Long engagement blues

We got engaged in August 2018 and will be getting married October 2020; so far, the time really has flown by! A long engagement made sense for us because we're paying for everything ourselves, so it gives us time to save.

I booked the venue, photographer, DJ, and officiant before the end of 2018.

Got my dress in August 2019.

Booked hair, makeup, florist, and hotel block about a year out.

I'll be reaching out for cake stuff in January.

As PPs said, booking early can help ensure you get the vendors you want, and you can lock in rates before they increase. Many vendors book up 1-2+ years out.

Good luck, and have fun!

I would start now, my wedding is September 2021, I’m in Wisconsin and most everyone is completely booked for 2020, and have started booking out to 2021 already.

My date is may28 2021. I thought this was a little early to plan as well, but as I just started yesterday, I found out that photographers/services get booked up quickly. Im not saying youre in a rush, in fact, you could probably wait a few months, but about a year and a half out is NOT too early to start planning a wedding.


Knowing your budget, the season, the style isnt enough. It may all change once you make that initial call to book your venue. Like, i wanted a forrest wedding, then i found out that this wasnt so common and it would be hard to execute, so then I fell in love with a garden w/ a campsite reception as compromise. That whole thing changed all of my ideas about style, and because of the venue pricing, my budget as well.
Plus, as the date approaches, you dont want to suddenly stress out. Im really glad I started calling places even though it felt crazy, which as much as saying, "hay, can i book my wedding for two years from now? " totally sounds insane to me, it doesnt to other people. Make your first step telling people of your engagement because some may offer to help w/ budget and that changes everything too

The sooner the better. I'm scrambling trying to put together a wedding for April 2020. I just locked down the venue and the photographer. The longer you wait the more stressful it is and the harder it is to save.

View Quoted Comment Oh wow that's crazy! I'll definitely have to get on the ball

View Quoted Comment Oh goodness! Yeah I definitely dont think I can handle more stress right now

So I got engaged 06/29/2019 and the wedding isn’t until Oct. 21, 2021. I contacted a few places and the answers I got ranged from “we aren’t booking that early” to “sure we’d love to put you on the books!” So I think it just depends on the business and how early they’re booking. Most of the people that told me they aren’t booking until x date, I’ve pretty much decided not to go with anyways. Most reputable businesses will work with you no matter how early the time frame. That’s not to say those businesses that aren’t booking right now aren’t good...I just find it off that they don’t want to take my money for whatever reason 😂.

I’m in a super similar boat with my fiancé. We’re getting married October 2021, we definitely had time but both of our schedules are pretty busy too so we went ahead and started doing research and ended up booking our venue already. There is the initial deposit you have to put in but it’s nice to know that we have 2 whole years to spread out the payments instead of crushing it down to half of that

We are the same way, but have no set idea on when. I called a few places to ask about dates for around Sept 2022 and the weekend I was looking at was already booked in a few places. Never too early to start guessing I guess! Congratulations by the way!

I recommend to book atleast 12 to 18 months before your wedding because you can get a cheaper price for suppliers. i'm getting married on may 2020 and i booked last january of 2019. so i paid so much cheaper than last minute

Same boat as you lol our wedding date is set to October 2021 . But i already started getting pricing for a venue thats the biggest thing because venues book super fast an you can get a price idea for deposit &etc . create a pintrest board to keep all ideas etc .

View Quoted Comment That's what we are starting to do now, we are out looking today

I say the sooner the better! I wanted to get married in November 2020 so we went looking for venues and we found the perfect one but it was out of price range so we decided to get married a year later so we have more time to save, we put a down payment on the venue to secure the date because when we did go look November 2020 was all booked up except for a few days and so were other places we looked at

Start searching now! Everything fills up so fast. My fiancé and I are doing a long engagement as well and we love knowing that we’re getting everything we want for our day because we’re booking early enough.

View Quoted Comment That is smart (lock in on rates ) -I just got engaged as well and we plan on getting married in May 2021

I think it all depends on where you live and what type of funds you have now. You mentioned you wanted to save but if you start looking at venues now and fall in love then you’ll have to come up with a deposit which most of the time is 30-50%.


So I, personally, would definitely start looking but be prepared to start cutting checks or swiping credit cards. Some venues might give you the 2020 rate, as 2019 is over. Or others might give you the 2021 rate which might be more and require a larger deposit. Either way it’s never too early to start locking down vendors! Happy planning and congratulations to you!!!

You should start contacting venues you're interested in to get an idea of their pricing, policies, and how many guests they can accomodate. You're research will often turn up a lot of questions you've never thought about (ex. I looked at a ceremony space I loved, but they don't allow for flower petals or a receiving line -- I then had to consider whether that was a deal breaker).

You and your FH should discuss your budget and what's most important to you and go from there.

The sooner the better i started everything exactly a year in advance and we had a hard time finding venues and booking and officiant my advice is figure out a rough amount of people attending and then start looking to book for a venue since you know a date you like. I wish i would have started looking for a venue after we 1st got engaged. Im my opinion these 2 are the most important for the book asap everything else i would start at least a year before dress ive been told roughly 10 months before is good because of order time and alterations.

I would call soon. I've been engaged for a about a year and 1 month. We are getting married February 1st 2020.


We put a down payment on the venue only a few months engaged and I'm glad we did. It made all the other planning go smoothly.
I know some venues you have to book it almost a year in advance depending on the time of year you get married.
Honestly having more time to plan has been such a blessing, I didn't feel so rushed to make decisions about something. The time went by fast!!
Best of luck!!

It doesn't hurt to start early, especially if you are considering more popular venues. When we looked at venues some were booked 3 years out for certain dates! We had a shorter engagement (9 months) and were flexible with dates which was good because some of the venues we looked at only a handful of dates left for the following year. Plus its better to venue shop when you aren't under a ton of pressure to decide quickly, because you'll have time to think about what is important to you. I was very worried the venue we wanted would get booked before we had time to put down our deposit because they had so few dates left.