Getting married in 13 months

1. breathe

2. make a guest list

3. set a budget

4. find a venue

check out weddingwire's checklist, it's pretty helpful in giving some guidance on timeline of when to ideally do things.

First thing I would start with is your estimated guest count and budget! From there, look at venues in your budget that can hold at least the number of guests you plan to invite, and schedule some tours to see them in person. Once you book your venue, then move on to searching for any vendors you'd like (photographer, videographer, DJ, florist, hair/makeup artists, etc). WeddingWire also has a checklist that you can use to help keep your planning on track, and always feel free to post questions on these forums. Happy wedding planning!!

Start with the venue and dress as you are running out of time. Do the big things first then move on the smaller tasks

Do you have a venue? That's the #1 place to start to secure your date.

View Quoted Comment This is the best advice! Breathe & find a place to get married! It'll be ok!

View Quoted Comment I don’t I’m planning a outdoor wedding and either half the venues won’t call back or the other half is a rediculous amount 10k for one night and that’s not including any packages. Are buffet is 13k /15k max 😭

Make a guest list, decide if you want an all inclusive or sort of do it yourself venue. Then after you find a venue, I would get going very quickly on your other vendors. Decide if you want a day of coordinator or a full planner (I personally suggest at least a day of). Then photographer. Those are the top things I would get done immediately. 2023 is already booking up. My day of coordinator, the officiant I’ve hired and my photographer have all been posting their updated schedules for 2023 on instagram as they’ve been booking dates with couples. I’ve been doing it myself with whatever help I ask of my fiancé but he’s clueless about weddings lol and it has probably been one of the most stressful things I’ve put myself through. Down payments for vendors will be KILLER when you do a lot at once. But you don’t want to wait on a vendor if you really like them. We gave ourselves 13 months from booking our venue to our date. So we booked an officiant, DJ, our venue, day of coordinator, caterer, dessert, photographer and videographer all within two months and the down payments killed but a lot of people we reached out to were already booked a year out. Dedicate a notebook for notes and a binder for contracts when you start booking. It’ll make it easier if you need to look at it instead of sifting through emails to try to find it. And if you have a budget that you have to stick to (we definitely blew past ours😅) then just keep searching for vendors you like and you’ll find one that fits in your budget. Remember it’s okay to take a deep breath when you’re stressed and start again when you’re ready

When we first started planning. Our original date was July 2020. So we started our planning process May/June 2019. Now our wedding date is April 15th 2022. We kinda had to stop our wedding planning March 2020 when COVID hit us and everything shut down, but luckily we had most of the major vendors locked in already and our wedding attire in our hands.

The most helpful thing I purchased was a wedding planner book. I got mine at Barnes and Noble. But I like writing things down and following a checklist.

First, we searched for venues that did ceremony and reception. We spent a good month visiting about 3-4 places until we narrowed down our top 2 and we selected our original venue and secured our date.

Once we had our date, then the checklist came in handy on breaking down the timeline of things and when to complete them.

After venue, we booked our photographer and DJ. For florists, luckily I have a family member, my grandmother who is a gardening/flower enthusiast so she took on the role as our florist.

Then our officiant we lucked out and my aunt is going to be our officiant.

Then we tackled our wedding attire about 9-10 months away. We purchased our wedding attire and it was enough time for dresses to come in and then make alterations appointments if need be.

Then we look at stationary: invitations/save-the-dates and about 3-4 months we tackled the wedding cake/dessert part.

Seriously though, the wedding planner book and the WeddingWire checklist have both been lifesavers. I would of not felt as calm and collected without them.