Gimme the vendor quick and dirty

Illinois
Rural - more STL, less CHI

Photographer: 5 days after engagement [12.9 months out] We had picked a date, she wasn't available. She chose our date for us. Went from there.
Venue: 11.8 months out
Photobooth: 11.5 months out
DJ: 11 months out
Rentals: 9 months and every option was available
Caterer: 6 months

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Thank you! I've been avoiding the photographer but need to get on it

View Quoted Comment Fair. I had a list of 3 photographers I liked. I got my #1 pick. But I definitely went with whatever she had open.

Getting married in Hawaii Feb 2020


Moved our wedding date from October 2019 to February 2020 to accommodate siblings hospital schedules. Once we decided on a date, I made sure at least one of my sisters got approval to take off before looking for a venue. I started looking for places in Hawaii in June. Within 2 weekends I put a deposit down on a place. It included a photographer, videographer, musician, officiant and site fees.Hotel and flights booked September 2019Dress shopping October 2019Flowers booked November 2019Bought my head piece and shoes November 2019First alterations December 2019

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That's amazing to have so many vendors taken care of up front! You've been busy over the last few months!

Hey Darling,

Florida

Titusville (Cape Canaveral)

I booked my venue about a month after we got engaged because it's the most important (you can't book much of anything else without this one because you need your date nailed down first). After I booked the venue I booked the photographer, DJ, and caterer in rapid succession because I wanted to get those things nailed down ASAP (they're the most in-demand of the wedding vendors and you can end up with a crappy one if you don't do it fast!). I'm going dress shopping next weekend (which is eight months out) and we're doing bridesmaids the month after.

Best advice I can give you is to make a list of what your absolute must haves are and then book those things first!

Texas, specifically the Dallas area!


1. Venue- 7.5 months out, a week after we got engaged. We knew we wanted a quick engagement and found a great venue with an opening on a date we loved. Catering and most of the setup came with this.2. Photographer- 7 months out. Do this asap! We had a few tell us they were already booked before we got to our amazing guy.3. Florist - 6.5 months out. I love our florist- she's a character and our first choice4. Bakery - 5 months out. I think everyone was surprised we did this early, but I am a major planner.5. DJ- 4 months out. We got our first choice and a good deal.

Central Florida/Space Coast
Dress 13 months....this was the first thing I did because a local boutique was having a up to 50% off sale.
We picked a venue first 12 months out
Photographer 11 monthsDJ & photobooth 11 monthsFlorist 11 monthsCaterer 10 monthsHair & makeup artist 10 months Day of coordinator: 3.5 monthsMy suggestion would be to book as early as possible if you want someone specific. The venue I wanted was already booked 18 months out, and I didn’t want our engagement to be that long. I started looking as soon as we were engaged.

North Carolina, Raleigh Area

Venue - 18 months

Photographer - 18 months

Florist - 18 months

String Trio (ceremony and reception) - 12 months

Stationary - 12 months

HMUA - 9 months

DJ - 6 months (lol we dragged our feet but got lucky)

Hotel Blocks - 12 months

We knew a Saturday in June would be highly competitive so we secured the big vendors ASAP.

We're getting a married in a VERY small town in Pennsylvania, South Canaan. It's about a half hour north of Scranton.

Our wedding day is August 15th, 2020. We may have booked things a little early, but we knew what we wanted and we wanted to make sure we could get our first choices so we just started checking things off the list.

Venue: July 2019

Photographer: August 2019

Caterer: October 2019

DJ: October 2019

Dress, as well as Bridesmaids dresses: December 2019

Hair and Makeup: I actually just booked this 2 days ago

We're most like meeting with our florist next month. They already know we plan on using them but they told us to hold off coming in until after the New Year. We've been looking at suits for the guys for a few weeks now. We are currently working on finding a baker. I had one that I was dead set on using and I called them in September. I know that's really early, but I knew I wanted them so I figured why not get it done? Well they told me to call back after the New Year and then in November they just up and closed with no notice. So now the hunt is on to find another baker that I love. We hope to have wedding bands purchased by the end of February.

Our wedding was in Scranton, PA and we were engaged for 11 months. We got married in July 2019.


Venue which provided the catering - Sept 2018Photographer - Sept 2018DJ - Sept 2018Florist - Nov 2018 Hair and Makeup - Jan 2019Videographer - March 2019Bridesmaids Dresses - Nov 2018Tuxes - Jan 2019

We got engaged December 2018 and married May 2019 in Orlando.

