Just engaged! Help!

Yes and yes. I'm sure it's possible to plan a wedding for 10/10/2020, but you should be aware that you're probably not going to get your first, second, or maybe even third choice in venues or vendors at this point. Planning a wedding in 8 months is difficult enough, but it's going to be even harder since that's the most popular wedding date of the year. I would establish a budget and a rough draft of your guest list ASAP so you can start looking for a venue.

View Quoted Comment Thank you!

Hello
Congratssss!!!! Ill say this dont worry about the date. Worry about planning because 8 month is not a long time. You have alot to do. Start off with a budget that you both can estimate that may work out. Then start venue shopping...prepare guest list and send out save the dates asap u can...and within now and 6 months in start your dress shopping. Everything else will come...good luck and happy planning.

View Quoted Comment Aww thanks! You calmed some of nerves! Thank you!

I don’t think it’s impossible but I will say where I live, that date has pretty much been completely booked at all the venues. Many people booked that date out a couple years in advance so if you would be able to change your date or be flexible with it that would make your life easier and less stressful! For example, not only venues but the best vendors are also pretty booked up for that date and 8 months isn’t a lot of time

Congratulations!!!


The Thumbtack app helped me a lot with my vendors. You can reach out to multiple at the same time. And they’ll get back to you with their availability pronto. I’d go dress shopping immediately, especially if you want something designer. They usually take anywhere from 6-8 months to make. If you fall in love with a designer dress but can’t order because of the time constraints I’d try preownedweddingdress and stillwhite.com they have a ton of designer gowns that were samples or were ordered and the bride never came to pick them up. I’d try and get Your venue right away because it’s such a popular date. While you’re trying to secure a venue get that guest list narrowed down. Minted and vistaprint make beautiful invitations and STDs and they only take about 2weeks to arrive. Your brides maids can get their dresses from azazie or David’s bridal they have tons of colors and affordable options. And you’ll have a ton of help from the beautiful ladies here, so don’t stress !!! You can and will do it and it’s going to be a great day!

View Quoted Comment Awwww thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Lol I’m already feeling, “just take me to the jp and get this over with!” You helped me feel better! Thank you

8 months is usually plenty of time to plan a wedding. The problem that you’re going to face is that the fall is already an incredibly popular time to get married, but 10/10 is one of the most popular wedding dates this year. I’d research venues, photographers, and your other big vendors ASAP as you may have a difficult time finding people that are available. Good luck!

Congratulations!
As others have stated, it’s not impossible, but it will be tough. 8 months is not a lot of time, and your date is popular. I got married in October and was definitely fighting a lot of other brides for vendors, and I had much longer than 8 months to plan. I would set your budget ASAP (like today lol) and start contacting venues and scheduling tours ASAP! The ones left won’t last long. From there, photographers & videographers, caterers, & DJ’s should be top priorities. The good ones won’t last long!

View Quoted Comment Lol! Don’t worry you can do it. And try to use Pinterest for inspiration once you get your colors decided. It’ll help you tons. I’d say in order of importance 1.budget, 2. venue, 3/4. Dj/photographer, 5. florist, MUA. You can get your dress/shoes/veil/jewelry and order your invitations/STDs while you’re getting the big stuff squared away. It took me about a two weeks to get the Big 5 squared away and then just made a check list and got the little things done each month. But you’ll be fine.

