Booking venues a year in advance

We booked our venue 18 months out. You'd be surprised how fast places book up !! I'd do it ASAP!

We booked our venue on June 1rst this year for October 13 of next year and the day we booked another couple tried to book as well but our venue convinced them to use the other property they own a mile away! So I don't really know how well that would bode but if you keep looking you'll find something though. I pushed my wedding from may to October because may was already booked by the time we could tour so maybe you could push it back ?

It all depends on your area and your venues. Call the venue you're thinking about right now. Do they have a 2 year waitlist? Then it's probably not going to happen. My venue we booked 13 months in advance for a holiday weekend. It's now 2 months out and they still have availability on Friday, but my wedding is Saturday and they're booked Sunday.

If you want a Saturday, you may want to book at least 12 months in advance. I booked my venue exactly 12 months in advance and all Saturdays were booked for the next 15 months. You're doing the right thing by getting your finances in line first. Just don't be too stuck on a date when you start looking. Also people change their mind and reschedule, so you might luck out.

We had to book our venue Rosemont/Des Plaines 20 months out. We waited one month to book and our original date was taken.

For that amount of people and depending what you want, options can be limited. We are at 250 and that crossed out quite a few venues we originally considered.

Thanks everyone! Originally we wanted a little bit of time just to enjoy being engaged and get some preliminary things sorted, but FI and I plan to have an in-depth conversation in person this weekend about what, where and when exactly we want our wedding to be like. That way, we can both be on the same page when we talk to our families moving forward.

If you're planning on having a wedding during peak wedding season (September), you'll probably need at least a year and a half to book. We booked our venue two years in advance for our September wedding.

Even at this point you might already be out of luck for a Sept date. We were engaged in June of last year and I started looking for a venue right away and everything for Sept/Oct was booked already that I had contacted. We did not want a Fri or a Sun though.

I seriously recommend booking your venue a year, if not more, in advance, especially during "wedding season". But stay flexible on your date. Without a venue, you don't have a date! The venue you fall in love with may not be available for your date or even month, so you need to book them before you announce anything else.

You 2 need to sit down and decide on a budget and then figure out how many guests that will allow you to properly host. Then you create the guest list based off of that and then you can begin the hunt for a venue.

Check with your venue. One that I wanted on St. Louis had over a year and a half wait!

I booked my venue in March and it was the last Friday or Saturday date they had between May and November in 2018... I would start looking now. Figure out a budget and go on your own

I don't think that's enough lead time for a September wedding unless you want a non-Saturday wedding, honestly... We had to book a year and three months out to snag a Saturday and our only request was that the wedding be in peak season (May-October).

@OP: if you want to enjoy your engagement, just book a venue, let it sink in & visit planning a few months later. It's normal to take breaks while planning.

Peak season at my venue is June-October. Im in New England for reference and we booked over 2 years out!!

Depends on your area but in my experience the sooner, the better. We booked ours more than a year out and had limited pick of dates. We wanted ours in Fall. We had two date options and if we wanted our venue then that is what we got. The same was the case for the other venues we looked at (one had nothing unless we moved our date to June - they had nothing for September or October).

I booked this May for next October... EVERY DATE between June and October was already booked except for my date at my venue. Book sooner than later

I booked my venue 25 months in advance and there were already some weekends taken. But my co worker booked his venue 2 weeks ago for a downtown Chicago wedding this October on a Saturday night. So you could get lucky I guess. As long as you are flexible with your date

I think it depends on the venue, the month and the day of the week. As long as you are flexible with your date, you will be able to find a venue 9 months out. If you want a Saturday evening in August or September, it may be a little more difficult. One venue we looked at was booked until November of 2018 for Friday-Sundays!!! And we were looking at them back in February of this year when we got engaged. The venue we ended up booking had decent availability but we got the last weekend day available in November.

My FH and I couldn't go venue shopping together we either FaceTime while one went or took PLENTY pictures of everything down to a crack in the wall that shouldn't be there. A year out for some of the better venues is cutting it too close