How early is too early to plan?

I think you are excited. A little early for some things but not a bad idea to set a budget and then at least look at venues. Popular ones can book early. I would say within a year maybe have venue and photography booked. It is ok to be excited and wanting to plan but maybe avoid telling the negative people.

I definitely think you can start planning certain things now that you're 2 years out. things like venue and popular vendors could be booked ahead of time. but especially now i bet you there's a ton of vendors having promos to gain business during the time of covid so maybe you can look for specials.

it's also never too early to start pinboards and look for ideas for what you'd want.

Considering how overcrowded 2021 and 2022 are going to be from 2020 brides postponing, I would actually try to book as much as possible now. Especially if you have your heart set on a particular date, venue, photographer, or caterer. Lock those down as soon as possible. I'd wait until the first half of 2021 to do things like go dress shopping, bridal party stuff, accessories and florist. Don't let them rain on your parade! Besides, due to covid, they're incorrect in their feeling that it's too soon. So boo on them! 🥰

Sure! Plan in away. As you mentioned… It makes you happy. So go for it! However, it’s probably easier to discuss wedding topics on these forums than with family and friends.

I got engaged August 2019 our wedding will be August 2021. We have a 2 year engagement and I started planning the next day after we got engaged. I think the more time the better. And like you said you aren't planning anything big and as long as you wait until the wedding is almost a year away to put money down on vendors and venues its not a big deal. I spent the whole first year looking at ideas for how I want my wedding to be and what style and theme I wanted. I also sat down with my fiance to figure out how much we really could afford to spend. I watched for sales with the end of every season to see what deals I could get on decorations, bridesmaid goodies for their bags, and wedding favors. I looked into all different vendors and venues to see around how much they cost and how much I was willing to spend on each of them. I looked into reviews to make sure they would be a good fit. Then when I found my favorite vendors and venue I found out around how much each would cost and starting putting money into envelopes for each one. My wedding is just about a year away and so far I've paid for everything using the money I saved. Nothing I paid for was put on credit. I think when I'm done the only things that will be on credit is the food and alcohol cause that is going to cost the most.

I went through the same planning for mine. My mom kept telling me I had time. I say there’s no harm in looking and making a list of venues you want to tour, caterer, photographer, etc. I also think depending on the season you’re getting married in you may need to do some things earlier if your wedding is planned for peak wedding season. The last thing I’ll add is that I could really excited and got most things booked 16 months in advance, so I had about a year where there was nothing wedding related for me to do which I was really bummed about

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with starting your planning now. I got engaged in 2019 and we’re getting married in 2021. Even though we didn’t book anything until this year, we still started looking at venues, exploring vendors, and talking about some of the details right away. I’m glad that we started these things early because we’ve been able to really take our time with planning which helps with budgeting. Also, with COVID so many people are rescheduling for 2021 and some people are even scheduling for 2022 already. So I say happy planning!

There's nothing wrong with being excited and getting ideas now, and you are lucky to have a fiance and parents who are also enthusiastic! But you have to understand that most other people will not be able to get excited about something this far in advance. And if you bug them with it enough now, they will probably be so sick of hearing about it by the time you actually do need to be planning.

I'm not saying don't be excited and pin ideas and such! But I'd limit who you are sharing it with to your fiance and parents, AND on weddingwire, because everyone on here will ALWAYS want to get excited about your wedding with you! Don't bug your friends with it yet and don't expect it to be as exciting to them as it is to you.

View Quoted Comment

You and all the others who have commented are absolutely right! I should definitely limit who I tell my ideas to and should definitely choose who I talk to about wedding stuff wisely. Thank you so much for your opinion, it really does help me feel better and also helps me want to be better about who I share this stuff with!

If you wait people will say you’re disorganized why did you wait. You can’t win. I would book the venue soon and pick colors/styles/pin decor ideas. Vendors can wait til closer to a year, but you can at least make lists of possible vendors so you can budget and start saving money.

