Wedding planning timeline

It looks like your wedding date is less than a year out, so I would get cracking on pretty much everything ASAP! I would definitely secure your venue as soon as possible, as many of them are booked up for 2022 already due to all the Covid reschedules. Securing your venue will help you decide on caterers, as many places require you to use in-house catering or a preferred list of caterers. You will want to reach out to photographers, videographers, florists, and hair & make up artists right away as well. I would schedule times to try on wedding dresses right away also, as many of them take 6 months or more during “normal” times; and are taking even longer now with pandemic delays and shipping overseas taking longer than average. Bridesmaids dresses can usually be ordered 3-6 months out, but I would ask the bridal boutiques you go to to try on dresses how long BM dresses are taking right now with all the delays. Assuming you are having a local wedding, save the dates typically go out around 4-6 months prior to your wedding. But, if you are having a destination wedding, or if a lot of your guests are having to travel for your wedding, you can send them out as early as a year in advance. Invitations typically go out 6-8 weeks before your wedding.

View Quoted Comment Thank you, I've already secured the venue and photographer, paid my dress off but thats it. I didn't know if I was rushing the process and needed to slow down and get going at my pace. I also don't have anyone to ask because no one has had a wedding in my family for forever lol. You've helped with everything that I've asked for and I thank you for that the! 😊

For a 2022 wedding, the venue and any vendors (catering, florist, photographer, DJ, etc) should be booked as soon as possible, though since it looks like your wedding is in December, you may have an easier time finding vendors than a spring/summer/fall 2022 wedding. Though, I would definitely start the process of reaching out to vendors and getting pricing and policy information in the next week or two. Check on Facebook groups for local weddings ("[city/area name] weddings" or "[city/area name] brides"), and put a post looking for whichever vendors you need. Add your budget, date, and specific services requested, and you should get responses from available vendors.

Save The Dates typically go out 6-8 months ahead of time, so you could look into ordering these in the next couple months. Invitations are sent out 6-8 weeks ahead of time, so I wouldn't worry about looking into these until this summer.

If ordering a wedding dress, it could take anywhere from 4-8 months to arrive, plus another 2-3 months for alterations, so if you want to order one, I recommend making dress appointments for the next month or so. You could also buy a sample dress or a dress off the rack - in those cases, the dress comes home with you that day. Also check pre-owned dresses: often, these are brand new with tags and unaltered, and the previous owner changed their mind on it after buying it. If doing off the rack, sample dress, or pre-owned, you'd have a lot more time to find a dress than if you were to order one.

Bridesmaids dresses often take 2-4 months to arrive, so you've got a little bit of time, but definitely check with the bridesmaids dress shops to find out how long the dresses are currently taking to arrive and then plan accordingly on when to order yours. Make sure to leave at least a few weeks or a month for alterations once the dresses arrive.

Happy wedding planning!

View Quoted Comment Thank you! I've got dress, venue, photographer checked off already but haven't got anything else, when I'm getting appointments made so women are looking at me like I'm doing to much to soon so I wanted to make sure I wasn't doing to much.

View Quoted Comment You are so welcome! That’s what we’re all here for :-) And you’re definitely not rushing the process-I would move forward full steam ahead! Congratulations on the engagement! I hope you enjoy the planning process; I think it is so fun!

The time for all that is NOW! Especially when we're still working through Covid, you need to start making all of those calls. We don't know what's going to happen with Omicron, plus you'll likely be contending with people who are still trying to reschedule their 2020 and 2021 weddings that were postponed. (Trust me, I know - we had to reschedule twice!) I would start here with WeddingWire to look for vendor recommendations in your area, and then I would ask around to friends and family by you who've gotten married recently, especially if you particularly liked someone's DJ/cake/flowers. Good luck!

I'm also getting married in December and I'm full steam ahead. We have booked our venue, caterer, DJ, photographer, and florist already and are going to look at invitations etc this weekend. I'm a planner and I'd rather get a ton of stuff done "too early" and have some downtime in the middle of the year then be scrambling. Between Covid and shipping delays that are plaguing everything - I'd rather have everything done ahead of time. Besides, its your wedding. Only you can decide if it's the right time to do things.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! I'm getting things done now as we speak!

View Quoted Comment Omg! You are speaking my language, that's what I'm talking about. Congratulations also, I'm going full force now.

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Good! If you haven't asked the people you want to be bridesmaids, I would do that soon as well, if only to make sure they have it on their calendars and can't get out of it.

View Quoted Comment I actually got my maid of honor/bridesmaids proposals out on Christmas and the best man/groomsmen proposals out on New Years Eve. I made sure to get that done so I wouldn't have any confusion on dress shopping, etc.

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I'm also having my girls keep an eye out for clothing now, as my colors are more winter based and things are on sale now/going away soon. I'm in a large city where I've run into a LOT of vendors having already been booked through the entirety of 2022, I'm down to about 2 vendors left to book. Some of my family think I'm crazy for getting everything done now, but with weddings real close to Christmas, they suggest sending out Save the Dates and Invites slightly earlier than standard because people have to plan around the holidays. Also my florist (who happens to be my mother) is sourcing things she can now in the big holiday sales (twinkle lights etc) and stock piling in my garage. We're saving a LOT by getting that stuff out of the way now. I'd rather have boxes in my garage for months than scrambling in November for what I want because everyone is trying to decorate for the holidays!

View Quoted Comment Yes! I'm with you, I've had packages coming to the house non-stop. I don't like doing things last minute for a trip so for my wedding I want to be ahead of schedule.

Update: I've booked with a DJ, meeting with him tomorrow and booked bartenders, meeting them on Friday. I'm talking with a caterer but haven't finalized anything yet.