2 Year Engagement

We’re having a two year engagement. We’re almost halfway in and we have all of our vendors booked. I’d recommend booking your major vendors (venue, photographer, caterer, etc) sooner rather than later. We actually had our venue, photographer, and caterer booked last September, 22 months out. Now I’m focusing on details: decor, invites, etc. I didn’t really pay attention to the timelines when it came to booking vendors, but will be looking at them closer now that we’re closer to the one year mark. Enjoy the planning!

I had a year engagement for wedding planning and I kinda wish I had longer. Utilize that time to do good research for deals and sales and just overall for thinking of ideas and also hopefully that helps you reduce your stress as you have adequate time to plan.

Knock out things like setting a date & booking the venue, and then research the other tasks/vendors. That way, when the time arrives you’ll already know what you want, the cost and where to get it. No time wasted tossing around a million ideas and stressing. However the key is to make a decision and move on to the next one. Don’t drag out the decision making just to have something wedding-related to do every day for 2 years. Since you have the time, you don’t have to consume yourself with wedding planning.

The main thing that's great about a 2 year engagement is being able to save for the wedding! If you have a specific date you're set on, its best to start looking at vendors now. Congratulations on your engagement!

Take some time to decide what you and FH want for your day. Book vendors if you can. Sometimes you save money because you get the current rates instead of what they’ll be two years from now.

In my opinion starting with your big items, venue, catering, DJ, photographer, etc two years out is a good idea. A lot of businesses increase their prices a little (or a lot) from year to year as they get busier and bring in more business. By booking soon, there’s a good chance that you will get a cheaper rate than if you booked closer to the wedding! Good luck!

Since you have a good amount of time, you’ll still have plenty to do, but at a slower pace. Take some time right now to enjoy engagement. No need to rush right in. You could start by getting engagement photos done, a guest list, what type of wedding you both want and then a venue since venues book up quickly depending on when you are getting married. Tour different places and meet with vendors like photographers and DJ’s to make sure you are getting what you need and funding people who fit your wedding style. Make sure to set a budget and stick with it. I’d say maybe start like 12-14 months out with dress shopping. There isn’t really a correct timeline. Most of those are just suggestions, but some things like getting a venue before your dress is recommended so that way your dress matches. Like not getting a heavy dress for a beach wedding. Hope this helps.

I wouldn’t rush and just plan one or two things a month

I would just take WW's or whatever timeline you like and extend it a little. So instead of having the vendors booked a year out, you can do that 14-16 months out, you can really adjust it to however you want it to be.

Engagement pictures can be done now or you can choose to wait a little while.

The first thing is to figure out a budget since that will drive everything from venue to decor.

I definitely recommend working on finding your venue as soon as you know how many guests you will want, photographer, DJ, and transportation.
Our engagement will have been about 20 months total. In my area, the venues and transportation book out far in advance! When we went to the limo company last month, almost all of their vehicles were already booked for our date (10/3/2020). Our venue was already booked for the week after ours when we booked it back in March!

Some places book out even further than that!

After you secure your main vendors, I would recommend just slowly planning from there. It is nice to have time to leisurely plan the details!

1. Enjoy it! Really though take the time to still go on dates and everything wedding planning is stressful and you should find a way to enjoy it.
2. Start with the budget, date, and place first.
Where I live vendors won't book more than 18-12 months out so don't get discouraged if you can't book before 18 months out.

My FH and just got engaged last month and yesterday we booked our venue for 2 years out! I’m a planner but I say forget timelines. Especially when it comes to summer weddings, got to snatch that date when you can! We picked out date, asked our wedding party, booked our venue and have already started looking into vendors (dj , photography and such) and we haven’t even had our engagement picture done yet... LoL. At least when the time gets closer it won’t be as stressful and we can enjoy our big day! Don’t worry about timelines just go with the flow! And congrats ❤️

Get started now! I got engaged in October 2018. My date was taken at my venue when I asked back in March for 10/10/2020. We're getting married on Halloween of next year instead! I already have my wedding dress picked (won't get it until later this year though), my photographer/videographer, florist, and of course my venue. I'm relaxing on everything now until we get closer to the date lol

My fiance and I also had a 2 year engagement, mainly because I was transitioning to a completely different career AND we were in the process of moving into our first home. My advice would be:

1) The sooner you book things, the better. We were able to book really popular vendors in our area that are typically very hard to book during their "busy season" (October) because we booked them 2 years in advance.

2) Be confident in your decisions. Having a lot of time to plan is great, but it's also hard to pick things like a venue, dress, etc. so far in advance and then NOT fall in love with other venues and dresses. Find comfort in the fact that you will love more than one venue and more than one dress, but that you chose the ones you did for a reason.

3) Longer engagements mean more time for unsolicited advice. Some of this advice can be super helpful, but some of it can come off as judgmental or pushy. I guess this goes hand in hand with being confident in your decisions. At the end of the day, your wedding should reflect your personality as a couple.

Congratulations and good luck with planning!

I was wondering the same thing.