Newbie

You can absolutely wait to start planning until after the new year if your wedding isn't until Spring 2021. Congratulations on your engagement! We're having a short engagement, so I'll have planned out entire wedding in about 8 months. Some popular vendors can book a year or more out (mainly venues and photographers), but you have lots of time!

I started my countdown at 830 days lol. (since July 2018). we basically booked the big vendors between 2018- to Jan 2019 so that we would have smaller payments and get the vendors we want for our day.

Our engagement will be 22 months total by our wedding (next month!) We booked our venue within two months and then a photographer shortly after. Two of our top prospects for photography were already booked 18 months in advance. You can definitely wait until January for most things, but I would start looking at photography sooner than later.

You'll be fine! As long as you have the venue booked, that's the most important thing. Everything else you can do closer to the wedding. I got married in June 2019... was engaged in December 2017 and literally did NOTHING until May 2018 lol. Everything worked out fine!

We started with a 27 month engagement and now are down to 18! We also booked our venue first (which includes catering, bar, chairs, tables and linens). I just booked my HMU because I felt like I wanted to do something but you will definitely be fine to wait until January for everything else. Some vendors will only book up to 12-18 months out.

You have plenty of time to make all the pieces come together, so you can definitely relax! However, if you start crossing things off your list you'll feel better and the process will be much less stressful. Vendors do tend to book up, even more than a year out, especially during busy season. I'd start thinking about the big things, the photographer, bakery, DJ, etc. Just start looking around to get an idea what's out there and who you might want. Definitely make a budget, if you haven't already done that, so you know what you can afford to spend/are willing to pay. Most importantly, enjoy the process!!!!

We started with 868 days, so 29 months total. I had our venue booked within 4 months to ensure I got what I wanted. Next was the photographer because this was the highest thing on both of our priority lists. After about a year I did one vendor every month or two. I just sent the deposit in for our caterer yesterday and am officially done with all the big things 13 months out.