2 years and a month out. What Should i do?

Honestly, I feel like you can still look into everything. Even though you can't book much of anything right now, it's always nice to start a board with any and every idea you currently have to pass the time. Even if it ends up changing later on, you still have a base. Plus, if you haven't already, you can check out the 'Checklist' under the 'Planning Tools' tab. It's super helpful with your task timeline. Wishing you the best!

Once you book your venue then you'll be able to visualize the colors you want and style of your wedding (rustic, vintage, etc.). From there, start creating Pinterest boards, etc. You can also start searching and meeting with vendors as well (photographers, florists, bakeries, caterers). Most vendors require a nonrefundable deposit to "hold the date" so I would caution against doing so until you're absolutely sure that is who you want.

I am also planning ahead a ton!

I got engaged in May and we're planning for March 2023. Things that I have done include:

- Set a budget.

- Started browsing, emailing, and touring venues.

- Researching checklists and making my own based on our needs (Wedding Wire's isn't bad).

- We created our initial guest list so that when we talk to venues we know roughly what we're dealing with (how big our wedding party is, the % of our guests who may need accommodations since we have a lot of out-of-state friends and family, if we know any of our friends have allergies or dietary restrictions).

- We have a theme in mind (since it's based on a video game), so we've decided colors and an idea of what the wedding party will wear.

- Started asking and confirming wedding party (I've asked 4 out of 5 of my party and my partner has asked 2 out of 5 of his party).

- Depending on any traditions or expectations, you can also look at legal things required; for example we have already contacted our church since we have to go through marriage prep (we've talked with a family/marriage therapist and taken some assessments and are attending some seminars even though these items aren't required until at least 6 months before our wedding, it's nice to just get these out of the way).

- Set up our wedding website and put in sections that we know we'll need and some placeholder info or rough drafts of text and content that will go in. We've kept this locked down for now, but it's nice to know it's set up for us to just input what we need later.

- Written the first draft of my vows so that I can let that stew for however long and come back to it later next year and see if it's too cheesy or just right and edit as needed.

- Started browsing wedding dress inspo on Etsy and favoriting things I like.

- Researching things like flowers (real vs. sola wood vs. paper vs. other, etc.) to figure out what I want or if there's any DIY aspect to it.

- Favoriting things on Wedding Wire vendors, Etsy, Pinterest, and also walking around DIY and craft stores in case I get any inspo or ideas (we were walking around Michael's the other day and we saw these cute little glass bottles that we talked about right there and decided they would be cute as centerpieces if we fill them up with colored water like potions).

I'm also a designer, so I started making my invitations and designing wedding paper goods, especially because ours is so themed, we want so many things custom. I'm handmaking all of our invitations, name cards, etc. so I'm able to prep a lot of things that don't need specific info yet.

I'm trying to get as much as I can done that's reasonable right now before my work has a "return to office" more regularly so that I can coast on some things next year and not feel too stressed. Getting some of the fun things out of the way now while I have time and energy feels nice so it's not rushed.

There is so much you can do, but I hope you don't get too stressed! Just take things a little bit at a time or as they come to you write it down. And yes, definitely check the Wedding Wire checklist to get an idea of what to do and your timeline.