Planning a wedding involves organizing various aspects to ensure a smooth and memorable event. Recently, I was reminded of how much planning and time it takes to gather and coordinate all those pieces and wonderful people in your life together to create a picture-perfect day.
While it can be exciting at first, it can quickly become overwhelming and stressful if you don’t have a plan of attack to accomplish all the tasks in a timely fashion. There are a ton of wedding planners out there you can buy like this minimalistic wedding planner. There are some elaborate ones and some are fairly inexpensive. The Knot even has its own Ultimate Wedding Planner. For those who like to add a bit of technology into the mix, there are ones with a Smart App associated with them like this Luxury Hardback Wedding Planner designed by Award Winning Wedding Suppliers.
Let’s face it, 90% of us all have a smartphone or tablet of some sort with us at all times. So if you are on a bit of a tight budget, you could just create one on an Excel sheet OR Google Docs. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy after all, likely it will be forgotten about or deleted after the big day anyway so why harm a tree?
Below I’ve laid out a simple outline with key tasks and timelines. While these are general guidelines some items may need to be adjusted according to season and availability. It’s good to have a bird’s eye view of what is needed.
Timeline: 12-18 Months Before the Wedding
Set the Date
Choose a tentative wedding date. Consider the time of year for weather especially if you have family and friends traveling. Check with key family members and VIP guests for availability. This may or may not determine the actual date but doing it will plenty of notice gives them time to adjust and plan their time accordingly too.
Budget Planning
Determine the overall budget for the wedding. The budget determines everything, am I right? Could be the difference between a destination wedding or a backyard shindig. Either one could be fabulous if you budget time and money correctly.
Allocate budget percentages to different categories (venue, catering, attire, etc.). Overall budgets are good but if you set a determined amount per category, it helps stabilize the overall budget and even save money. Think about the weddings you’ve attended in the past. What do you remember from them? Was it the wedding favors or the centerpieces or was it the great music or food? Spend the most money where it will count the most. After all, you are there to celebrate, have fun and eat.
Create a Guest List
Draft a preliminary guest list. Consider venue capacity and budget constraints. If you have your heart set on a particular place, then you may need to restrict your guest list. Some places, while gorgeous and perfect for a fairy tale wedding, might not hold 300 guests.
Select a Venue
Research and visit potential venues. Will it accommodate all your guests? Is it within your allocated budget? Other things to consider, are you selecting a venue that is an all-in-one event? Are the ceremony and reception at the same place or separate? If separate, how far will the guests have to travel in between? Does it have overnight accommodations for out-of-town guests?
If you found the perfect place that checks all the boxes, of course, you will need to ensure it is available on your chosen date. In peak wedding season, this could prove to be a difficult task. This is why it is best to book one to two years in advance.
Hire Vendors
Researching and hiring essential vendors can go quickly or could take several tries before you find the right one. It’s important not to rush it. The food, photos, music and of course the couple are what is going to stand out the most at any wedding. It’s just the facts. If the food tastes like cardboard or the cake is dry. They will remember that. If no one dances because the DJ or band can entice them, it will be a long night.
- Caterer
- Bakery
- Stylist
- Photographer
- Florist
- DJ/Band
Timeline: 9-12 months before the wedding.
Choose Wedding Party
By now things are starting to shape up. It’s time to form the wedding party. Ask friends and family members to be part of your wedding party. Remember these are individuals you trust and have been there for you. These individuals are tasked with helping you with the activities leading up to your wedding day. Going with you to pick your attire, tiebreaker on food decisions. If you are DIYing centerpieces and such, guess who is right there tying ribbons and lighting candles? You got it. A wedding party isn’t just about bachelor/bachelorette parties and bridal showers. You pick them because they are your go-to people.
Select Attire
Start shopping for wedding attire for the entire party. Bride, bridesmaids, groom, groomsmen, mother of the bride, father of the bride, whomever. It takes time to find the perfect look. Collect swatches, think about venue settings and of course weather. I don’t think you want a 3-piece wool suit for a beach wedding.
Send Save-the-Dates
Save the Dates are a great way to inform guests about the wedding date to ensure their availability. They don’t have to be elaborate, typically a postcard with an engagement photo and date. These can even be printed at home for a more cost-effective and personal touch.
Plan Ceremony and Reception
Work on ceremony details (vows, readings, officiant). Can be as formal or informal as you want.