As others have said you can plan a wedding in 8 months but you're going to have to do a lot of research. Most likely you're going to need to open your mind set to the type of venue that you want. Usually hotels tend to be very expensive so you may want to look at other avenues. Check some bed and breakfast in your area as the one that I'm eloping that also hosts weddings so they were great size and they provide a room to get ready. I would also research country clubs as they sometimes can be a bit more affordable. The first thing that you need to do is sit down with your fiance and set a budget of what you guys can do. If your budget is not huge then that means you are not going to be able to have a large guest list. Something you should also consider that can be really nice and very affordable is to have your ceremony and a local park. A lot of times they'll allow you to add some nice drapery to the trees or something like that. Where I live many brides that want to have an outside wedding will find a popular Park and do something there and you can set up chairs as well. I would also start a Pinterest wedding board to maybe get ideas of the style of wedding that you want. I will say that if you are having issues finding a venue in your local city you may want to travel a little bit and go outside of your area. There are many vendors here but I also suggest joining a Facebook wedding group for your area if one exists as there are people that I came across that were not mentioned on this website. I would say the two things you need to start booking now would be the venue and the photographer as they can go very fast. Things such as makeup and all of that can wait. I would also go dress shopping now as depending on the dress that you want it could take up to eight months to come in and that's not including if you need to get it altered. It's going to be stressful but you can plan a wedding at 8 months you just need to get started on on things now.

10/10 was our original date. We started looking at booking a Venue 18 months in advance and almost every venue was already booked. Or they wanted extra $$ because we live in NM and it’s ballon fiesta. One venue literally wanted an extra $8k just because it was ballon fiesta weekend. We eventually had to change our date

And if you really find a place you love and can’t get that date I’d try for 12/12/2020. It’s just as nice and you’ll have more time to plan and find your dress.

Congratulations!!
We are getting married 10.10.2020, too! We reserved our venue (for both reception & ceremony and its nearly all inclusive) in March of last year! Even then someone already reserved the late wedding so we are doing an early ceremony & reception, which is saving us a ton! Luckily the venue is nearly all inclusive so we didn’t have many vendors outside of them to hire. During the summer of last year we put deposits down on floral, hair & make up and our hotel blocks.

Being this close to a popular date, you may not be able to find all the vendors you need, leaving you scrambling. As pps have suggested, maybe look at a date later in the year to give you moretime to plan and better availability.
Good luck!

Others have given you all the most important advice/responses. Just understand that you don't really have a date until you have your venue(s) booked. If you have budget and guestlist agreed upon (at least a good rough estimate of the number), then start reaching out to venues today because depending on where you live and how many options there are, that is likely to be your biggest challenge. Congrats and good luck!

Honestly, if you don't already have a venue and other vendors lined up for that date I doubt you're going to be able to have your wedding that date (unless you're planning a 20-person wedding at a restaurant or something like that). It's an extremely popular wedding date and venues especially have been booked up for months for that date.

We’re getting married on Oct. 10, 2020 and booking vendors (even six months ago) still involved a little looking. Is there some reason it has to be that date? Or is it flexible? As mentioned above, I’m not sure you have a date until you have a venue. You can absolutely do a wedding in 8 months, but doing it in the most popular wedding season is a challenge much less on the biggest wedding day of the year.

We got engaged in May of last year, and originally wanted that date. It was already booked pretty much everywhere I called, so we changed our date to 10/11/20. Still on the holiday weekend, so it works out for guests with it being a Sunday. I do think you are going to have a lot of trouble with that date.... I was told that by vendors in May. As someone else mentioned, call some vendors first, see what’s available there and then decide a date. We loved our venue so much, we didn’t mind the date change. Congrats and good luck!

We’re also 10.10.20. But our total engagement period will be 22 months (simply because we’re having a destination wedding in Vegas and didn’t want to deal with heat or cold. So we selected Fall and then we saw 10/10/20 really liked the). So we had ample time.


However, in your case, I’d be more concerned about it being a poplar date than having 8 months remaining. Weddings don’t take long to plan and execute, as long as you have the money available. But it’s the difficulty of finding venues and vendors on popular dates because your options will be very limited. So you’ll have to be very flexible, creative and open minded.
Best wishes!

I don't know if for you this date has extra meaning or if it's just catchy and easy to remember like many couples feel this year. But maybe consider looking at venues first and then reconsider the date if necessary? Of course you can still plan on October but maybe a different date would be more easily done because 8 months to plan is already a task, but as PPs have said 10/10/20 is popular. My FH and I didn't plan on any specific date but we knew we wanted July. We chose the venue first. Of course if this isn't good for you feel free to ignore. 😊