2020 Wedding!

Congrats on your engagement! It’s never too early to start planning 😊 I would do what works best for you- people can plan a wedding in a few months. My wedding is April 2020 and I have started planning. I prefer to plan and want to make sure the vendors I want are not booked. I have my venue (which includes catering), DJ, photographer, and officiant booked and am in contact with a baker and florist. I say do what you and FH are comfortable with.

Thank you for sharing! - you make a great point about vendors booking up, that thought had not crossed my mind!

You should start now. My fiancé is zero help in planning and many of the girls on here would say the same.

Congrats! There is nothing wrong with planning this early and can have some great pro's! We are looking at Nov 2020! We are both excited but you can tell FH isn't into talking to long about it as there is a lot of time and he is the laid back, I am the controlling organized one! Feel free to add me or message me anytime! Big pro's is time. You can use this time to go through ALL options, know exactly what you want and find great deals! First things are know your budget, then pick venue as they close up quick! Biggest thing that got FH more on board was actually touring venues! We have picked ours and will lock in the date when we have the funds around August! So a year and a half to pay all of the 15k budget we have plus extra time to make sure not to stress (as I can be bridezilla if I don't take time/breaks) and save for hopefully getting a house by the tome of the wedding! Be careful with dress shopping as I would say a year out is the best time (tome to order and alter). I have my dress already (thought we were getting married end of 2018). This time will also give you time to take longer breaks inbetween to not stress and incase hiccups come up, or car breaks down so you need to use some money, etc. You wont get as stressed! My dress is white and will have to be aired out every few months to hope for no yellowing. By the time of the wedding I may have to get it professionally cleaned too so thats a hard thing. I have done TONS of research to where I have like 4k pictures saved on my phone and pinterest has nothing new to show me! Haha!

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Thank you for replying! I will start doing my own research!

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Thank you Amanda! budgets scare me haha! but I guess that is a way to start! I will work on narrowing what I can/ cannot afford.

View Quoted Comment Budgets are hard and even harder to stay in! My 15k is counting EVERYTHING. If anyone is contributing, that money doesn't count. If you have a month or date in mind, see how much each month you can save till that time and that's typically your budget. Note what is the most important thing to you guys vendor wise, maybe a 1st, 2nd and 3rd. For instance for myself at least, it is.. 1) BUDGET 2) VENUE 3) PHOTOGRAPHY

There are many benefits with planning early. You have more options with venues, vendors, etc.

Honey...he may never "feel" ready. Some men are not into planning however dont allow that to disappoint you. You should start planning now. Next year will come quickly. I'm getting married October 2020 and have been planning on and off since 2017. Pricing will go up in January so locking in the venue, photographer, florist, etc is vital to staying within whatever budget you set. The simple more fun things are choosing colors and unique design elements you may want to incorporate. Anyway, have fun in the process.

I'm getting married in April 2020, and I've been planning since about May 2018. I'm super glad I started early, because we were able to look at a whole slew of options that would have been impossible if we'd waited! Definitely start your research. But don't hold it against your fiance that he's not as into the planning. He'll start to get excited when he's ready, and will be more involved as you share things with him.

Plan your heart out, sweetie! You're going to need the time to secure all your choices!

I’m getting married May 2020 and I have put deposits on all my vendors (venue, photographer, florist, DJ) it’s never too early but don’t wait anytime past a year out. Planning is fun but can be stressful if you don’t have the luxury of time.

I'm getting married March 2020 & I really started planning in September 2018 - it is never too late to start! Basically I tackled one thing a month.... Right now I'm working on STD's!!
Also, if you start planning earlier you lock in 2019 rates & trust me - things will cost more next year. Maybe you can use that as your leverage point!

Happpppy planning!!

I don't think there is a time thats too early honestly. Mine is in January 2020 and I started planning things January 2019. I think its easier to do it all early too so then you won't be as stressed closer to the wedding. Plus lots of vendors can be booked pretty quickly as well if your wedding is during a busy time of year.

First I want to say, I totally feel you! My FH is very laid back and although he's excited to get married, he's letting me be in charge of contacting vendors and choosing decor. Basically all I do is go "does this look good?" and he says yes or no haha. It gets frustrating but at the end of the day it means that my vision of our wedding will be exactly (or close to) what I imagine!

Second, there are definitely some benefits to planning early. We booked our venues about a year ago because we knew it was the one. That meant we got locked in at 2018 pricing instead of 2019! Same with a majority of our vendors we started booking last year. We've saved probably $500 when you compare 2018 prices to this years prices haha.

I really have no advice on getting him to be more involved. Maybe just trying to keep asking opinions? Some partners just don't want to be involved, which works if you're okay with that! He just might be someone who you just show pictures to and go "which one do you like best?" or even show your decision and go "This look good?"

Hi Wendy! You sound a lot like me and my FH! We got engaged in April 2018 and right off the bat I was ready to plan. I just went ahead and started planning and researching without him because I knew it would only frustrate me if I waited for him. I think he's thankful for that as well. haha. When I started looking at venues, I would show him what I found online, ask him if he thought it was worth checking out and if he said yes, I would book an appointment with them and make sure he knew the date and time. We would check the place out together and discuss and decide on final decisions together. But the initial research and appointment setting was all on me. I just couldn't wait for him on that because then it would never happen. lol.

I started booking vendors right away. The benefit of that is availability on your date. Some of my vendors weren't booking out that far yet, but they still took a deposit to hold my date. At this point I'm 7 months away from my wedding day, and so glad I started early. It gives you time to plan without being rushed or stressed and time to save money - and have a clear picture of what your total budget will be. Our photographer took monthly payments up until the wedding, so since we booked in August 2018, we had 21 months to pay him off and the monthly payment was super low! Now that I have the vendors and bigger things taken care of, I'm focusing on the details like décor, bridal party gifts, ect.