When to start booking vendors...

Most vendors you can book as soon as possible, but things like cake and catering I would wait until about 8 months or so in advance. This is the order of how I did mine: venue, dress, event rentals, cake, catering, and DIY throughout. I recommend getting a budget together first. Good luck. I'm also a full time college student and started planning a year and a half ahead of the wedding. I did all of the décor and flowers from scratch, so that amount of time is needed. It is a lot of work. I recommend having people lined up to help if you need it and think about what you would be ok having other people do all together. I got very stressed out and had someone else do invitations. But it is rewarding and worthit

Find the venue first! Then go down the list of must haves. I started a year and a half early. I booked my must haves first then everything else falls into place and you also can see how much money you have left in the budget

I SWEAR by my checklist!!! A lot of people use the one here on WW but I use the one from Real Simple. I HIGHLY recommend using a checklist!!!

My whole engagement was 9 months, so you have plenty of time. I also got married in busy Los Angeles, and had ZERO vendors tell me "they were booked". Of course, I did get married in the "off season" and a Sunday.

Venue should always be booked first, in fact, you should secure your venue BEFORE you finalize your date, this will give you sooooooooo much less stress instead of trying to find a venue on your "perfect number". Its your wedding, any date you choose will be a magical day, even if it wasn't before, it will be now

So, once you have your venue secured it goes from there, Officiant, caterer (if the venue doesn't offer), photography/videography, hair/makeup.

Note on the Officiant, if you have one that you MUST use, I would actually check with the officiant first before booking the venue and choosing your date. If you or your officiant has some flexibility then go ahead and book venue first.

Hope this helps. and Congratulations and welcome to Wedding Wire! You have plenty of time, as I didn't feel rushed at all during my 9 month engagement. Even had some "down planning time

Edit: I do agree with starting with a rough guest list first

December in Florida is not REAL busy with weddings, but you're competing for space with holiday parties.

We did a lot early so we wouldn't feel rushed. When we went to pay the deposit at our venue last year, there was a couple already booking for 2016.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you. Both my fiance and I are full time students and our wedding is in July 2016. We are going to try to get as much done as possible this summer so that we will not be so stressed out during the school year. We just booked the venue because we had our hearts set on a specific date. It is never too early!

I booked our venue,photographer, dj/ceremony musicians, and planner a year and a half out. I'm also a super type A personality so I wanted everything big done asap. They told me I was early but since our wedding is peak season then it was good. Since you're a December wedding you may have a lot more leeway than we did. Congrats and good luck!

Really a year in advance but now works. People trying to book me 4 -5 months in advance have been disappointed. Calling me back frustrated because they can't find a decent DJ asking for advice. If you want to get the venue and good vendors you want you better make time, weekends between classes etc.

It partly depends on when your wedding is, as the "Wedding Season" books up quickly. If you have a vendor you KNOW you want, get them early, too. I have taken bookings as early as 16 months out and as short as a week's notice. Get the important things early.

We booked our venue about 2 years in advance. It was completely booked almost through the end of 2016. It is a dream venue and I couldn't be happier, now I just can't get off their website!

Venue then officiant.

I completely understand where you are coming from! I am in graduate school and work straight second shift as a nurse, the opposite of my day shift fiance! We are getting married a few months before you, but I already have booked my venue and photographer. I've already started researching bakeries for our "donut cake" and caterers. I fell in love with our venue and when I talked to them a month ago, they only had one weekend left for next fall, so I booked it! I would say, plan whatever you can and book whatever vendors you really like as soon as you know.

I also had a long engagement (still going! 1 year 5 months) and I've already booked all of my vendors. I had already done some research before getting engaged, but this way I was able to get all the vendors I wanted without having to worry about my date being taken. You definitely don't have to do EVERYTHING, but figuring out what vendors are most important to you (venue, dj, etc) may give you a good starting point to decide who to book early.

We got engaged Last April, and had our venue booked by July of 2014 for our wedding May 2016. At that time they were already booking for 2016 and even had a few 2017! After our Reception venue we booked the Ceremony Church, Photographer, DJ, and Florist (in that order). We had all of our vendors booked by the end of December. We live in NYC so things get very crazy in the city.

I always heard the same....a year in advance. However, i'm having a 7 month engagement and started booking about 2-3 months in and have not had any trouble with people being unavailable. I guess sit also depends on where you live. I live in an urban area but we don't have a lot of people in our city... most people here travel to have their weddings, or they get married in churches since we're in the bible belt.

Hello

We are one of the professional wedding planners in Chennai and we would suggest you that it is a little early now to start your wedding planning. To be relaxed and do work leisurely I would suggest you to start your planning a year or 10 months prior. Start by deciding the venue and build upon it your requirements for the big day. That way things would be well organised and progress would be track able.

Regards

Ramu

SM Wedding Planners - Chennai

http://smweddingplanners.com

The bulk of people start with us around a year out. We do have people who have booked 2 years out. We also have people who have planned things in under a month. I don't recommend waiting until the last minute. Your choices become more limited if people are booked. Two weeks before Christmas are the big time for holiday parties. A lot of companies book year after year at the same place. I would definitely start calling around.