When to book a venue?!

My wedding is 2 years from yesterday and I booked my venue earlier this week, but I'm also doing a destination wedding.

@sarah m , I totally spaced out Valentine's Day weekend!! I have a budget all laid out and planning on looking at venues during my spring break (so mid march), would April - May be better?

I booked my venue about 16 months out and we got one of the last two weekend days available that month.

As soon as you decide on a venue, try to book it! Places get booked up fast!

ETA: A year and two months out might actually not be enough time for a venue, especially if it's popular.

I booked mine 14 months out. I don't remember what the availability looked like, I just remember October 7 being available and being happy about that.

You should start looking around and keep the date you want in mind, but if you find a place that you really want and it's taken, then you can work with them to come up with another date!

I did mine a little over a year ahead. I'd say book as soon as possible so you get the best dates. It all depends:

- are you willing to commit?

- how popular is the venue, crazy ones are booked far far in advance

- when does the venue accept bookings? Mine did not accept anything earlier than 14 months in advance or something.

We booked our venue about a year and a half before the wedding. My advice, the sooner you book the venue (especially you really want your date) the better. When we went to pay the deposit, there was a couple making a deposit for the wedding which was 2 years after ours.

As soon as you can. I am booked for some of 2018, which means that the venues have been booked for a while since I am one of the last vendors to be booked.

And you'll know what your reception budget will be, which is usually about half of the total number of the wedding.

Book your venue now if you can to lock in a 2017 rate. Prices go up every year.

I would do it as soon as you can, especially if where you are wanting to have your wedding at is a popular place.

Book your venue as soon as you can. Venues get booked up quickly. 2 years is fine to book your venue

I booked mine early (18-20 months out I believe) Because one, I got the 2016 rate, and two, they were already booking up for 2018 when I was looking.

I would book now, like @nauti said you might even get to lock in the rates for 2017 prices! I got the 2016 price as well. Also.... it gives you a set date, (you don't have a date without a venue.) go now.

Do it now.

I booked 17 months out and my " dream date " was already taken and I had to settle for another weekend. If you love the place do not wait !!

Book your venue ASAP - as soon as you decide! I booked my venue 14 months before our wedding date and several of our top date choices were already taken!

We booked our venue about 2 years in advance. The venue we picked booked 2 years in advance and if we wanted our date we had to decide fast. I haven't questioned our decision once! The only thing I noticed is our venue keeps doing updates (adding patios, changing lights, so on) which I am so okay with, but make sure you keep up with what they are doing!

Book your venue as soon as you can afford to, because as PPs pointed out, they tend to fill up quickly as that is the deciding factor on your wedding date. I had wanted 10/13/2017, but by the time we started venue shopping in November of 2016, most all of the Fridays and Saturdays in October were taken (hence my Sunday wedding, which I'm totally fine with because we got a discount).

Order of operations should be budget, guest list and then venue (because you need to know how many people you can afford, and how many people your venue needs to accommodate)

When we got engaged (16 months out from our date) our venue only had 2 dates left in our 5 week timeframe that we wanted to get married. So no, I would definitely not say too soon!

I am not getting married until May 2019 and I booked my venue about 2 weeks ago. I got lucky because the entire month of May 2019 was booked except for my date. I call it fate lol. I literally hate doing things last minute so I started looking the minute we got engaged, which was October of 2017. Good luck in your search.