Sept. 14, 2019 wedding preparation. is it way early to plan or not?

I got my dress over a year ago and I just haven't done any alterations to it. If you want to start looking its never too early. Just once you find the dress, and make your deposit. Don't look for more.

We got engaged last october and don't get married until june of next year and had pretty much our whole wedding booked (including my wedding dress being purchased) within the first mont of being engaged. It's always a good idea to start right away to ensure you book the vendors you want! But remember, your taste and visions might change for your big day! We changed our colour scheme a little while ago and went in a completely didn't way than we had originally picked. If you feel like you may pick a dress but then end up falling in love with another and having dress regret then wait to do that part for a little bit, otherwise I'd get started if I were you!

My husband and I were engaged for 2.5 years so I totally get it! Now is a great time to do research! I would recommend reading some wedding planning books and articles so that you can start learning what all goes into wedding planning. The first thing to do would be to figure out your budget because everything else will be based off of that. You need to know your budget even before you start researching vendors so you know what price range you should be looking in. You also want to figure out what your general vision for the wedding will be so you can plan around it. Formal or casual? Buffet or plated meal? What time of day do you want the ceremony? Small or large wedding? You can definitely book your venue and vendors in advance because some can get booked more than a year in advance but just keep in mind that if you decide to change your date at a later time, that they might not be available or you may lose your deposit.

Also, since you are currently in the season that you will be married in, it's a good idea to take note of what the weather's like, what sort of clothing and decor are available so that you can buy what you need next year once you've finalized your vision for the wedding. We had wanted purple pumps for the bridesmaids to wear but by the time we were looking to buy them, it was the summer right before the wedding so they were hard to find! We had to wait for the season to change so we could find the right ones and I was definitely getting nervous with it being so close to the wedding! I had wished that I'd bought them the year before.

They also generally say to wait to ask your wedding party until about 8 months before the wedding. I didn't listen to that but it's something to keep in mind. My bridesmaids were my sisters and friends that I had known for years and had wanted by my side my whole life so I didn't have any problems asking them in advance. (Also, mine was an international wedding so I wanted to give people as much time as possible to save up.) Some people have falling outs with friends or become closer with certain people during the engagement and wished that they had asked them so it's something to think about.

If you're indecisive, you might want to wait on buying your dress as well so you don't have dress regret. It's a good idea to go and try on a bunch of silhouettes to decide what you like best and what looks good on you so that later you can narrow it down. They say that you generally need to order your dress 6-8 months in advance so you have plenty of time! If you're absolutely sure about what you want in a dress and know that you won't change your mind, then go for it!

My FH and I got engaged Dec2016 and our original wedding date that we booked was for March 22nd, 2019. We (mostly me) couldn't wait to start planning and I figured I would book my 4 major vendors (venue, photographer, DJ, and Officiant). That kept my wedding bug bitten for a while until about May when I came home from work with this crazy idea to move the wedding up an entire year! He looked at me like I was nuts but all of our vendors were available that we already booked so now we are getting married March 23rd, 2018!

So word of advice if you think you can curb the wedding bug go ahead and start researching but be advised you may want to bump your wedding a whole year because you just cant wait to marry him!

Thank you so much for the advice!! I will definitely do that. It's just that I got really excited when we got engaged! thanks again

Definitely not too early to plan. I would start looking at venues and the big vendors.

I would say book your venue and your big vendors, thing that are in high demand and book early: photographer, DJ/band, florist, decorator. This way, you know you have your preferred location and vendors and then you can relax for a while before having to delve into the finer details. If you know who you want to book, I would say do it! If you don't know yet, I'd take some time to do some research and then start booking in the new year!