How did you handle final payments?

All of our vendors were open to being paid early so we paid everything off as soon as we possibly could, I would just reach out to them and ask

ETA: except the venue/food etc that had to wait until we had final count also

I'm curious on this too. I personally like to make sure everything is paid in advance rather than the last days.

I THINK it's fine to pay them off two months or whenever before. I don't think any vendor would be upset if you did. But anyone who's actually gone through this, please correct me.

I paid them off when I could. Most of them I paid 2-3 months before they were due. I know some are very against this but I just wanted to get it over with and not have to stress about that money anymore. None of our vendors told us to not pay in advance. We had no issues with vendors/payments, etc. Everything was easy breezy!

So far my vendors have agreed they don't care when/how they get the money as long as it is all in before the final date, so we're doing monthly payment plans for some or a few payments and probably finishing before.

Most of my final balances were due 2 weeks before the wedding.

I had final meetings with my DJ and officiant a little over 2 weeks before the wedding, so we paid those balances at those meetings.

I paid the final balance for the photographer once I received e-mail confirmation, also about 2 weeks before.

The bakery payment was also due 2 weeks before so I paid the balance when I dropped off our caketopper.

I felt more comfortable submitting the payment after confirming final details with vendors, and the meetings were spread out enough that it didn't feel like there was a lot of running around.

ETA: Forgot about caterer and MUA. The caterer left us the bill after they cleaned up and DH paid it the day after the wedding. I went to Ulta for makeup and paid after I was all finished.

We paid everything ASAP except for our caterer (head count).

Thanks ladies! this helps! i definitely get not wanting to pay off too far in advance just in case something happens. the earliest due is my venue which is 30 days before, so maybe i will just aim to pay everyone (minus catering) at the 30 day mark.

While I'm one of those people who pay their bills as soon as they're received, when it comes to wedding planning and contracts, I would caution you NOT to pay early. Should anything go south with the vendor or if plans change for any reason, you would have a pretty difficult time getting your money refunded once paid. Put the wedding money is a separate account and pay when due, not early IMO.

We paid everything as soon as possible. Most of the contracts we had stated when in them they needed but we tried to do it asap.

Our planner - 30 days out

dinner - guest count was due 10 days before but we paid it about 3 weeks ahead.

The only one we have to wait on is our hotel. They won't take a payment over the phone so it has to wait until we check in.

.... which is in 15 days... eek! i'm so excited! : )

We paid all of our vendors far in advance. We had several vendors that offered discounts if paid in full upon booking or within 30 days of booking - so we prioritized paying them first.

We are definitely trying to take care of as much ahead of time as possible. We paid our photographer in full the day we booked. It was nice to have such a big bill taken care of already. We will be paying as much as possible before hand. The caterer won't accept payment before the event (which is silly to me since our final head count is due 2 weeks before.) And the venue payment is due with the bar tab..which we won't have into the end of the night. But at the moment those will be the only last minute payments we make!