Hello ladies! I'm new to all this having only gotten engaged this month. Needless to say I'm pretty clueless on all of this buy very excited to start getting ideas together. We plan to just enjoy being engaged for a little while before ploughing into this wedding planning world. However what I wanted to know was how long you would recommend giving yourselves to actually plan the big day? Also as I am new to all of this when do companies expect final payments etc. I expect this will have a big effect on when we start planning... Thank you!
CommentAuthorGlitterfairy
Welcome and congratulations.
Planning can take months or years, just depends on what you are having really. Venues normally want payment about 6 weeks or so prior to the date with final numbers, registrars about 3 weeks before, not sure on churches though.
Our wedding day - 6 October 2012
CommentAuthorInDreamland
Firstly and congratulations!
To get 5ou started please have a read of the forum rules, check out the brides checklist and add your date to the wedding calendar, all at the top of the forum - if you have not already.
The brides checklist is great for giving you an idea on what to plan and in what order. Final payments for suppliers range between 2 and 6 weeks before the big day usually.
Enjoy the site!
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorBecci93
Our church takes payment after the wedding :) most of our suppliers are 4 weeks prior but the honeymoon is more like 3 months prior
CommentAuthorBecci93
I'd try to give yourself at least 1 year to plan the wedding as dresses and things often need booking that far in advance but if you have a particular date in mind then I would look to booking venues sooner rather than later especially if you want a peak season weddjng as dates sell out years in advance at some places
We were engaged 16 months before we got married but didn't really plan much for the first 2 months. We booked church and reception venue about 6 weeks after getting engaged just to set the date then took it easy, just doing things without any rush.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorInDreamland
My sister and BIL though were engaged for a year before they started planning, they then did everything in 6 months.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorBecci93
That would stress me out trying to arrange everything within 6 months! It's atill 11 months for me and I'm gettjng tetchy at the lack of progress with stationery and silly things!
CommentAuthorInDreamland
It can be done with help. I helped her a lot, I took my MOH duties seriously lol.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorBecci93
Mm I think that's ny downfall haha .. Because I like things a certain way I think my bms are a bit nervous of helping with too much however j completely delegated hen party arrangements to them .. That I can't be bothered with!
CommentAuthorInDreamland
My sister and I are super close so 100% trust each other to get things right. She did so much to help with our wedding she was fab. She and my best mate organised my entire hen and did a better job than I ever could, I actually felt guilty that I didn't do something as good for my sister, well I think they did better than I did but I had no help as my sister's other BM lives abroad so had to organise her hen all alone.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorAmyL180
Fab! Thank you ladies! I can't wait to start planning! The thing I am realising very quickly is that there aren't many rules in this wedding planning business! Lots of options how exciting!
CommentAuthorBecci93
Nope you get to choose what you want when you want but that doesn't always make for easy planning with all the options!!
Have you got a preference on dates or even year of marriage?
CommentAuthorMichelleC961
Welcome :-) I'm hoping that next year I can start planning my again- I get so excited at looking at what everyone else is doing on here, I've got loads of ideas saved just want to start planning properly!
CommentAuthorInDreamland
Amy - the only 'rule' is you need to do the legal bit lol - the rest is anything you want it to be. Have fun planning!
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorclair
:)! My advice is to think about a relistic (ish) budget 1st then you can plan around that really! Weddings can be done for a little as £1000 to as much as you can afford to spend. I would say of you are not so picky as to what month you get married in then you can plan a wedding quickly as lots of venues have cancelations or generally have dated free in the winter months. But if you are very set on a certain time of year then you need to book 18 months to a year in advance. Also quite a few venues will let you pay off a bit at a time wich can be helpful. if you need any advice at all just post on her and we will help you as much as we can. Xx
Started going out with my Gorgeous man 7/11/2010
Got engaged on the 21/9/2013
became mrs Thornton on the 2/8/2015
our wedding day was the best day ever :)!
