Where to begin?

Congrats! I bought The Knot Wedding Planner and Organizer and that really helped me to start planning. The monthly checklists on The Knot and WeddingWire are also great.

Congratulations on your engagement!! Your ring is beautiful! The first two things you should look at are your budget and estimated guest count. For determining budget, figure out how much you and your fiance can save per month towards your wedding, and multiply that by the number of months until your wedding. That should give you a rough estimate of what you can spend. Vendor costs greatly vary by the area you live in, so be sure to do a lot of research before signing a contract. Once you have both the budget and estimated guest count, start looking at venues that are within your budget and can hold at least the total number of guests you plan to invite. Next, start looking for other vendors (photographer, DJ, etc). Start your dress shopping about a year ahead of time, and if you plan to buy a new dress, purchase the dress at least 10 months before your wedding to give time for shipping and alterations! I used the checklist on The Knot, and found it to be very helpful! Wedding Wire also has a checklist you can use. Also, always feel free to post questions on these forums - everyone here is happy to help! Happy wedding planning!

Sit down with your fiance and make a list of your top 3-5 areas to focus on (usually guest experience..good food, guests don't pay for drinks, good dj..and quality photos for you). Skip anything not on that list.


Figure out your guest list. These are your VIPs only...the ones you cannot imagine the day without. Everyone else..especially those whom parents and others pressure you to invite do not make list.
Figure out how much you can spend without help from others..it always has strings attached. Be aware that anything with the word "wedding" will be extremely expensive. You can have a beautiful event without paying wedding prices but you have to be creative.
With all that, you can browse venues. Eventective.com has many that do not show up on standard lists. Also, many people will tell you to get an all-inclusive venue but they don't tell you that you get hit with expensive food/beverage minimums that you may not be able to afford. Take a look at blank slate venues (parks dept, community centers, industrial studios) where you can bring in your own vendors and have freedom to shop on a budget without the "wedding" label. They have tables, chairs, kitchens so you bring in everything else for half the cost.

I started with figuring out our guest count, then from there searched for my "big ticket" items. Venue was the first thing I picked out! I narrowed my search down to what type of venue I wanted and toured some that fit my criteria. We knew instantly when we had found "the one"!


From there, we figured out food cost and photographer. (We knew we wanted to shell out for a really nice photographer.) Then, we sat down and planned our budget for the rest of the items. Just take it one step at a time, and do what works for you! I find myself doing one or two things each month. If you try to do it all at once, it can get quite stressful and overwhelming!

First thing to do is to nail down on a budget.

View Quoted Comment Ohh that’s a good idea! Thank you Melanie!

View Quoted Comment I like your approach Elizabeth! We have started looking at Vendors and are planning to tour at the end of spring! I think that sounds like a good start! Thank you!

That was the day I originally was thinking about! But then with the covid vaccine being slower than expected and so many brides this year I got scared.


There's a really good google docs/excel sheet that someone made. It shows you what you'd have to save every month to meet the budget you set. But it breaks everything down real nice. I highly suggest it!

Google Sheets has a ready made template for wedding planning broken down into sections

Congrats and welcome!

We used the Knot book, and then toggled between here, the Knot, and a spreadsheet for our planning.

I found it was useful to cross-reference things, so I could get different information.