I got engaged in October 2018 and started planning right away for our wedding in October of 2020! I booked our venue a few weeks after getting engaged and booked the other things kind of as I went, I didn’t have to rush to book everything at once. So I don’t think it’s too early to plan or at least start getting an idea of what you invision for your day

FH proposed in March 2019, I started looking things up right away, but didn’t actually start have a meeting with our chosen venue until I believe July 2019. We booked our day with the venue in August 2019. When I started mentioning things to people they also told me I was planning too early (my mom included..). Our date is November 7, 2020. Now when I look back on it, thank goodness I did because of the current situation we are in. Some brides in my state had spring weddings but had moved them to the fall. Of course, things are still pretty up in the air for us as well, i think it helps that my venue is mostly outdoors and our event is very intimate. The max people is 60.
I say plan however you want and try to ignore what people are saying.
Congratulations and good luck!

It is never too early, I am a bridal consultant and we always think we have enough time, make all the pinterest boards you want honey!! you never know what is going to happen, work, kids life,you will be a lot less stressed out when it comes closer to actually put paper to pen and money!! Our wedding is next yr Oct 2021, my vendor is booked and i've ordered some of the things I want already and spoken to my florist. Have fun with the process, the hell with what others say!! Congrats!!

I don’t think it’s too early especially with the current situation. We got engaged July of 2019. I looked up some ideas right away, but didn’t really do any planning until October of 2020. We decided we wanted a specific date in January of 2022 (it will be exactly 5 years from when we first met). By December of 2019, we had booked venue, dj, and photographer over 2 years in advance. This allowed us to lock in pricing and should help us save some money. We haven’t booked any other vendors yet, but I’ve been researching recently. I don’t recommend asking anyone to be in the bridal party until about a year out though as situations may change.

View Quoted Comment Of course, it’s perfectly normal to want to talk about it and be excited! You shouldn’t have to feel bad about that, so it’s better for everyone if you just direct it towards those who are just as excited as you are. I kinda struggled with this through most of my planning process, because I don’t have any close friends who are anywhere near getting married so most of them were not as interested as I would’ve liked. But that’s why I love this site... it’s great to talk to other people who love weddings!

Girl start now, so many weddings have been postponed a year and two years because 2020 brides are now in 2021 and brides that wanted dates in 2021 have to now settle for 2022. There is going to be a lot of competition for the best and most affordable vendors and venues. Not to mention you may pay less for booking now as opposed to what ever their rates may be in two years especially with venues trying to recoup losses from the last two quarters.

Definitely start and don't listen to them! I thought I was too early with over a year still and turns out I am too late because my top venue is already booked! I say especially with all of the postponements to go ahead and start!

Girl, same. I started planning two years in advance and got SO MUCH crap for it, like “why are you doing this now, you have so long.” And then look what happened...Covid hit. Stores closed, venues closed, and now people are scrambling. But guess who isn’t? ME. Because I had my venue, dj and photographer booked before all of this started. It’s never too early to start, you just don’t know what is going to happen! Those same people now come up to me and tell me how smart I was to get the big things done when I did because places are going crazy now trying to fit in other people. And I’m like I know. I have a method to my madness. If you want to start planning, START PLANNING.

I am with your 100% we keep changing date and year and honestly with how times are in the world it too gives me something to do and more than anything it gives me hope. I have not really booked anything but I have narrowed it down to the ceremony/reception location we want. I have scoped out what invites I want, what location for our engagement photos, what dress I'll wear in them. I have looked at dresses but cant decided without trying on. I have the DJ we want. I'm making a detailed binder with all this and checklists and contracts. Fiance thinks I'm jumping the gun a bit but he knows I plan everything out, I rather be prepared then unprepared.

Covid hit and hearing the stories of our fellow brides, I am amazed and awed by their efforts to save and make new plans and I have come up with plan B in case plan A doesn't work out. FH and I have a ton we are trying to tackle during these next few years and plan B is we do a courthouse. I will wear a cute dress, we do dinner with the immediate family at this vineyard that has a small gathering room and tada.

Honeymoon has not been planned we are in the process of getting the visa situations settled and so maybe we'll wait and do a Europe or Asia honeymoon.

Keep on planning, keep dreaming.