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Welcome to weddingwire.

the big three of wedding planning: guest list, budget, venue. start with those first

View Quoted Comment Awesome thank you so much.

After you do the above, search for big vendors: caterer and photographer. Don't book the caterer with getting a tasting first.


Sit down with your fiance and pick 3-5 important things to focus on..usually the guest experience (good food, serve beverages you can afford so your guests do not open their wallets, a good dj) and great photos to remember everything. Skip anything not on the list. Look outside the box and be aware that anything labelled as "wedding" often costs 10+ times more than something of equal or better quality found elsewhere.
Once your date/venue and guestlist are in stone, send out save the dates 6-12 months before the wedding. But once they are sent, those people must receive an invitation.
Do not pick your wedding party until 6 months out from the wedding.
At the very least get a day-of coordinator. Some offer full planning options if you want to hand everything over to someone else and just show up.

Congrats & welcome to WW! As previously stated, sit down with your fiancé & figure out guest list & budget. How much do you want to DIY compared to an all inclusive venue? I have this app because of the forums but have seen several brides having issues when they use it as their wedding website. I have The Knot as my main website & love planning checklist they have. That has kept me on track.

If you want a website to share details with your guests, several ladies here have recommended withjoy.com which is very user-friendly and free.

Congrats and welcome!!! The first thing we did when wedding planning was figure out how many people we wanted. I made my list and then made a list for my FH of people I knew he’d want and then he added his guests that weren’t on the list. We never really did a budget because he’s not good with figuring that stuff out and I know our finances because I do them all, so I made the budget myself. Then we put together a spreadsheet and started reaching out to some vendors to get pricing. Once we had it narrowed down to about 4-5, we started touring. Best of luck! You can come here with any questions you may have, these forums are very helpful!

Hi Gabriela, welcome to Wedding Wire! This community is here to help you with anything that you need. You can come to us for advice while you plan your dream wedding!

I would first start by: figuring out your budget, est. guest count, and the general location of your venue! Once you have the basics figured out, you can start searching and comparing vendors to find the ones that fit your budget the best! Wedding Wire has an awesome Vendors section where you can search vendors in your area.

Allie made a great suggestion about having a spreadsheet! We have one as well, and it's SO helpful with making sure we're staying under budget!

Happy planning! We're all here to help!

Definitely start by setting a budget and thinking about your guest list. From there, I would begin researching and touring venues. They tend to book up a year+ in advance, so securing a venue is very important. Securing your venue also solidifies your wedding date! From there, I would focus on your caterer and photographer and videographer. These vendors also tend to book up quickly.

If you choose to send save the dates, those typically go out 6-8 months before your wedding (10 months for a destination wedding) and your invitations go out 6-8 weeks before the wedding. Also, most bridal boutiques suggest ordering your dress a minimum of 10 months before you wedding to insure it arrives in time for alterations.

Happy planning