Plan reception activities, decor, and entertainment. This is where the budget usually goes straight out the window. You jump on Pinterest, and Instagram and you see all these beautiful wedding boards, with elaborate centerpieces, coffee bars, or archways with a ton of flowers and candles or custom favors. All is great if it’s within your budget. But if you want an Instagram wedding and only have a Walmart budget, You’re going to need to reign it in. Not saying you can’t achieve the look you are going for. I’m a master at turning dollar store items into wanna-be pottery barn chic. Check out a few of my other blog posts.
TIMELINE: 6-9 Months Before the Wedding
Finalize Guest List
Confirm the guest list and collect addresses. Any last-minute edits or additions should be completed by now. From this moment on, no more edits should be made. It will just create a headache for you and all the vendors you are working with.
Order Invitations
Design and order wedding invitations. Make sure to include RSVP instructions and additional event details.
Order Wedding Cake
Choose and order the wedding cake. Most bakeries require at least 6-12 months in advance to book wedding cakes. While this might seem like an extreme, speaking as a baker who has done many wedding cakes, this gives the couple and baker time to test flavors, discuss and design a theme. Depending on how elaborate a theme can be sugar flowers and such take time to make. Most custom cake shops are solely owned or have very minimal employees.
Design isn’t everything though, you want the cake to taste good too. Oftentimes you spare taste for looks. Getting a cake that looks great but tastes dry. Take time to taste-test a variety of bakeries before settling on one and ask questions.
Book Accommodations
Arrange accommodations for out-of-town guests. This may be necessary when you book the venue if it’s all-inclusive.
Plan Honeymoon
Research and book honeymoon arrangements.
TIMELINE: 3-6 Months Before the Wedding
Dress Fittings:
Schedule dress fittings for the entire bridal party. Alterations and last-minute changes are typical and can take time. Especially if one of your bridal party surprises you with a pregnancy announcement halfway through your wedding plans. Always wonderful news to hear! But could create issues if that dress she picked needs to be completely reordered last minute!
Menu Tasting
Finalize the menu with the caterer and schedule a tasting. This gives the caterer enough time to order any ingredients that may not be in season locally.
Plan Transportation
Arrange transportation for the wedding day. The last thing you want is to have to coordinate 6 cars for the bridal party back and forth from the venue. While it may seem like an excess, having transportation to ferry the party to and from the venue makes things less complicated.
TIMELINE: 1-3 Months Before the Wedding
Finalize Details
Confirm details with all vendors. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to planning a wedding. Regardless of how meticulous you are as a planner, you cannot control everyone. It is good to follow up with all your vendors to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Can’t hurt to double-check. Start to create a detailed wedding day timeline now that the day is getting closer. This will help keep things running smoothly on the day of and less you will have to do while you are getting ready.
Obtain Marriage License
Obtain the necessary marriage license. Pretty important document if you want the marriage to be valid in the eyes of the law!
RSVP Follow-Up
Follow up with guests who haven’t RSVP’d. Sometimes they forget, and sometimes the invite gets lost in the mail. Who knows, better to follow up and risk having Aunt Peggy give you the evil eye at the next Christmas Party.
Prepare Wedding Day Emergency Kit
Assemble a kit with essentials for the wedding day. All brides need one. You don’t have to carry it but it needs to be close and handy for sure.
TIMELINE: 1-2 Weeks Before the Wedding
Final Dress Fitting
Ensure the bride’s dress fits perfectly. Bridesmaid’s dresses are in and all fit accordingly as well. The spotlight is for sure going to be on the happy couple but that doesn’t mean you want one of your bridesmaids’ having a wardrobe malfunction in the middle of the electric slide.
Confirm Details
It’s go time! Down to the last two weeks before the main event. Confirm one final time the details with all vendors. No room for error now.
Pack for Honeymoon
Pack for the honeymoon. 2 weeks may seem like you’re jumping the gun packing but, with everything else you got going on the last 2 weeks. It will fly by….Start packing!
Coordinate with the Bridal Party
By now everything should be in order and timelines set. Share it with the bridal party and ensure everyone understands their responsibilities. Groomen don’t get off easy, they have responsibilities too.
Enjoy Your Special Day
This is your day! Relax and savor every moment. CELEBRATE!
Delegate Responsibilities
After the night is over, and you are off on your honeymoon, your wedding party ensures the venue is as it should be. Assign tasks to those trusted individuals in your wedding party for smooth execution.
Capture Memories
Let your photographer and videographer do their thing and capture the day.
Feel free to adapt and expand this wedding planner based on your specific needs and preferences. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!
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