I have no idea what I am doing.

First determine a budget then find a venue. The venue can help you decide the rest

First, welcome and congratulations!

1) You need to find a venue, for both your ceremony and reception unless it will be at the same place. Take a look at the venue tab and start calling some of them you like, to set up a tour. Venue = Date.

2) You mentioned it will be on a budget. Set that budget and have a meeting with family/in laws to see if and what people are contributing.

These are the main two, you already said your guest list so you are headed in the right direction.

ETA: Other things will follow, your registry, wedding party, invitations ect but you really want to grab your venue now. These places book very early, where I live venues are booking into LATE 2019 and vendors are booking into 2020. Happy Planning OP.

I love the wedding wire budget and checklist tools. I have the app on my phone and I check it constantly. Start with setting your budget so you know what you're both comfortable spending. Then find your venue and that will lock in your date and set the tone for everything else you'll need to plan. The checklist is great to work through everything when it should be done. I tend to stay a month or two ahead you save myself the stress later. And then I highly recommend starting a Pinterest board to pin your wedding inspiration. It will really help you with vendors later and to help your ideas form. Congratulations and good luck!

You should consider consulting with a full service planner, they will take the worry out of the process and guide you.

Congrats on the engagement. @MrsMPhil nailed it. Especially since you already have a tentative guest list. I would highly advise to NOT have a meeting with family about what they will contribute. If someone offers, great, but do NOT make your family feel obligated or pressured to contribute monitarily. Determine what you and your FI can afford and budget for that. Any extra money offered to you is a huge bonus and can be used to upgrade things along the way.

Most importantly, enjoy the process. It can be stressful at times, but it's also so wonderful.

Spend some time thinking about what you want, and what are must haves, vs. not necessary and start looking at what things cost in your area/where you want to get married. That will determine how long you need to save and what your budget is. We didn't lock down a venue until about 9 months after we got engaged, and I'm really glad we took lots of time to research because we were able to find something that met our vision and was affordable! You'll be surprised what you find when you really research and keep your options open!

Also, this board has been incredibly helpful, just lurk a lot and take notes

Congrats on your engagement! Use the wedding wire tools like the budget and checklist. Totally helps!

I was in your shoes two months ago! I've only ever been to one wedding I can compare things to and I had no idea where to start! I downloaded the WeddingWire app and my FH took me to Barnes and Noble for some bride magazines. That was definitely a big help! The timeline on the app is helpful too because it tells you when you should have certain things completed by. I would also recommend not necessarily believing everything you hear or see. My wedding isn't until October and I have almost all of my vendors booked. This process has been pretty stress-free for me and I'm super happy about it! Good luck!

A wedding registry is pretty much a shopping list for your guests for what you and FH want. And then I agree with what every other poster said on here.

Congrats!!! You should look into a pop up wedding then since you have a small guest list

Congrats on the engagement!

First things first, you need a budget and a venue. What I did, after establishing a budget, was research venues online. I made a list and then went through and called/emailed them for information. Then I set up appointments for the ones that worked price-wise, and then went from there.

All inclusive or partly inclusive venues are good if you don't want to plan out every detail yourself. My venue includes catering and bar, cake from a bakery they partner with, and centerpieces. They also gave me a list of vendors they work with. I'm using one of their suggested florists which is nice because the venue and florist will communicate with each other on delivery times, set up, etc. My venue also comes with a wedding coordinator and she has been very helpful! For example, I emailed her my wedding day timeline and she reviewed it and made a few necessary adjustments.

Tip: Before you start emailing venues and vendors, open a separate email account specifically for wedding stuff. I wish I had done that. DJs and photographers still email me stuff and I chose both months ago.

If you are only having that many guests you also need to decide what type of wedding yo want. Do you see yourself in a ballroom, garden, farm, back yard, or a ceremony and then dinner. It is up to you. Once you decide on what type of wedding you guys want, the budget, etc then you can begin looking at venues. Depending on what you pick you might end up with a DOC with your venue.

The WeddingWire app has helpful tools. And not to advertise a competitor, but I found this very helpful in the early planning:

The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner & Organizer [binder edition]: Worksheets, Checklists, Etiquette, Calendars, and Answers to Frequently Asked Questions https://www.amazon.com/dp/0770433367/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_4yZnAbQRR5X0P

I highly recommend taking time to enjoy your engagement before jumping into planning. Pick this back up january-february. You will appreciate it later.