afaf-ccba84d36696">how soon is to soon to start planing?</a>:
[QUOTE]i am a new bride and have no idea how or when to start my planing. my wedding is currently about two years away. in the summer of 2012. when should i start planing my wedding dress and the booking the venue?
Posted by pinithin1[/QUOTE]

You do have a while but, depending on where you live, some reception halls can get booked 2 years in advance. You can begin looking at halls/ venues after the holidays. For now, I would do some research online and head over to your local wedding board- click on "local wedding boards" and find your city. You'll learn a great deal from the other brides in your area.

When it comes to dresses and everything else, you have a while- you don't want to end up booking too many vendors, buying a dress too soon, picking out colors and then changing your mind a few months down the road. I would wait until you have under a year to buy the dress. I would also wait to ask friends to be in your wedding party.

aerinpegadrak

Budget first.  Be realistic, don't ask for contributions and don't count any offered money until the check has cleared.  Then figure out a ballpark guest list.  Then you can start venue shopping, but I wouldn't do anything more than your major vendors before about a year out.

I had a two-year engagement, and had to throw the entire thing out the window and start over at a year out due to our inside guy at our dream venue getting spectacularly canned.  Wasn't fun.  A hell of a lot can change in two years, I'd really caution against doing too much too soon.  My SSIL planned a gorgeous wedding in five weeks; it really doesn't take that long for everything to come together.  Two years gives you enough time to plan a wedding three or four times over--and if you're not careful, that's exactly what you'll end up doing.

Sapphire1002

Ditto w/ PP...budget first and go from there.  Too many brides get carried away with stuff and before they know it, the budget is blown. I'd handle the venue first and everything else a good 9-12 months out.  I had the dress, photographer, florist and hair set the month after I was engaged.  You'll have plenty of time!  Good luck.

charlamander88

Our venue is pretty popular in the fall so we put the deposit down in July of 2010 for an October 2011 event. Depends on the logistics of it all. Do you live in a city with many weddings? You're getting married in the summer, lots of people get married in the summer- is your venue popular, highly sought after? I would also book the entertainment, officiant/pastor, and photographer as soon as you can.

C&J122410

I was wondering the same thing we just got engaged yesterday and we are thinking march of 2012. When do you think I should start really planning?

orangecrush32

Honestly, just nail down the big stuff now, date, guestlist, venues. Other than that you can wait until you're a year out. (And honestly, you could wait to do it all until a year out.)

Blueyed228

Budget first.

kjs08

I agree with the PP's. Figure out a budget, an estimated guest list (who has to be invited, who you'd like there, etc. to get your max number), and possible venues. If you plan on getting married in a popular area, you may want to book at least the venue. I got engaged in May 2010 and we're getting married in July 2011, but when we looked at various venues, some were almost entirely booked for the weekends in the summer of 2012 by early July 2010! My recommendation would be to find a place you love and then decide on a date because it's really hard to decide on a date then find a place that's available for the day you want. 

My FI and I also live in IN and are getting married in CT so we had all the major things booked by October (about 9 months out) and we've been doing some of the smaller things periodically, but we live OOS so our case is a bit different. Enjoy the planning!