Where did you start?

First of all CONGRATS! And no dw about it! Asking that is their way of being excited for you, so they ask about the wedding that only got imagined like 10 minutes ago 😆 Take as much time as you want to enjoy your engagement, but picking a date or a date range as well as ballparking a budget will be the first steps. After that you can start touring venues, and checking which dates of your preferred few they have available. Happy planning!

View Quoted Comment Yay!!!! Congratulations!!!!

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much

View Quoted Comment Thanks so much

Congrats on your engagement. Definitely take you time and enjoy the moment!! Once you are ready to start planning consider the area you plan to marry in and what are the vendors you need to book first.

For instance I am in the DMV area and venues easily book up a year in advance. In addition, photographers and videographers also book up far in advance. My planning started with hiring a wedding planner because I needed help in finding vendors who could execute my vision best, would be within whatever budget I set, and frankly because I did not have the time to plan the wedding myself. Once I chose the planner we made the budget first then booked the venue. Thereafter, we booked photography and videography. It was around this time that I was thinking of having a bridal party and if I had decided to have one I would have at this point asked the ladies I wanted to be a part of my day if they would be my bridesmaids. (Ultimately, I decided against any wedding party. )

For everything else, my wedding planner has given me a monthly schedule of what needs to be done up to my wedding day and will do the timeline for and oversee the wedding day.

Date/season, budget, color scheme/theme, making appointments for bridesmaid/wedding gowns. I feel like these are the easiest things to get started and bridesmaids dresses are one of the top priorities as it can take 4-6 months during certain times of the year and that's before alterations.

I started with the venue. You can tell them when you want to get married, and they can give you dates they have available and prices for those dates. Than you start looking at DJ, photo/video and go from there. Hope this helps 🙂 and Congratulations!

Omg everyone keeps asking me that as well, and I also just on engaged on May 24th! Lol I decided to start looking at venues today and atleast start figuring out a date but I don’t know if that’s where I should even be starting ugh

I also took time to just enjoy the engagement. Then we made a guest list of everyone we’d like to invite. Then came the budget. We calculated all of our bills (over estimated) and also accounted for personal spending money. Then we thought about the weather we’d prefer to get married in. My fiancé hates cold and hot weather so we choose September because NORMALLY the weather is a nice happy compromise lol (NYC weather has been unpredictable so this may bite us in the butt lol). We calculated how many months we had and then multiplied that by whatever $$ we had left over every month. That was our budget. Then came the venue, then everything else lol.

I started with what month we’d like to get married, then moved onto budget. That determined which year.

But as far as booking, venue came first, because that helped determine absolutes. You could get other florists or photographers if some aren’t available that day, but it would be harder with venue.

Relaxing is a good step in the beginning and willing to take a break each step of the way is healthy and good too (as long as you give yourself time). I found it easy to pick a season then figure budget and look into a planner or venue first (the planner may have insight on venues etc in your budget and help you stay in budget). Once you have your venue you know your guest max amount and start making a guest list.
Hope that helps a bit for the first steps!

I would start with a budget and general season or month! I wouldn’t necessarily set a date unless the date is important to you in some way because then you’ll be disappointed if a venue you love is booked for that specific date already. We then looked at venues and booked our photographer for engagement and wedding photos.

First thing we did is decide on the location, then pick the season and month based off of the location (ex. my sister was getting married in Florida so it wouldn't be a good idea to get married there during hurricane season). You can pick a few dates you like, but I wouldn't set a date until you make sure that your venue, caterer, photographer, and/or other vendors that are important to you, can do that date.

I love using the Knot in addition to Wedding Wire, so I would recommend checking them out, too, I really like their checklist and it's what keeps me sane when planning