CommentAuthorLadyC
I have given myself 10 months! We are having a fairly laid back affair though and the little details really don't worry me. I just want to marry my soul mate.
xx Lady Charlotte Chamberlain to be! xx
xx Marrying my soul mate on 22nd July 2016 xx
CommentAuthorAmyL180
Aw! That's lovely! Oh yes of course the legal part! That's lovely Charlotte! And so true art he end of the day it's all about declaring your love and commitment to each other! Xx
CommentAuthorFutureMrsW
Welcome Amy \o/
I'd recommend giving yourself at least a year for planning, to give yourself some time, but I have known a couple of brides who have pulled everything off in 4-6 months! Although they did have to compromise a bit.
When we got engaged the first thing we properly did was set (choose) the date. We could have gone for 2016, giving us approx. 18 months to plan, but my older sister is getting married late August 2016 and I didn't want to shoehorn in before her so settled for July 2017. That gave us about 2 years to plan.
We then decided on the type of wedding we wanted eg. Church, Registry Office or complete venue package etc. and decided on a church wedding and separate reception venue. A hasty first-draft of the gust list to figure out numbers, then we started looking for venues and booked the church.
I would recommend setting the date 'properly' by booking your ceremony and/or venue sooner rather than later, not only does this give you a solid date to work towards, you might also get to book at this year's prices and save a bit of money :)
Good luck and let us know how you get on!
CommentAuthorAmyL180
I'm thinking either September 2017 or may/June 2018 I'd rather go 2017 but will depend in costs xx
CommentAuthorInDreamland
If you can push it to the first week in October it'll be cheaper than September.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorStephanieM158
I have 10 months to go. I have ideas just not the money. LOL I'm slowly getting things together but it seems so wiffly at the moment. Im even scared things wont "go" together. Its not like I can set up the room to check. haha.
Congratulations on your engagement, I hope you're not as flappy as I am with all this stuff!
Met 2004
Engaged 2014
Getting Married 2016
CommentAuthorMrs Jones
I didn't really start planning until end of August and I am getting married in June, so have given myself about 10 months altogether.
First Date 26 April 2014
Proposed 27 June 2015
Happily Married 18 June 2016
CommentAuthorFlossie
We had been engaged for just over 2 years before we even began thinking about booking and planning our wedding... when we did the book the wedding even then we booked it 2 years in advance to allow ourselves to plan and pay for everything xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorKerryBolderson2be
Congratulations and welcome.. it took me 24hours to find my venue photographer piper everything but I had been up the full 24hrs x
Mrs Bolderson2be
Met 31st July 2012
Engaged 31st July 2013
Becoming Mrs Bolderson 14th February 2018
CommentAuthorAmyL180
I think I will be just the same with worrying if things will go together! For now I think I will just need to get excited about saving for the big day! Thank you ladies!
CommentAuthorInDreamland
Things always will fall into place and fit together x
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
CommentAuthorElinor Claire
We had more than eighteen months, simply because we got engaged in October 2012, and knew that summer 2013 was already too busy with my parents moving house, so we opted for summer 2014. We did leave it until January to start things, and then only booked things that can get booked well in advance like the venue and photography. We left a lot until the summer before. It's perfectly possible to do it all in a few months, provided you don't have your heart set on a really popular venue. I would suggest working backwards, think of when would be an ideal time to get married and work from that. Congratulations on your engagement x
30th August 2014 was the best birthday ever.
It was the day that I became Mrs. Dixon.
CommentAuthorAmyL180
Thank you. I think we're looking at Summer 2017 for something quite outdoorsy xx
CommentAuthorEmily17
Perfectly OK to book now. I booked our church in Jan for Oct 207
Met in 2009
He proposed Jan 2014
Will become Mrs P 7th October 2017
CommentAuthorStephH96
Hi Amy, you can plan for as long or short as you like, as long as you have the budget to cover what you want. We will have been engaged for 3 years by the time we are married, but only started organising properly in August this year, giving us 11 months to do everything. This is plenty of time as we are getting married abroad.
I know of one couple that got a cancellation and were married in about 6 months of getting engaged, some on here are having 3/4 year engagements, so there's no hard and fast rule really.