17 months till wedding (longer engagement)

We started out at 24 months! Started planning at 22 months. My photographer did allow me to book many months out, but perhaps you could also start looking at DJs and start going to dress appointments (don’t necessarily need to pick yet, just browse styles to see what you like) and put together vision boards for decor and wedding party attire. I picked my bridesmaids within 2 months of getting engaged and don’t regret it but I realy only have a few friends anyways!

Our whole engagement will be 19 months long (engaged Dec 2017, married July 2019). I loved having all the extra time to plan. I didn't ever feel stressed or rushed, and I really feel like we looked at a lot of options for vendors & venue. We booked our venue at 15 months out. Then after that, we booked our day of coordinator, florist, and photographer. Those I booked around 14 months out. HAMU was 13 months out (I did two trials before booking). I went dress shopping to two salons 13 months out, then one salon 10 months out. By a year out, we had venue, DOC, HAMU, photographer, florist, guest list, budget, bridesmaids & groomsmen, bridesmaids dresses, and engagement photos scheduled.

My wedding is 15 months away

My full engagement will be two and a half years! I didn’t start researching vendor options until about 15-17 months out. I wanted to relax and enjoy my engagement.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for writing it out! It really helps to see what I could work on in coming months.
Sounds like you have it down, I’m sure it’s less stressful than it would have been with shorter timeline.

View Quoted Comment Thanks! Yes, I’ll definitely look into DJs and dress styles soon.

We’ve got 10/30/2020 so quite a stretch but at the same time it’s helpful because we are paying for everything ourselves and will have time to budget properly.
Have my venue reserved which was all inclusive with everything but the photographer/video/hair/make up, reserved photog already. Talked to a hair/MUA person today. Havemost of our guest list down, designed save the dates and invitations. Found 6 hotels near the venue of varying prices for guests to choose from.
Already have my bridal party, picked their dresses, have my dress ordered, shoes and crown for my hair arrive in a few days, all jewelry is picked out but not purchased yet. All bridal party gifts picked out but not purchased yet.
Basically im taking the opportunity to get all my expenses calculated so We can budget our savings leading up to the wedding to pay for everything.
My fiancée on the other hand is not quite on top of it like me. I told him I’d like to get his tuxedo quoted and figure out the cost for groomsman/ushers suits to give them a heads up. He’s doing his ask later this month. We have a lot of time but money is right so getting everything quoted in the next 2 months will really help us budget our next year and half to make this happen

We are about 18 months out from when we plan on getting married, having just got engaged in February. I knew I wanted a fall wedding pretty quick and FH didn't care when, but trying to plan for this fall felt way too close so we settled on Sept 2020. We're actually finding that a lot of vendors in our area are booking up through December 2020 already (a wedding planner suggested to us that it might be because 2020 is an easy year to remember for anniversaries). At first, we thought vendors were just telling us that hoping it would entice us to book, but we've already heard from two caterers and three photographers that are booked on the day we chose. Most of the photographers we've talked to bundle or at least give a discount on things like engagement photos if you book your wedding with them, so if you are interested in or want to do any other types of sessions and found a photographer you really want to work with, I would talk to them about it and see why they won't book for next year yet. We haven't booked anything, not even the venue yet, but that's because we are planning to get married at a group campground and their availability calendar for next year isn't open yet so we can't. Otherwise, we just haven't found the right photographer, caterer, etc.

I've also been given the advice not to buy a dress too early, though since I'm not sure at all what I want I plan to start looking in the next couple weeks so I at least have an idea of the style I want. We're hoping that beginning to plan so far in advance, we will be able to find good deals and sales. We do already know who we want in our wedding party, but we are going small with just a MOH, best main, and one bridesmaid and groomsman. My MOH and bridesmaid are both friends I've known for about twenty years. I really can't imagine asking anyone else. At this point, since there's no rush, we are enjoying our engagement and getting ready to celebrate with a big party.

I got engaged in May of 2017 and our date is June of 2020. We picked our date within a week or so, along with colors. We booked our venue in July of 2017 and I bought my dress in May of 2018. We also booked out caterer in 2018. Photographer and DJ got booked in Jan. We also just asked out wedding party to be a part of our day and now have all of the vendors booked, except HMU and have STDs and invitations picked out.

I am planning on having everything done by the end of the year so I can spend the beginning of 2020 enjoying the last couple months of being engaged and all the fun events that come along with it.

I'm now less than three months out but our whole engagement will be 18 months long by the time we get married. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. I remember when we first set our date I was a little bummed that it seemed so far away and felt like it was going to take forever for the day to get here but looking back it has seriously flown by. I'm so thankful now that we had so much time because overall I have gotten to really enjoy the planning and have not been extremely stressed or overwhelmed. It gave us time to look at so many different options for vendors and have first pick on our favorite since we had so much time. We booked our venue (including catering, rentals, DOC, alcohol) about 16 months out. After that, we booked our photographer and DJ 15 months out. We also picked our wedding party about 15 months out. I got my dress 13 months out. We booked our florist and HMUA about a year out. We did engagement pictures 11 months out and sent save the dates about 9-10 months out. It seemed like such a long time until we got married but when you have so much to do I think the extra time really makes things less stressful and it gives you time to enjoy the process.

Im 17 months out right now. We've booked our venue (all inclusive to technically caterer as well) our dj and videographer (same company), and we're meeting with a potential photographer tonight! I like being able to plan the bigger vendors so far out so that this summer I can be out enjoying the engaged life and not stressing about wedding planning.

View Quoted Comment Wow! That’s awesome and I totally agree it will help you stick with the budget that way.
Were paying for our own wedding so that is another reason we decided on longer engagement. It’s easier to save money if you have more time.
I thought I was jumping the gun on some of the things you mentioned (like HMUA). But I’m gonna start getting quotes just to make sure I have a better idea.
thanks for the input!

We started at 17 months out after getting engaged, now almost 10 months out (Dec 20, 2020) and I booked everything in November and December because of all the good Black Friday and New Year deals. I literally have my dress hanging in my closet, the venue, cake, DJ, florist, decor, invitations, photographer, makeup artist, hairstylist, videographer done.

Now I am just chilling and focusing on my career and relaxing. The only issue is I keep on having to tell myself no for purchasing certain decor, gifts for rents, favors, and other stuff since it is perishable or I shouldn't be buying this far out and so the waiting game is a tad hard at times.