1 year away from wedding… needing some guidance!

Forgot to mention we also do have a guest list already written out, needs to be reviewed but it’s a good rough draft!

I would suggest starting to look for your dress now. My dress took 8 months to arrive after ordering it, and some take even longer. You will also want to make sure you have plenty of time for alterations. Save the dates are typically sent 4-6 months prior to the wedding; but if you are having a destination wedding, or if a lot of your guests will need to travel for the wedding, you can send them out earlier (usually 8-12 months prior to wedding). Formal invitations are sent about 6-8 weeks before the wedding

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much Cece!!

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You bet! 😀 This year is going to go by so fast! This is the most fun time for planning! Have you started looking at the rest of your vendors? We found that most vendors started to book a year out, so you may want to start looking for those now too!

Cece gave great advice! And I’ll second her on the other vendors! A lot of vendors I contacted were booked a year out. Make sure you book catering if it’s not included soon. I also highly, HIGHLY suggest a day of coordinator if your venue doesn’t provide someone. I know it’s an extra thing in the budget but was easily THE best decision we could’ve made by a long shot

View Quoted Comment Our venue has a restaurant and we have the menu all picked out! I think they do offer a day of coordinator, I’ll have to double check, we booked the venue almost a year ago and i haven’t thought much about planning until closer to the year mark AKA now so I’m trying to figure out what needs to be done in what order! Also what other vendors would i need? If we have venue, food, photographer, dj…. Flowers i guess? I’m definitely missing something!

View Quoted Comment So we have the venue which has a restaurant, so our catering/menu is picked! We have the photographer booked. DJ booked. The venue offers different decorations and room designs to choose from so we’re going with that. The most we may do on our own for decor is center pieces diy. The cake- my aunt has a bakery so that’s settled! Uhhhhhh idk what else i might be missing or should look into vendor wise?!

View Quoted Comment Oh! Hair and makeup also already booked!

View Quoted Comment Forgot to mention we have the cake figured out, hair and makeup booked!

The only other things I can think of are wedding party attire, flowers, officiant, videographer, and if you want to have a wedding coordinator and/or entertainment at the reception (ie, band, photobooth, entertainers, etc.).

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much!!

Save the dates are sent out at 6-12 months before the wedding. Depending on your family and social circle, they may be verbal over the phone or in person. Not everyone is familiar with or sends physical postcards that include wedding websites and they still have the necessary information to plan ahead. The actual invitations, which must go out to everyone received a save the date without exception, are sent at 6-8 weeks before the wedding and replies are due at 4 weeks before the wedding with a week buffer to track down people who didn’t rsvp before the final headcount is due to the caterers.


Social media (Instagram, Reddit, etc) all say that that timeline should not be followed by anyone for any reason. However it has worked for multiple decades without any problem even with traveling domestic and abroad. The “new” timeline that only confuses guests because they lose and forget the information sent much too early, as well as advocating for B Lists which are a major faux pas in many social circles, is to send the invitation no earlier than 11-14 weeks before the wedding. 6-8 weeks works perfect. The people who have issues with that standard timeline were not taught the etiquette of their families and in general and others don’t care and believe it doesn’t apply to anything.