If you’re recently engaged, let us first tell you, congratulations!

As a wedding expert and a husband, I can tell you that marriage is an exciting time in your life because you’ll be sharing your life with your best friend, your soon-to-be spouse.

But the most frequently asked question that couples ask is when they should start wedding planning?

Well, the question has many answers and it truly depends on when you plan to get married.

But today, Carole and I want to share with you the most common timeframe that couples start that process, how long it typically is, and how much couples truly put into wedding planning.

How early should we start planning the wedding?

The truth is that it’s never to early to start wedding planning and honestly, it can be a stressful, daunting process at times. But don’t let that scare you, weddings are just as complex as doing your taxes but the rewards outweigh any stress that is can create.

According to the Knot, the average length of time for wedding planning is about 15 months, and 16 months is the average amount of time couples stay engaged.

While some are longer and others are shorter, once you get engaged, we recommend that you start looking at a wedding date about 16-20 months out.

Think of this is like working a part-time job that you’re not getting paid for, if you can educate yourselves before you start diving into each piece, you’ll make the best decisions with your money and you’ll hire the right vendors your big day too.

The MORE time you have for planning, the SMOOTHER your day will be.

What’s the hardest thing about planning the wedding?

While there are many components to wedding planning, the hardest thing is being able to pull everything together for the day. You first need the venue and the wedding date, without those, it’s almost impossible to book anyone else.

You need to make the planning process in smaller sections in order to make everything work. Think of it like an orchestra that you’re in charge of, so you need to be able to navigate the waters in a way where everything flows if you will.

Most stress comes from the following things:

• Doing everything yourself without help

• Money issues and lack thereof

• Overspending on vendors

• Not knowing your wedding budget

How long does it typically take to work on everything for our wedding day?

If you’re having a traditional wedding and you plan on doing everything yourself, plan on 6-8 months of part-time work, that will stretch out to about 12-14 months generally speaking. If you hire a wedding planner, 4-6 months is more realistic, but you are still going to be doing lots of work.

Finding the right experienced vendor for your wedding isn’t an easy process.

Weeding through all the cheap and inexperienced vendors can be a huge task just for one category, then you have to know the right questions to ask, do the research about each vendor, read over contracts, make sure they are the best fit your wedding and the overall budget too.

Then repeat that process about 7-15 times depending on the number of vendors you hire.

Beyond that, you have guest lists to make, mailing save-the-date, getting addresses, wedding invitations, creating a timeline of the day, and making sure that everything will line up the way you want it too.

You also have vendor interactions, like cake tasting with your baker, buying the rings, choosing décor, music with the DJ, letters with the videographer, shot list with the wedding photographer, what the officiant will say, and the list goes onward.

Do weddings really cost a lot?

Well, yes and no. While the average wedding in America is about $35,000, some couples spend more than $100,000+ while others spend just a couple thousand or less.

With just a couple of inexpensive rings and a courthouse ceremony, you could have your wedding for less than a few hundred bucks.

Weddings are expensive because couples want to put on an event for friends and family and many times couples want to make it a huge celebration of the two coming together.

One of the major things in the last 20 years is that fewer couples get married in a church and more at a dedicated wedding venue, which is the second-highest cost of the wedding today.

Then you have wedding photographers and the high-end gear they have to get those great images, costs of the wedding dress, which nationally cost $1,600 new.

Do we really need a wedding planner?

The short answer is no, but if you want to get the best savings for your budget and the least amount of stress on your plate, then yes.

Why not to Choose a Wedding Planner

Couples will skip a planner if they plan to do everything themselves or if they decide that spending the money on one isn’t worth it and that’s usually a lack of education on their part.

That’s not a bad thing, although think of a wedding planner as more like a coach at a sporting event. They know all the ‘plays’ for the wedding as well as how to coordinate all the ‘players’ or vendors.

Why you Should Choose a Wedding Planner

When you hire a wedding planner, you have basically two choices, the ‘day-of’ coordination or the full-service wedding planning. The day-of coordination seems to be the most popular choice, while the full-service option is the better choice between the two.

That’s because the day-of option means the planner is simply following your instructions, if something goes bad, it’s not their fault, they can only try to smooth it out.

The full service option takes a majority of the stress off the plate and many times saves you more money too.

That’s in part with the buying power a wedding planner has, they usually can book the same or similar vendors cheaper and you can. Since they bring repeat business to vendors, many times vendors will cut a small break in return.

What if we don’t have enough time to do everything?

Some couples will get married in just a handful of months, those that do often time themselves completely overwhelmed by the entire wedding process.

If you happen to be one of those couples that are getting married sooner than later, we suggest that you have friend’s and family help delegate tasks if you can. This will help speed things up although you will need to instill some trust in them to make some decisions for you, which can be a difficult task sometimes.

Are there any secrets or tricks to wedding planning?

One of the most powerful tools you have is right in front of you, right now, wedding vendors such as us, Wedding Photography and Films as an example.

Even if you choose to hire someone else for your wedding, many wedding experts and professionals will gladly help, we do all the time in fact.

For us, it’s about helping couples through the wedding process and yes, we often times give advice to couples that are not couple own clients.

Just ask a professional for help or advice, chances are we can and will gladly help steer you in the right direction.

So, let us know what you think and leave a comment in the box below. Everyone that enters a comment in our blog will be entered to win one of our Coach bags that we give away each month.