The little things!

We’re getting married next August and I’m definitely getting started on some of the bigger things like venue/ catering etc so that I have time fof the smaller things and don’t end up forgetting anything!

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Most recently I sent her pictures of bride squads wearing leather jackets for colder outdoor photos and asked her thoughts. I send her pictures of flower arrangements that I like, I asked her about a wedding favour idea that I had, and we talk about colours and aesthetics! That kind of little stuff

We had a year and a half for our engagement. I had all of the big stuff done in the first month and im so I did. It gave me tons of time to collect from other weddings and places exactly what i wanted for the price i wanted. It also gave me time to budget to pay for our big day so the last 6 months wasn't oh dear how do i afford this!

Here to say do the big things! Never too early to book your vendors and get the big stuff out of the way. As somebody who learnt the hard way, there is definitely such a thing as "too early" for the small things. I started collecting decor stuff super early, thinking that I was making it easier for myself later, but it turns out, there were some changes along the way, and I ended up going a totally different direction, and had to sell everything I already bought.

That said, I'm a big fan of planning ahead, and its never too early to start putting together a seating chart. Thinking about groupings for your guests will definitely help if you start it early, and then its not a humongous headache in the last week before the wedding.

We will be engaged for almost 3 years this fall when we get married (we booked our venue 2.5 years ago!). There are some things that you can do ahead of time, but not that much I personally found. I bought my dress and accessories right away almost, met with a florist, etc. Downside I was about 15lbs lighter at the time so I need to kick my butt into gear. But I waited until very recently to get out bridesmaid dresses as the possibility of one of my friends being pregnant was reasonably high as we are all late 20s/early 30s. I also found that things I wanted nearly 3 years ago, after thinking it over for a few years and seeing trends and what people are doing, made me change my mind on a lot of things and I'm glad I waited until this year to really start putting things together.

View quoted message Have decided on bridal party and have already asked them!! As for colours I’ve got a few different ones in mind!

View quoted message Thanks for the hint on pricing for venues Kensie!

View quoted message Megan! Thanks for the reply!
May I ask what kind of little details you send to your MOH!?

View quoted message Photographer is a big one for us cause we do t want to spend a fortune! As for venue, my fiancé has picked it out already! And it’s free! Connections are a blessing to a budget! ☺️

View quoted message Yes, I’ve started a rough draft guess list! ☺️

View quoted message Thanks for the ‘vista print’ idea!! Will definitely check it out!
My sister is a big DIY freak and wants to do all my invites! But will definitely look at it for ideas!!

View quoted message Will be going to one this month!!
I’ve got plenty of time so will be gaming to as many as I can ☺️

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Going to a wedding show this month!
And Pinterest board was started before I even got engaged haha!

Wedding shows are a great way to meet a lot of vendors without any commitments. Plus you can log your "meetings" and potentially get entries to the wedding wire contest!
I went to one before I had anything booked and it was nice to get ideas of what I liked and didn't like and a few rough quotes so I could start to build a budget.
And definitely make a Pinterest board if you haven't already. It's a great spot to keep the ideas together.

I would go to your local wedding show. They usually run in the Spring, and they're great to check out local vendors and start thinking of ideas.

Planning is a good start to get your vendor team together and out of the way. They all get booked up so fast and easily that you won't find the same price or deal after you day is taken. The small planning can come after since the time frame allows you to decide on colours and concept you want to go with. Purchases and rentals can be done to be out of the way as needed.

DIY projects are another way to do your small planning if not wanting to spend on things that can be created at home. Images of templates for boxes are amazing and easy to create than getting them ready made.

Vistarpint site has so much to offer from invitations to labels being personalized to you.

Not too early to book the venue and photo and video people!! you have time now to reasearch the exact venue you want. make a rough guest list so when you contact venues you can tell them approx how many ppl

HI Stephanie!

I got engaged in June 2019 and started planning right away lol! The big things are actually what you should work on asap - like finding the right venue / caterer .

Finding a venue is tough, especially if you are on a budget like myself. so earlier the better so you can compare prices !

Although your engagement is 8 months longer than mine was, I still had over a year and a half to of engagement which I thought was long (especially compared to my cousin in-law who only had a yearish and got engaged after us and married before us...).

To be honest I would go about getting the big things out of the way if you haven't already. You might be able to get a deal with 2020 pricing for your 2022 wedding? I would get a venue, food, and booze figured out. The rest like DJ, dress, suit, makeup, etc. can wait until you have an upcoming wedding show near you.

We booked out venue in February 2018 after getting engaged just 2 months after getting engaged but a year and a half till the wedding. Not only did we get 2018 pricing, but when they added new things to the venue it was free since it wasn't available at the time we signed but was then included by the time of the wedding. Oh! and Pinterest never hurt anybody!

Congrats on the engagement by the way and welcome to the WeddingWire community

I would 100% look for and book your venue as soon as you can to avoid stress of the place you wanted being booked on the day you want. I had mine picked out 2 years before and I had the deposit down and it booked 18 months before. I know that 2 years sounds like a crazy amount of time but as I approach the one year before mark I'm so thankful I have as much done as I do. I look at my list of things still to do and I get a little anxious. Last year I loved looking at pinterest to figure out what I wanted and changing or adding little details. Now I want to get them all wrapped up and ready. I used my phone and took screen shots and just added or deleted pictures that I liked.

We are May 15 2021 (slowly inching our way there!) and we booked our venue back in October and I've been chatting with a few different photographers this week and am likely going to book one by the end of February. There were just certain things that I didn't want to risk being already booked so I think you can definitely do some big things in advance!

Picked out colours, asked my bride squad to be the squad, and I've been sending little detail things to my MOH for months

I agree with Gloria. It’s not too early to get started on the big things like venue, photographer, DJ.


We booked all three of those vendors pretty early on in our engagement to lock in the cheaper pricing (pricing will go up each year so you’ll get better price booking now than next year).

Honestly I would say start with the big things like venue, photographer flowers and DJ to get your top pick vendors... that’s prime wedding season and a lot of vendors fill up quickly. We had a long engagement as well but we chose our vendor and photographer/videographer first to make sure we got our top picks.


Small things...budget! Lol. Also figure out your bridal party, your theme and colours