wedding time

ariley5 · February 2011

hey guys im getting Married 07/14/2012 and im confused about when i should start doing the planning ans searching for thing please give me your opinions

literarymuse · February 2011

Welcome!!

The first things that I would do is book your venues and find a photographer. You should have your choice pick of photographers since you're starting so early, which is good because photographers book SO fast.

Then, just start searching the internet, The Knot, wedding magazines, etc. to start getting ideas for what you want to do. Lots of brides post links to their bios in their signatures, too, and I've found those to be a great help. I've gotten a lot of my favorite ideas from fellow knotties.

Finally, you can probably just enjoy being engaged for a while. It's good to go ahead and start planning things because it will make it so much easier later on, but if you want to just relax for a while, you can do that because you have plenty of time.

bluebird615 · February 2011

I'm not really good with time frames, but from my experience, try and book some of the things as early as you can to make sure that you get the vendors you want. Like an officiant and florist. Because we got our venue a month after getting engaged and thought we were doing good. We also got a photographer very early. We waited on some of the things like the officiant and 5 people were booked or out of town that we called! And we called them about 6 months before the wedding. Also, our venue books up very quickly, so if you have your heart set on a place, work on that first!

We're getting married at the zoo and we booked in February of last year and they were already booked solid for May, June, and only had 2 dates in July for 2011!

AllysOop · February 2011

Agree with PP's - we are getting married August 2011.. we started looking at places in March 2010 and only a few dates were available at our top choices (officially booked them in April I think..). If you have specific places in mind it might be even more challenging to find dates of avilibility that line up (or the other way around.. a specific date in mind it might be challenging to find certain places available..).

After venues you will want to book the photographer as soon as you can followed by other "big" vendors. We even booked our baker about 14 months out just to get it out of the way. You'll probably hit a point where you don't have much going on, but that's kind of nice, too...

Hope this helps!

catarntina · February 2011

If you're having any kind of religious ceremony, check with your church, etc to see if you have requirements like marriage prep. Once you knowwhat is required, you can start booking ceremony location, then reception site. After that, everything else should fall into place.

If no religious ceremony, then definitely book the ceremony site first.

cschuma2 · February 2011

I just wanted to add that before you start looking at and booking any venues, phoographers, officiants, etc... you need to decide on a budget. Talk to your FI (and familiies if they have offered) and find out how much money you will be able to save in time for your wedding. There is no reason to look at a country club that will seat 400 guests, if you cannot afford that sort of reception.

Next I would make a tentative guest list. Actually write down everyone that you will likely want to include and count them up. Obviously, if you're money seems limited, a larger guest list will be much harder to accomodate. With an approximate head count, this will save you the trouble of looking at several halls. DH and I planned for about 100 and we were able to rule out several places over the phone just because their rooms were too large for us.

I would also discuss with FI some of the basic plans....
Do you both want a Church wedding? Outdoor wedding?

What season do you want to get married in? Personally I did not want to be a sweaty bride. June, July, and August would have been my absolute LAST choices... and I think those tend to be some of the more common months.

What are your budget priorities? Do you want a designer dress? Do you want an amazing bar and food selection? Do you want super lavish and over-the-top flowers? Things like this should be factored in when you consider your budget and reserving the reception site.

Once you have some of these basic things figured out, start looking into venues. This was one of my favorite things to research/plan for. I hope you enjoy it too! Have fun!

ETA: Oops. I see you have a date in mind already... so disregard the comment about the season. My advice about that would be to be flexible with that date. You may really limit yourself with reception halls if you are set on a date in advance.

thereisbeauty_22209556 · February 2011

The Knot checklist should help give you a good idea.

Try googling "wedding planning timeline".

Castillo2B · February 2011

Welcome to the board!! The ladies on here are a huge help when it comes to planning.

Figuring out your budget and tenative guest count should be the first two things that you do, because that will help you figure out your options for venues.
Second, make a must-have list. If you have things that you are dead set on having for your wedding (a specific vendor or dress you have always wanted) you can make sure that you fit it into your budget.

The knot has tons of pictures that can help give you ideas. I really like The Perfect Palette blog. She has tons of great palettes to look at.

christieep · February 2011

I would just recommend if there is anything you have your heart set on to get it as early as possible. Especially since you are having a summer wedding, vendors will book faster. If you are flexible you can probably relax a little more in your search for vendors.

Enjoy being engaged! It goes by faster than you think!

wedding time

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