How early is too early to start preparing for your wedding?

niki&rob · May 2013

I have been engaged for two and a half weeks now. my fiance told me that he would like to get married next year, so being the organized control freak that i am, thought... I better get at it this planning! So 2 days after i found a venue, couple days later i booked a dj, then an officiant and cake decorator, ordered my save the dates, recieved my save the dates which are ready to be mailed out. I have picked my theme, took my bridesmaids to look at dresses so i could settle on a dress color and purchased a few centerpieces. We are getting married July 2014, this is my second wedding and i know how much stress it can put on someone, so i feel that if i can get a lot of it out of the way, just maybe i wont freak out too much. I also think that 14 months really is not that far away. People close to me think im nuts. Do you ladies think im nuts??

smalfrie19 · May 2013

actually i think you are perfectly on time. i would recommend waiting until about the 9 -10 month mark to actually send your STDates. But a year out is about the time to start booking your vendors depending on how fast vendors book up in your area. We are about 17 months out and we are booking our venue at the end of the month to get our date.

libby2483 · May 2013

I think that you are right on schedule with booking your venue. Around here, many venues book up over a year in advance. I think that you booked/purchased a few things earlier than necessary, but it certainly doesn't hurt to get things done ahead of time. I'm also an organized person who likes to get things done early when possible, so I completely understand.

I would wait until about the 9 month mark to actually send out STDs and order BM dresses. Many people on here will say the six month mark is ideal for ordering BM dresses, and if you order from somewhere like David's Bridal, you actually probably even need less time than this. However, my girls chose designer dresses that took 6 months to come in. Factoring in time for alterations, I'm glad we ordered dresses at the 8 month mark.

Sierra524 · May 2013

Wow...two and a half weeks and you have all that stuff done already? You go, girl! That is awesome. I dont think you are crazy. When I first got engaged I started planning immediately. FFIL actually called FI & told him that I was being too crazy about it.

I agree with PPs about sending STD around the 9 month mark.

You seem to be on top of things, which is great!

AddieCake · May 2013

That doesn't sound nuts at all. Lots of vendors book up early, and venues certainly do, so there's no reason not to be actively planning at this stage.

niki&rob · May 2013

The reason why i am sending out save the dates so soon is because most of our family is on the east coast and we are getting married in a very popular summer vacation town on the west coast, hotels book up fast and family and friends want to book flights with aeroplan miles.

misssunshine17 · May 2013

I don't think it's bad, however, I would just be careful how much you talk to people about it. People will never be excited as you are.

You: Yayyy! 14 months and I've booked everything.

Me: Geeze, it's so far away. I don't even know what I'm having for dinner.

ohmrs2014 · May 2013

Fi and I booked our venue and other vendors beginning at 22 months out because around here, vendors and venues can book up more than 2 years out. Everything else waited and we are just now beginning to think about everything else. Our save the dates will be going out between July and August because we do have quite a few out of town guests and we are beginning to get price quotes for invitations.

Peledreamsofrain · May 2013

I was going to type more, but my husband read over my shoulder and laughed "That sounds like you!"

So... there's your solidarity right there :P

Peaseblossom55 · May 2013

Now I feel like a slacker we are getting married in mid June of next year and we only have the church and reception hall booked.... I won't even get to start looking at dresses until July. We're focusing on the new house right now. I also want to take my time and enjoy the whole being engaged thing.

Viczaesar · May 2013

niki&rob said:

The reason why i am sending out save the dates so soon is because most of our family is on the east coast and we are getting married in a very popular summer vacation town on the west coast, hotels book up fast and family and friends want to book flights with aeroplan miles.

You still shouldn't send STDs more than a year out. Nobody will be able to purchase airfare this far out anyway.

MoonlightSilver · May 2013

Sounds like you're doing fine. My only concern is you kept saying "my." I hope you're getting your FI's input on all these details!

allychase · May 2013

My only quibble would be taking the BMs to look for dresses this early is a little eye roll worthy. I wouldn't want to go to more than one appointment to search for BM dresses. That's more of a you scour the Internet for ideas then bring them to the shop once kind of deal.

Other than that you're fine. I began calling venues the day after we got engaged. We also got married 9.5 months after our engagement so we kind of needed to move fast on getting our venue set. What's amazing to me is how much time and effort I spent planning and there were STILL a dozen things that got left undone or forgotten. Oh well. We're still married.

nextrightthing · May 2013

I think you're fine. We booked our venue and photographer about 18 months out....the photog because they book so quickly, the venue because we needed to be sure about our budget.

I would wait on the BM dresses and the STDs. We didn't finlize our BP until approximately yesterday, and we hear a lot of nightmare stories about people regretting their choice on that. And like PP said, no one needs a STD now. You also might change your guest list, and if you've send out STDs, you're SOL.

Happy planning!

jemmini6 · May 2013

We were engaged for 14 months as well and we tried to book all of our "big" stuff asap. Even that far out, our venue was booked on our preferred date, and then our preferred photographer was booked on the date we ended up booking. So yeah, it's good to get big items booked early.

The other details however don't necessarily need to be done this early, and I'd really recommend backing off for a bit so you don't get burned out. It's only been two weeks since you got engaged, you really should take some time to just appreciate the newness of being engaged.

How early is too early to start preparing for your wedding?

Re: How early is too early to start preparing for your wedding?

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