How far out should you book a venue? 6 months before anticipated date short notice?

Frankly, you're lucky if you can even find a venue with an opening for next August. If you do, book it. Don't wait because there's a good chance someone else will grab it or the price will go up at the beginning of the year.

You are absolutely right, no question about it. There are only so many weekends available for a venue to offer weddings and during the peak wedding season those weekends get taken first. And you're right that you cannot say you have a date without having a venue. You need the venue to plan everything else.

Besides, what does he mean that things could change in a year?? That he may not want to get married in a year so check back with him in 6 months? His statement is very confusing. If anything, prices go up each year so that is another reason to book now and lock in this year's pricing.

Book it now. Your date won’t be available six months out.

He needs to understand that is not how the wedding industry works. There are only so many venues and vendors and in order to get the best at the lowest cost you have to book them to make sure they are available for your date. Once you book them, you lock that date with them and you usually have to pay hefty fees to cancel that date. So why would he think your date could change? Does he not realize that changing the date could cost him a lot of money and possibly lose out on those vendors?

Book it now!
Something important I learned while searching for my venue was beyond just people booking the weekends in advance, you can sometimes get a hefty amount of savings, especially if you make sure you're venue is willing to lock in the current prices. Many venues we looked at were warning us that the prices were set to rise -very- soon. At first I thought they were just trying to lock us down, but the venue we finally did end up choosing and signing with did in fact raise their rates significantly the weekend after we signed.

What does he think is going to change? That's what you need to find out....

We booked ours 16 months out, and several venues we looked at were booked 18 months out. I know all Saturdays in the summer are booked out at popular venues in popular places 6+ months in advance.

I booked two years in advance because my date and venue were highly desired. My venue has literally told me that multiple people have called trying to secure that date right after me. Book it girl!!!