It’s happening!!

Congrats! Welcome to Wedding Wire!

A word of advice - you have 2 1/2 years before your wedding. I would hold off on bridesmaid proposals for some time. You don't really need a BP before about 8 months out. A lot can change in 2 1/2 years, and there are many, many threads on bridesmaid dilemmas here.

Take a look at the "Planning Tools" tab, above, there is a checklist here on WW, I found it to be very helpful on what to do when!

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the advice! ❤️ I’m very confident in my choices though. 2 of them are my sisters, 2 are my best friends of 7 years. My other bridesmaid is someone I’ve been friends with for 3 years but you’re right, you never know. For right now i just wanna have the proposals on hand. They’re just cards anyways.

It is exciting! Now the hard part ... can you hang on to those proposal gifts til 2022, a year before the wedding? Because a lot of people have been on both sides here, brides who asked too early, and bridesmaids who were asked too early. Life throws a lot of changes at you, and an amazing number of things can happen in 2-3 years. No one wants to break a promise to a best friend. But when asked too early, people take back their promises. So check them off in your to do list, and tuck them away in your hope chest until the last 8-12 months. And get yourself a disposable email address, or 2. For all those mailing lists you end up on every time you make an inquiry or go to a show, or enter a contest. It is an exciting time, have fun with it!

Congratulations! I wouldn't ask your bridal party to be in your wedding until it is much closer. There have been so many brides that have asked people way too early and end up regretting it because relationships change. As for venues you will have to see if they will even allow you to book your wedding so far in advance.

Congratulations, thats big!

Oooooo! That is so exciting. Good for you for starting early.

It's good to hear that your starting early I started planning last July for my April 2022 wedding, time does fly fast as pp's have stated I would be weary of asking my bridal party til at least Summer 2022. this is from personal experience I had a women who I considered to be one of my best friends. she was going to be my bridesmaid I have known her for 10 years. We had a huge falling out and we don' talk anymore once you pick them your stuck with them thankfully I am going to be proposing to my bridesmaids in May of this year with 11 months out

Browse Pinterest for ideas of your style and find out what you don't like. But definitely don't ask your bridesmaids until 6-9 months before the wedding.

Super exciting !

View Quoted Comment Yeah I’ll probably wait a little bit but I saw them on Etsy and I liked them and just wanted to have them. Our budget is small so for us it makes sense to start buying stuff early so when the more expensive things come up we’ll have money for it instead of the little stuff. And I’m emailing with the venue now.

View Quoted Comment Makes sense. I would wait until about nine months prior to your wedding before you ask. There really isn't anything they need to do before this. I have seen so many brides regret who they asked because relationships change.

View Quoted Comment Yeah maybe I’ll wait until January of 2023. I just want to make sure they can get their dresses. As of rn the dress that I’m looking at for my bridesmaids are only 100 dollars but that could change. And I just to make sure that everyone can get it. I’ll help if someone needs it but it would be easier if they could get the dress.

View Quoted Comment There’s only 5 girls in my wedding party and most of them know or it should be obvious to them that’s it’s them. My MOH is my little sister and I’ve told her since even before I was engaged that if I got married she’d be my MOH just bc I trust her the most.

View Quoted Comment Understandable. However, if they were to get the dress too soon then it might not fit to weight changes or pregnancy. Then they will have wasttwd their money on a dress they can't wear. So while I totally get your excitement I would focus on the bigger things like your venue and vendors rather than on dresses that can easily be purchased a few months ahead of time.

View Quoted Comment You’re right. And I think I worded it wrong. I want them to know about the dress and how much it is ahead of time. Like they can obviously buy the dress whenever they’d like. I’ve already shown 3/5 people the dress anyways. So they know about it.

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Depending on where the dress is coming from it might not even be available in almost three years when your wedding is, you might find one you like during time or the girls could try it on and you hate or they hate how they look.

View Quoted Comment Yeah. I guess it’s just really hard to know when to start and what to wait on and what to get done now just so I have it done.

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Normally you want to start with vendors so venues, caterer (if venue doesn't provide), DJ, photographer, videographer, officiant, etc. Attire doesn't need to be decided until closer to the wedding. Honestly bridesmaids can get their dresses about 4-5 months before the wedding. I wouldn't recommend getting them or even really deciding on them until much closer because styles might go out of stock and people's bodies change. I would have your girls wait to order their dresses because it would suck if you decide you like something else better or if they order something and it ends up not fitting by the time the wedding comes along. There are also tons of timelines that can kind of guide you as to when things should be done.

I just put the initial down payment on my venue, and am going to buy my bridesmaids their cards soon.
I'm in the same boat, book things early, do it in payments, and slowly pay it all off without stress.

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I agree! I booked my venue November 2020 for October 2022, payed the deposit to hold my date and the venue fee, now I don't owe anything else until July 2022!

I already proposed to my MOH (only having one bridesmaid) and she said yes, If you're confident in your choices I say go for it!

Congrats and happy planning!