Where to start?

Your photographer and dj can provide a timeline based on their experience. Do you have a day of coordinator not associated with the venue? Because they can figure out most of the steps for you.

View Quoted Comment I spoke with the person that’ll be handling everything the day of the wedding (who works with the venue). He said I won’t have anything to worry about and he’ll be the point of contact for the day. So that’s why I wasn’t sure if I needed to do any other planning until we received the timeline from him?

I would definitely have an idea of what you want so that as you get closer, you can have answers ready for your vendors when they need it. In my case, my wedding is next week and my photographer and DJ each reached out a month before to start asking all the detail questions. As for the tmeline, I had a ceremony start time, cocktail hour and reception timing but for all the little details in between those I just finalized this week. But definitely have an idea before then so that you're prepared.

View Quoted Comment Okay perfect thank you! I do have those times and we can arrive to the venue at 2:30P. Did you reach out to them initially to go over song list or shots? Or was that discussed a month prior?

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It's funny, I was already planning on reaching out to them a month ahead in case I hadn't heard from them, and like clockwork on exactly one month prior I got an email from my photographer and a call from my DJ. So if they don't reach out, you can definitely reach out then just to touch base. It seems like any good vendor has a certain process and timeline so you shouldn't have to do too much pestering.

View Quoted Comment Okay great, thank you soooo much. This makes me feel a lot more comfortable and less stressed.

In my experience, vendors typically like to wait until about 2-3 months out, and then start talking about your timeline. Your photographer/videographer is probably going to mention to you that sunset is the best time for photos/video, so you’re going to want to plan a gap in between your day where you can leave to go take photos during sunset time for that day. Also, if you have a DJ, they will be able to help give you ideas and pointers about how long things should run etc. Also if you plan on getting a day of coordinator, they will help tremendously with establishing your timeline.

View Quoted Comment Perfect, thank you so much!

I'm 29 days out and all my vendors reached out in the last few days to get those little extra details.
I saw it like this - they'll start reaching out when their balance is due 😂

View Quoted Comment Hahaha that’s true! 😂 ahhh so exciting!

I would start with your venue and then work from there. Our venue gave us a bunch of suggestions on vendors to use.