Planning 3 years ahead

I feel like you can definitely Pinterest and stuff, but other than that, enjoy your engagement! You probably won't be able to lock down vendors and such this early anyway.

And if you don't mind me asking, why such a long wait?

I would look and find out what you like but I would not set anything yet. Things can change so much in 3 years and what you like may change too. But it is completely up to you if you plan or not. This is only my personal opinion.

I would defenitly start writing down ideas! But you may not be able to book stuff this early!

Definitely get your venue! A lot of vendors will lock in the current year pricing for later weddings too but make sure it explicitly says in your contract that you will receive the lower rates.

I'm 3 1/2 years out and I'm already looking at everything. Now, that's mostly because I want to know what pricing is and if I can pull it off, but it's also super fun! My FI is having fun looking too. I'm just window shopping while trying to save money for the wedding!

That being said I do think I found my wedding band, and may order that way too early for fear of it not being available.

Aside from maybe booking a venue (some probably won't take bookings this early) and doing some research, I doubt there's much you can really do yet.

What about planning the engagement party and photos?

I've changed my mind a million times and we've been engaged for and year and a half. You can definitely start pricing things just to get an idea of how much you need to save. Other than that, take time and just enjoy your engagement for a while. Your tastes, relationships, etc, will change throughout the three years.

It goes by fast! As you can see by my username I signed up after we got engaged 2 years ago, now we are a month out and I have soooo much to do. Get all the big stuff out of the way - venue, photographer, videographer, caterer, music - some will let you lock in prices and you won't have to pay higher rates if they increase. Plus then you have the major stuff taken care of and can focus on the little details. Spread out purchasing stuff. I said I was going to do this but didn't and should have been buying votives, decor, table runners, jewelry, shoes, etc. in the past year instead of needing to buy it now all at once. Once you start buying stuff though do not keep looking on pinterest, inspo blogs, etc. because you don't want to change your mind and end up in a totally different direction.

It's never too early to get ideas and window shop. It's also never too early to start saving!!!!

The only planning I'd worry about now is an engagement party if you want to have one. My FH and I got engaged over a year ago and thought we'd have a party once we decided the date, but we didn't decide a date until a few weeks ago and now I feel like it's too late to have a party for something that happened forever ago.

Definitely start looking now! Just realize your style might change! I started planning years before we got engaged and my styles and ideas and wants changed so much even within the last year!

It ok to look cause the price change.

It's not too early to start planning SOMETHING... like putting ideas and your favorites together. But the thing about having enough time to plan, you also have enough time to change your mind on things

Thank you everyone for your advice and we are waiting that long because we wanted to pick a date that was significant to our relationship & wanted it to be a weekend as well. Plus neither one of us like odd numbers lol so we didn't want to do it in 2019. FH also wants a big wedding and is trying to mainly pay for all of it so we using the time to save up

Enjoy being engaged. Once you start planning it doesn't stop. You can start in November before the influx of Christmas engagements

Keisha November of this year?

@Sharlissa Yes November of this year. I would start with the the venue since those book up fast. Before you start looking decide on a guest list and budget

Save, set a realistic budget n plan on only spending 85% of it, Pinterest like crazy! I ended up buying 2 things early on...only because I kept going back to those 2 items all the time. Other than that, resist the urge to buy decor n attire...tastes change.

I think that looking to get a good idea of what things cost now isn't a bad idea, and will help you to set a realistic budget for yourself.

Other than that I would wait to do much else other than pin ideas on Pinterest. Many things can change between now and then including your tastes!

I've been on Pinterest like crazy!! I think that's where wanting to start planning things early on came from lol I just saw so many cute things on there.