If you’re recently engaged, planning a wedding is an exciting and fun time in the overall wedding process.

Figuring out your wedding budget, booking vendors, finding that perfect dress, and pulling all the strings to tie everything together is an experience unlike any other.

But, a common question couples have is when should they start the planning process?

Some websites like Wedding Wire and theKnot say 12-18 months before the wedding day, you should planning.

Others say as soon as possible and some believe you can do it with as little as 6 months.

Today, Emma and I will explore this subject and provide you some good information that you can use.

Is it too early to plan my wedding?

The answer is no, it’s never too early to plan your wedding, in fact, the earlier the better and here’s a couple of reasons why.

First, costs.

Most vendors will adjust their pricing annually, if you book more than a year out, chances are it will save you 5-15% overall when booking your vendors.

While that might not sound like much, when you start adding things up, like the national average of roughly $34,000, that's a savings of $1,700-$5,100 in potential savings.

Second, the pool of vendors is larger the further out you plan. You need to keep this in mind, with roughly 2.2 million couples getting married each year, that’s 46,000 couples a given weekend getting married.

That means you're competing for resources like top-quality vendors. The sooner you book them, the better. As your wedding gets closer in time, those top-quality wedding vendors get booked, leaving you with lesser quality vendors to choose from.

Okay, awesome. So how far out should I start planning?

Again, the experts will say a range from but typically, most couples will take an average length of planning a wedding is about 15 months. (We recommend 16 months so you have a month to plan your budget, what you need to do, etc.)

Now, I will say that there are elements that need to happen first, like booking a venue. That’s because, without the venue, you don’t have a wedding date.

No date, no booking anything else.

From the venue, the next major decision is getting a planner for the long haul or short.

Many couples will hire a wedding planner for what they call the ‘day-of’ coordinator, but many in this day and age are opting for much longer like the month of the wedding or the entire planning process.

A few key decisions to think about are how much of the process you are going to do yourself and how much stress you plan on handling.

As someone with a couple of decades of weddings under their belts, I can tell you that weddings are both expensive and stressful.

Having a planner for the long haul usually will save you a good deal of money, stress, and overall management.

Most planners have vendors they tend to work with more than others and vendors like us for example will extend a small discount in exchange for repeat business they bring us.

That saving is passed onto the couple and through a series of booking vendors they prefer, that savings can add up, 5-10% of the overall wedding budget.

The additional benefit is they are able to work with vendors like us, in turn, it helps the day go much smoother, trust me.

The High-Level Details Broken Down Each Month

16 Months Out

Determine the Budget

Of course, the first thing to do after you’ve shown off the engagement ring to all your friends and family is to have a real sit down and figure out how much you want to spend on a wedding in the first place.

If maybe a couple of thousand bucks, it may be more than $100,000, but sit down, have a real conversation about the amount you want to spend and how you’ll get the funds in the first place.

Use our online wedding budget tool that can help break down the total cost into smaller categories.

Create Your Guest List

The other task that you’ll want to do at the 16-month level is to make a guest list.

A word of advice here, guests typically will cost more than the wedding venue, so just remember, the more guest you have, the more the budget you’ll need. On average, $70 a head should cover catering, cake baker, booze, and a parting gift of some type.

15 Months Out

Hire a Planner

Hopefully, by the second month, you will have figured out if you need help and want to hire a wedding planner to help with the process.

We do recommend hiring a planner and not for just the wedding day, but the entire process. Most couples that do, will at least be able to recoup a huge amount of the planner’s expense is not more, you can read about the benefits of hiring a wedding planner on a recent blog we wrote.

Decide on Your Theme/Colors

This month, you will also want to decide on the colors for the wedding, the theme, and anything that you may want to relate to the wedding. For example, if you're into board games, you may want to have lawn games for guests to play and board games for centerpieces too.

Select a Venue

Perhaps the most important element here is choosing the wedding venue and locking in your wedding date.

We have some great tips on booking a wedding venue that you can read up on. There, you can find the best tips and tricks on saving the most amount of money for the venue that you want to get married at.

14 Months Out

Choose a Catering Company

Finding the right catering company should be one of the next major challenges for your 14 months out. A couple of tips here, a buffet will actually cost you more than a plated dinner because buffets have more food, which costs more.

Those that come back for seconds or thirds means your paying twice or three times for them too.

If you Google “the average catering budget costs for wedding” you're going to find a vast range of numbers, but what we can tell you is that you want to try to keep the guest’s pricing within $60-80 per head.

That will include food, cake, booze, and perhaps a parting gift.

Hire your photographer/videographer

You will also want to book your wedding photographer and videographer at this point. I wrote a great guide on booking wedding photographers that can help give you some insights and ideas.

Hire Your DJ

Another vendor that you will want to book at this time is the wedding DJ. You will want to consider a few things like if you want them at the ceremony, the reception or both.

A few things to look for can include having a wireless mic for the officiant at the ceremony and lights for the dance floor.

Shop for the wedding dress

This is also the time that you will want to pick the perfect wedding dress. I can tell you that most bridal shops will carry similar style dresses and most of them, roughly 79%, come from China. While there is nothing wrong with that, we recommend you consider supporting a local vendor, like on Etsy.

12-13 Months Out

Take Engagement Photos

During these months you’ll want to get your engagement images done. This is for your own keepsake as well as a possible Save-the-Date card or magnet you may want to incorporate it with.

