Overwhelmed!

Budget, aprox guest count, venue, photographer. Theme, colours? ☺️

Happy planning!

Edit: I do not have a wedding planner but I have a day of coordinator at the venue.

WeddingWire has a great checklist to help with things!

I have been following checklists online (specifically, the one on The Knot). Those have been helpful for me in determining what I need to do and when. We started with the big pieces: picking a date, approximate guest count, venue, photographer, and DJ, and then slowly worked on booking/buying other things from there. It's made the whole process a little less overwhelming for me. We did not use a wedding planner. Congratulations on your engagement, and happy planning!!

I agree with a Michelle - budget first! After budgeting my FH and I drafted a guest list. We already knew where and when we wanted to get married, so from there it was a matter of finding a venue.
I didn’t hire a planner either, just used free online resources like the knot’s planning checklist. I do have an event coordinator at my venue, and between her and no photographer they’ve been really helpful to bounce ideas off of and get recommendations.
I also went to a couple of bridal shows to get ideas and meet potential vendors, joined my local wedding Facebook group, and did tons of research. Good luck!

I understand that. My FH has been married before as well and at the start of planning he kept complaining about how expensive everything was and when he got married before.....thankfully that fizzled out quickly because it was really getting to me.


I only have a day of coordinator (and that’s only because my venue requires a professional doc). I was able to use the preferred vendor list and weddingwire to find all my vendors. The checklist has been extremely helpful.
We are supposed to get married (barring any covid restrictions) November 21st.

Our wedding is fall 2021. We did our budget and guest list first. We have our venue and have such a sweet coordinator who works there. She’ll be our day of coordinator and the person we communicate with about everything.
I wasn’t planning on hiring a wedding coordinator due to budget and wanting to do it myself, but having a DOC is such a relief, especially for our officiant (a family member) who ends up filling that role more often than not at weddings that don’t have one.

Beyond that, we’ve started on our centerpiece items, know where the bridesmaids will get their dresses, picked out our food and bar packages, and are in the process of booking a photographer.
After budget and rough guest count estimate (which helps you see if a venue is the right size for your wedding), it’s important to book the venue so that you have a date set. Before that, you can’t really do much because you have to let other vendors know the date. There’s no sense talking to them if you might end up with a date they aren’t available. What comes next depends on your priorities. Photography is super important to me because it’s the only thing from the day you really keep (besides the marriage lol) and will look at forever, so we went with finding a photographer second after venue. The other stuff we did was just detail stuff that could be done without appointments and, in some cases, without a set date.

Our venue has a DOC, but we don't have a planner. I agree with everyone here - budget, guest count, and venue will determine most everything.

View Quoted Comment Thank you ashley! This really helps to put it in perspective!