Lost and not sure what to do

2025 is quite a ways off, however what you can do right now is lay the foundation. Write down the vision you have for your wedding, set your budget and whether that will grow this year and next via more saving, and then decide on your max guest count based on the last two things. As soon as you have a date, I highly suggest venue searching ASAP as they tend to book quickly and also you can’t book other vendors that will properly suit the space you have without a venue.


Bridesmaids can definitely wait as relationships can change in just a year or 2. I asked my bridesmaids to be in our wedding around 9-10 months out. At that point I was confident about who I wanted at my side, and that was enough time to plan and order dresses, and coordinate the bachelorette.

You can probably work on colors once you have your venue. Me personally though, I knew which colors I wanted to do no matter what my venue was as I wanted them to be our favorites (blue and green).

That’s still far out. Honestly I would decide time of year you’re looking at and look for venues. If there’s one you really like you can always reach out and see when they start booking for the time of year in 2025 you’d like to get married. That way you can book it as soon as the venue will allow and you won’t miss out. For everything else I would start kind of getting a general idea for what you want, researching vendors etc. and then you can start reaching out. I would say the really important vendors like photographer/ videographer, DJ etc reach out about a year and a half out once you have your date and see when they start booking for that time. And then things like cake etc you can reach out about a year out and see when they can book you. I gave myself 13 months and some vendors were booked already but there were plenty I wanted that weren’t yet.


Also, highly HIGHLY recommend a day of coordinator (we couldn’t afford a full wedding planner). We figured out how to work it into our budget and it was a lifesaving decision. So helpful with any advice I needed leading up and extremely helpful month of and especially day of. I didn’t have to think about a single thing. Best decision we made

Start looking into venues like others have suggested, so then you’ll also want some idea of what size of wedding you want. But other than that come up with a savings attack plan and just enjoy this time looking for inspiration. Chances are your tastes will change just in this next year, and you’ll be in a great position because you won’t have anything locked down yet! I swear every time I make up my mind about something, a week later I see a new photo that makes me go wait… 😂

I would start with the budget. See how much you'll have when it's time to book things. Wait until at least 6-8 months before asking your bridal party, if you want to know why just read around here for awhile. You'll have lots of time to plan and prepare, which is great!

As others have said, 2023 is your budget, venue and Pinterest time. There have been lots of brides on these boards who have regretted asking their bridesmaids too early, so I would definitely hold on that.

One thing I would caution is that when you are scouring Pinterest for wedding dress ideas, don't get too attached to any one dress. They do get discontinued with some regularity so you don't want to be disappointed when it's actually time to shop (9-12 months out). There will be a perfect dress for you when the time comes, even if it's not the one you've been drooling over for 2 years.