Another dumb question. What does it mean to book something or someone?

Hopefully not! But I my life this year has been hard and bad luck. Hoping 2021 will be better.

I would not even look into vendors (photographer, caterer, etc.) until you have a venue (place to have your ceremony/reception). Once you find a place that you like to hold your ceremony and reception, they will offer you available dates. If one of those dates works for you, you can then place a deposit on that venue and reserve or "book" your venue. Once you do that, you are pretty much locked in to that location and that date. If you decide later on to change anything, you will lose that entire deposit.

Once you have reserved/booked your venue, then you can begin looking into vendors that are available for your chosen wedding date and start booking them. All venues and vendors are going to require a deposit to reserve their services. If you cancel on any of them, you will lose your entire deposit (unless otherwise stated in your contract).

Keep in mind that because many vendors book far in advance, if you cancel, they may not be able to book that date with another wedding. Deposits are a guarantee that they are able to recoup what is (usually) a small portion of their total fee if someone cancels.

Yes, exactly. Which is why it's so important to be sure of your choices before you book anything. Most people start with the venue, because they get booked up early on, and without a venue, it's hard to book other vendors (they need to know where they are going). But even before venue, you need to decide on a date. You can have several different dates in mind when you start researching venues. Then when you talk to them, ask if they have any of those dates available. If they have some, or even one of those, then you and FH have to decide on a definite date when you want to marry.

Our venue had the date we wanted available, and they require a $2000 deposit to reserve that date. Without the deposit, they wouldn't have reserved the date for us. They have lots of other couples doing the same thing, so it's basically a first come, first served thing. If two couples want the same date at the same venue, the one that pays the deposit and signs the contract first is the one who gets it.

And yes, most deposits are non-refundable. I always think it's a good idea to give yourself plenty of time for research, planning, and saving enough money to pay for the wedding you want. You don't want to pick a date that's only a few months away, only to realize that you won't have enough money to pay for everything you want by that close date. Better to choose a date a year out or more, to give yourself plenty of time.

The Wedding Wire vendor search is a really good tool to get you started finding vendors in your area. But at some point, you have to talk to people, and go visit venues to figure out what you want.

By the time you send out invitations, there shouldn't be any more "changes." You shouldn't send those out until 8-10 weeks before the wedding, and by then, everything should be set in terms of location, other vendors, even for a casual outdoor wedding like you are describing. Even if your "venue" is a public park that could be available on just about any date you choose, you still have to have other things in place. If you are going to go that route, you'll have to look into not only food and beverages, but also tables, chairs, dishes, glassware, flatware, and all the other items that don't exist in a public park. Sometimes, having that kind of wedding can cost more in the end, because of all of the things you have to bring in, versus choosing a venue that has all that stuff included.

Like I said, it really requires a lot of research, especially if you want to keep costs down. Keep reading on this site. There is a lot of useful information.

We booked our venue (the location for wedding/reception) about 18 months out. There were very few 2019 dates left open, and they were already reserving 2020 dates. We wanted May, so we were lucky they had May 30, 2020 available. We paid our deposit, signed the contract, and now we have that date reserved. But if you want a particular date, don't wait to start contacting venues (locations), as they book up really early.

Thank you! This was very helpful! That last part kind of sucks. I know people who have just turned off their wedding so soon into everything spent. And why? It's so sad.

Goodness. That's what I've been doing is researching. And reading forums like this and articles. I've come to the conclusion of having a yard/outdoor wedding at my house. Plenty of stuff to do. I know I talked to this state park and it was same deal. I do the best I can to plan in advance, but I'm not going to say I'm not good at it, it's just things come out of nowhere! I go to the beat of my drum (and I think you have said that yourself); instead of planning 1 year ahead, maybe divide that by half hahaha!

In the event that your wedding date has to change, you could always send them a letter or updated invitation with a new date!