Late Start against everything!

Browse the vendor tab at the top. Eventective.com and Peerspace.com are great for locating venues.
Decide what is most important and skip the rest.
Have your favorite restaurant cater.

Start with the big stuff. Do you need a BIG, EXPENSIVE venue or do can you have it at a B&B? Find a DJ with affordable pricing (I’m only paying $400 for my DJ, and he is AWESOME. But I only need him for 3 hours). Find a photographer, it IS possible to find affordable photographers, you just really have to look HARD. As for decor, and flowers, save yourself hundreds/thousands buy going artificial, and making your own arrangements, bouquets, boutonnière, corsages (this is what I did. And best part is, you can resell everything & get some money back!) I’ve found that BBQ food is the cheapest way to go as well as far as catering. Invitations & save the dates? VISTAPRINT. Overall, it’s all in the way you go about things. To me, a wedding over $5,000 just for ONE day DIDNT seem logical or worth it. A getaway with your spouse to make awesome memories is worth so much more. I hope this helps! Cut every corner you can. 👍🏻

Budget, guest list, venue. Think about what you want the wedding to look like. Church ceremony, outdoor, time of year, etc. do you want music, photos, casual dinner or nicer, booze or not, etc. Decide what’s important to you both. Look on Pinterest for dresses, ideas, etc. Etsy has cute things. Dollar store, second hand or new for decorations. Have fun!

Rent as much as you can from your vendors. Set realistic goals for yourself. If you aren't naturally crafty, save yourself time/headache/money by ordering from Etsy.
Costco for flowers.

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Thank you!

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I for sure agree! I want a small wedding honestly under 30 people but the hubby to be has a huge family and wants to invite more. We negotiated to 50 Lol! I plan on DIYing everything I can not just because it's cheaper but I also adore making decor it's my favorite hobby. Thank you for taking the time to reply!

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I didn't think about costco for flowers! That's Genius! Thank you so much!

Research, research, research.

Find out what things cost in your area. Figure out how much you can afford. Consider fake flowers, as well. (Cheaper, won't wilt, no allergies.)

Make copious use of the "Planning" and "Vendors" tabs, up above, as well as cross-referencing those you find on other wedding sites, google, and yelp. Ask your friends for references.

Breathe.

You can do this.

DH and I got engaged on 12/31/18, married on 8/24/19. We had nothing planned before he proposed, he got sick a week after - for a month! - and I got sick that April - and we had to redo the whole ceremony plan in May.

It can be done.

I think it's helpful to talk with your partner and decide what each of your must-have-things are. This can help you prioritize your budget. My parents are being incredibly generous and offered to help with a lot of the wedding expenses, so when my partner and I had this conversation, we said our must-have with our part of the budget was a honeymoon, so that helped us direct our budget a little more.

When I started planning our wedding, I found a variety of wedding planning checklists online and then created my own to customize to our needs. But you have the big thing out the way, the date, now it's time to plan your budget and find a venue. Keep in mind that you may have to get extra creative because people have postponed their weddings and venues may be of slim pickings.

You can still have the wedding of your dreams on a budget, so don't let your budget scare you.

If you can find a venue that can do a lot for you, that would help too in terms of time constraints. there are venues that have packages where you don't have to do much