Select the STD’s and Wedding Invitations

You will also want to choose which type of Save-the-Date cards and wedding invitations that you will want to choose. You’ll find a wide range to choose from and some of the more popular places to order them from are Minted Weddings, Shutterfly, and again Etsy.

9-11 Months Out

Send Out Your Save-The-Dates

You will want to send out the save the date cards to all the friends and family. A great alternative is to use an online service like Paperless Post.

8 Months Out

Gift Registry at Stores

If you have a favorite store that you like to shop at, Target, for example, you can create a wedding gift registry. You’ll want to find items that you don’t have that will be perfect for your new home together. Home decor, kitchen appliances are great things to ask for, and yes, you can also ask for cash.

Bridesmaid dresses selected

By now, you will want to have the bridesmaids and groomsmen outfits selected and ordered. For the bridesmaids, you can choose the dress they will wear or let them pick it out as long as they use your wedding color. The great thing about letting them choose it, you can make a girls-day out of it with lunch, dress shopping, an afternoon outing.

Select Your Florist/Decore Expert

The other vendor you will want to book at this point is your florist. A pro tip: bring them images of inspiration, your wedding colors, venue images and help them to understand your vision.

6-7 Months Out

Book Your Officiant

At this point, you will want to meet and book an officiant or pastor. Sometimes they will want to meet in person to get to know you, some might want to do marriage counseling and others will just want to get your basic information. No matter whom you choose, make you’re comfortable with them.

Secure any rented related decor, tent rentals, or furniture

Also, finalize any additional needed items like decor for the reception that’s not covered by a florist or the venue. That can also include tent rentals, furniture for the wedding or reception, and anything extra you may want, such as custom signs for when guests arrive to direct them to various parts of the venue.

Lighting Technician if needed

While not everyone has a need for a lighting professional, it’s a good idea to at least think about booking one. Wedding DJ’s typically only provide dance lights, so if your venue is dark, like an outdoor tent, you may want to have a professional install nice uplighting and mood lighting throughout the wedding.

Any Transportation and hotel accommodations

Firm up any hotel reservations you may need for the wedding day, like bridal and groom prep if you plan to get ready at a hotel or bed and breakfast. This may include any car or limo rentals that you may need for your bridal party or transportation for the guests.

5 Months Out

Book Your honeymoon

By 5 months out, you will want to book the honeymoon. Figure out where you want to go, where you will stay, and what you will do in the process. Visiting a travel agent may be helpful too.

Choose your cake baker/tasting

You should also plan to have a tasting with your baker for the wedding cake or dessert. This is to get an idea of what flavors you like, the cake and frosting combinations, and firm up anything like the style of the cake.

3-4 Months Out

Secure your hair and makeup artist

As time reaches closer, this is where you will want to book both the hairstylist and makeup artist. You may have a favorite person in mind that you frequent or you may need to find someone that specifically does weddings. in either case, plan on booking them for the wedding day.

Purchase your wedding bands

Many couples at this point have either forgotten about the wedding bands or purchased them 6-8 months previous, but make sure that you order them. You’ll want to find something in your price range, something that fits your engagement ring and something that looks good on you too.

Secure a photo booth rental

If you want a photo booth and the DJ didn’t offer it, now is the time to think about booking one. Many local companies offer photobooths and some you can find online too for a couple of hundred bucks. They ship everything to you and it’s an easy 10-15 minute setup for your wedding day.

Send the Invites

Be sure to send out the wedding invitations at this point with RSVP’s. You will want to get a good headcount for the wedding day, we recommend allowing for people to RVSP within a couple of weeks if possible.

1-2 Months Out

Marriage License

Each locality is different, but this is the time you will want to start thinking about getting a marriage license for the wedding day. It’s important to note that you will need to give this to your officiant for them to sign and return to the clerk’s office at the courthouse that you got it from.

Most times, you and your soon-to-be will need to go together in order to get this done and most places require a fee, so be prepared to pay for it when you fill out the paperwork.

Wedding Dress Fitting/Alterations

You’ll also want to do a dress fitting and see if you need any last-minute alterations. The dress shop should have set a day and time for you to come in and try the dress on and for the seamstress to firm up any adjustments before you taking it home for the wedding.

if there are changes to be made, they will give you an approximate time it will take to make the changes.

Song List to the DJ

Make sure that you give the wedding DJ a list of songs that you want to play for the ceremony, the reception, and important things like your first dances.

Create the Seating Chart

By now, you should have the guest list headcount and if you plan on having assigned seating, you will want to sit down with the planner or your spouse and make a seating chart. There are various ways to do that, but we recommend connecting with the venue for the types of tables and chairs they have so you can make one.

Less than a Month

Final venue walkthrough

Many of the venues will offer a final walk through the month before your wedding. It’s a good idea to take them up on that so you can be ready for anything during the wedding day or perhaps you overlooked something like high-top tables for the cocktail hour.

Pay the remaining balances on vendors

Finally, you will want to pay any remaining balances you have with the vendors that you booked. You need to make sure they are paid in full before the wedding. If they are not, they could skip out on the wedding depending on the contract or they may show up, but not be in the best of spirits because you didn’t pay them.

We don’t recommend paying them on the wedding day, they are doing a job and they need to focus on that at the moment. If you didn’t pay them, make sure you pay them the day afterward and let them know.

Final Thoughts

Our final thoughts for the day are this, there is no wrong way or right way to do things for a wedding. It’s your day and we suggest that you try to enjoy the stress of the wedding planning process. It’s only as stressful as you make it out to be, so be flexible, be open to new ideas from others and have fun in the process!