What should I be doing?! 15 months out

Budget, rough guest list, pinterest (if you haven't already), and venue searching. Book if you find one you like.

You can probably also look at photographers, as they book up pretty early.

Thanks Allison! We found a venue that we will be booking soon. Next week we meet with the DJ but is it too early to book him? I've heard numerous good reviews from him and he just raised his prices and told me I could get his old prices if I book by the end of this month. I also bought my dress because I fell IN LOVE with it and it's everything I wanted. Plus it was Maggie Sottero and I got it for half the price. I just don't know how to not rush and not fall behind.

You're not really that far out from the "standard" 12-month timeline! I would get your budget figured out, and rough up a guest list so you have a rough number. Once that's done, you can start looking at venues because you know what you can afford and how many guests you need to fit. I would definitely try to book a venue soon, you really can't be too soon with that! From there, I would book my photographer (you can get e-pics done early and out of the way!) and maybe even entertainment/DJ or band/ceremony musicians.

Booking the big things the earlier the better is always good!

One thing that booked up really fast in my area that I was surprised about was on location Hair & Make-up people. If you are planning to have people come to you, I would start looking now. (The same is not true if you are planning to go to a salon.)

Other than that, Venue, Photographer, Caterer, DJ (probably in that order).

I really don't think it is too early to book anything. I had an 18 month engagement, and with mine and FHs job, we get really (like overwhelmingly) busy from June to November, so I had everything booked, and my dress bought by May. It made it a lot easier. I see you're getting married in may also, just next year. I kept saying "I will take care of it after the first of the year" BEWARE, it was like all of a sudden "omg, its only 4 months away!" now I'm 2 1/2, it WILL fly by.

Do things as soon as possible, except asking your girls (if you haven't already) I would wait until about 10 months out.

I'd recommend booking whatever you can as soon as your date is set. The sooner you book, the more likely you are to get your first choice.

I say book all of the big vendors soon that way you get first pick. Photographers book quick so after setting up a budget, estimate amount of guests I would book the venue, photographer/videographer, DJ, dress and everything else will fall into place after that.

Venue! A lot of my "dream" venues were already booked 2 years in advance!! Decide budget, general guest list number first- then date/time of year (which it sounds like you have), talk to VIPs about a specific date, and then start looking at venue!

Prioritize also, for me, photography was more important to me than my venue. So I had to make sure my date worked for both my photographer and venue. Make a list of "priorities" from top to bottom. Some categories should be, photographer, videographer, flowers, alcohol, food, guest list size, etc..

Thank you everyone! Very helpful info! FH is being very laid back about it but since I'm in school full time and work, I don't want to stress even more as it gets closer since I graduate with my B.S. Two weeks before the wedding. And Allison, May must be a really good month