Dress - January 9, 2019; I booked my first and only bridal appointment one week after we got engaged for about a week and a half later, when we only generally knew where and when we'd be getting married. I looked at about 8 dresses, tried on probably 6, narrowed the selection to two, FaceTimed my mom and MoH and picked my final choice! I ordered the dress and put down the deposit that day.

Venue - January 11, 2019; we are from the Northeast and flew down to Orlando from 9 am - 9 pm to visit two venues in person. I had emailed about 50 different venues right after we got engaged, explaining we were looking to get married on a Saturday in the spring (April-June). After presenting my finance with my top choices, we narrowed down the list to our top two and scheduled site visits. They both had our ideal date of May 4 available. We immediately fell in love with the second venue and signed the contract and put our deposit down on the spot. With a short engagement, we knew we needed to move quickly and not be indecisive. Our venue was a hotel, so this included ceremony/cocktail hour/reception locations, food, linens, waiter and bar service, etc.

Hair & Makeup - January 18, 2019

Florist - January 20, 2019; I emailed a bunch of florists off WW and she was the most responsive. My bouquet and the bridesmaids' bouquets were probably the one thing I was a tad disappointed in, so I do wish I spent either more time chatting with different florists OR asked for mock bouquets to be created for me to approve. She was also super late delivering the florals so I got zero group pictures of me and my bridesmaids with our bouquets—we only have walking down the aisle shots.

Violinist - January 22, 2019; process for finding and signing her was the same as our florist. Unlike the florist though, we were over the moon thrilled with this vendor selection. She made our ceremony and cocktail hour everything I could have dreamed of!

Photographer - January 28, 2019; we did two video interviews with photographers. One was a recommended vendor from our venue, and the other we found on here from WW. We clicked much more with the WW vendor and sent in our deposit about a week after we chatted via Skype.

Getting Married in Roanoke, Virginia (Southwest VA) on August 2020

Venue: 13 months out

Catering: 13 months out (comes with the venue)

Photographer & Videographer: 13 months out

Uplighting: 11 months out

DJ: 11 months out

Hair & Makeup: 10 months out

Florist: 9 months out

Dress: 8 months out

I'm just trying to do one thing a month haha but I know venue has got to be first because I can;t decide the date or even what kind of style the wedding is until we picked a venue.

We were originally planning a wedding 6 months in advance but had a family emergency and needed to move our wedding date up by a month. Had been planning since April 2019 changed our date in August 2019.

Columbus, Ohio

Ceremony Venue- 1 month out. No one was getting back to me from our church but we had a contingency plan to use a space in the botanical gardens near our reception venue.

Reception Venue/food/ cake- 2 months out. We held our reception in a restaurant that took care of the food and cake.

Photography- 3 weeks prior. Last minute decision brought together by fate.

Hair- day of, I did a walk in appointment at Great Clips lol

I booked my venue ... About ten months out.
Dj and photobooth were booked same month.
Photographer was soon after.

Located in NC. Live in the Triad area but got married in the mountains.

We had an 11 month engagement.

1- Venue: 11 months

2- Catering: 11 months

3- Photographer: 10 months

4 - Dress: 10 months

5 - DJ: 9 months

6- Baker: 8 months

7- Florist: 8 months

8- Photo booth: 8 months

9- Hair/Make up: 7 months

10- Videographer: 6 months

I feel like I’m missing something. But these are the major things!

View Quoted Comment I know! Best feeling ever!!


Forgot to add HMU, which I booked November I believe. I still need to get welcome gifts, write my vows, and my last alterations appointment which will happen in early Feb

DOC (she did vendor contract review) - 19 months out

Venue & Bridesmaids Dresses - 16 months out

Photographer & Florist - 14 months out

HAMU & Hotel Block - 12 months out

Dress & Videographer & Caterer - 10 months out

Officiant & Baker - 6 months out

Transportation & Babysitter & Chair Masseuse - 4 months out

Chicago Suburbs

Venue: 14 months

Photographer/Videographer: 13 months

Hair&Makeup: 12 months

Wedding Dress: 9 months

Hotel Block: 13 months

Transportation: 7 months

Florist: 8 months

Cake: 6 months

Photobooth: 6 months

DJ/Emcee: 8 months

Invitations: 7 months

Groom/Groomsmen Attire: Still don't have but most likely 4 months