Overall timeline for two year engagement.

Our engagement was 19 months! So shorter than yours, but still longer than normal. My fiance was finishing his bachelors, and we both wanted to be working for at least a year prior to being married, and we were in the process of purchasing a home together. So for us...

19 months out: Guest list, budget, date, started registry & wedding website

15-19 months out: Venue tours & research, coordinator & photographer research

14 months out: Booked venue, coordinator, photographer, had 2 hair and makeup trials, proposed to bridesmaids & picked their dresses

13 months out: Booked florist, hair & makeup, went to 2 bridal salons

12 months out: Booked DJ, hotel block, scheduled engagement photos

11 months out: Engagement photos, booked videographer

10 months out: Proposed to groomsmen, asked 1 to be officiant, booked caterer, sent out save the dates, finished wedding website & registry

9 months out (now): Hoping to book baker & transportation in the next 2 months, I'll go in and pick our china/linens from caterer soon too

4 months-9 months out: DIY decor, menus & programs, welcome bags, favors, meeting with vendors, finalizing vision, etc., get dress altered, pick out shoes & veil, help my mom find her dress, buy gifts, etc.

Bachelorette Party: 2 months before

Bridal Shower: 3-4 months before

Bachelor Party: 1 month before

We had a 3 year engagement because I was finishing school and wanted to get a full time job before planning so we could have a decent wedding budget.

We wrote our guest list 20 months out, booked our Venue 19 months out (venue includes ceremony, reception, catering, staff, tables and linens), booked photographer and DJ 17 months out, asked our bridal party 13 months out, sent save the dates 11 months out - no one lives in the same town in our families so everyone was traveling an hour+ and our wedding was on a Friday so guests needed to know early, booked hair and makeup and choose my dress 10 months out, we bought a lot of things like rings, gifts, flowers (fake) and stuff 8-9 months out because of Black Friday, the bridesmaids got their dresses 6 months out, and the guys chose their tuxes 4 months out, Invitations went out 3 months out, Bridal shower was 3 months out, Bachelorette was 2 and bachelor was 1. I started alterations 8 weeks away from the wedding and was done with them 3 weeks away

I'm in the same boat as you - engaged July 2018, started planning August 2018, recently set our date for October 2020. We knew we wanted to book our venue right away - we could have first pick of dates and find a venue that fit our style and budget ($15k). When we looked at venues, our top date pick (10/10/2020) was already taken at one place!

Here is our general idea of our timeline so far:

24 months out - book venue (caterer included), start guest list
22 months out - ask bridal party (I was hesitant to ask them so soon, but it's very small, so I was fairly certain they would all say yes. And this way they can have it on their calendars)
18 - 22 months out - gather ideas! "finalize" what we want for decor, attire, flowers, music, etc. I want to feel prepared when going in search of vendors, with a clear idea of what I want. We are also doing DIY projects and will send a lot of this time working on those
18 months out - book photographer, wedding website

16 months out - book florist; ask friends/family for wedding favors (i.e. hair & makeup) in place of gifts

14 - 16 months out - dress shopping, work on registry

14 months out - book DJ

12 months out - book hotel block, engagement photos

10 - 12 months out - send save the dates, book baker

9 months out - catering tasting, book ceremony music

6 - 8 months out - finalize decor, signage/programs, amenities bags, rentals, any extras, dress alterations

3-6 months out - do everything else I was supposed to do earlier but didn't have the chance to get to/think about

3 months out - send invitations

1-2 months out - last minute prep, wedding license, seating chart

This just goes over the big things, but my biggest fear is forgetting things or being too busy (I'm moving and starting a new job next summer) to get to them! I would like to have as much done as possible by the 6 month mark, so that the last few months can be used to tie up the loose ends.

We had an 18 month engagement, I was also in college when we got engaged, and we planned our date for about a year after my graduation. (Graduated may 2018, getting married June 2019.) We got engaged in December 2017 and I didn’t want to start planning while I was still in school because I knew I’d use wedding planning as another way to procrastinate my schoolwork and I didn’t need the distraction! So for the most part we did nothing but enjoy being engaged and have theoretical convos about the wedding for the first 6 months, and really started planning 12 months in advance.

Here’s what we did:
-booked venue: 11 months in advance (SHOULD HAVE DONE IT SOONER. We were sooo lucky that our date was still available. Was so stressed thoughout the process. Do this as soon as you possibly can.)
-ask bridal party: between 8 and 15 months in advance. Asked my MOH 15 months in advance because she was moving soon, and I wanted to ask her in person. Plus she’s been my best friend since 7th grade and assumed she was going to be my MOH anyway. It was just a formality really. We asked the rest of the bridal party 8-12 months in advance depending on when we saw them/when the timing was right.
-booked photographer: 10 months in advance
-sent save the dates: 11 months in advance (a lot of OOT guests too)
-will send invites: 3 months in advance.

View Quoted Comment I’m in the exact boat right now we are leaving about 2 hours from San Antonio where we plan on having our wedding. We should be moving back December 2019 and I will start my career I want to make sure I have enough time before and after the transition. Thankfully we both have full time jobs and can afford to start paying for things which is why I’m trying to start ASAP

Exactly! We'll be moving 4.5 hours away from our venue (in Milwaukee, currently 1 hour away), but we went with it anyway because it'll be much easier for people to travel to than our new city. I just really don't want to feel the last-minute time crunch!

View Quoted Comment I’m glad I’m not the only one. My fiancée supports us starting now but she thinks I’m nuts because we have a little over two years to go 🤣

I think as long as you have the time to extend the planning process and make it less stressful, go for it! I mean, obviously don't go printing save-the-dates now, but get your big things (venue, photographer, bridal party) done sooner rather than later - it'll make everything much easier!

View Quoted Comment

Hi Joselin! Welcome to WeddingWire and congrats on your engagement!

You received some great feedback here in this thread! FutureMrsD says it perfectly here. It's never to early and it's very smart of you to be starting planning & prepping to nail down the big details first and foremost. Have you done any walkthroughs of venues that interest you yet?

Under our Planning Tools tab, we also have a helpful checklist tool that will help with the to-do's!

My engagement is 20 months. I have 13 left. I bought the dress at 19 months, booked a venue and reached out to other vendors for quotes at 18 months, asked my girls at 17 months and also booked the officiant and ceremony musicians, booked the florist at 14 months, took our engagement photos two weeks ago, sending out save the dates at 11 months. Right I am booking the photographer and planning to book the dj in the next month. Looking for caterer, stylist and baker in March at 8 months bc that’s when I can visit the location. Everyone keeps complaining I should move the date up but I’m not changing plans this far in. Also it’s been good to have more money.

Fiance and I have a 27 month engagement. We booked our venue and photographer right away. We knew what/who we wanted. Honestly, you can't get started too early. We inquired about having an October 2019 wedding but all of the dates in October and even September 2019 were booked at the venue we chose! We had already been planning on a 2020 wedding to have the time to save money, fiance wants to finish school before we're married and we're planning to buy a house in 2019.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for this detailed post! It really helped!!