Where to start?!

Hi Holly, welcome to WW and congratulations to you both!

The venue I think is the most important vendor to book, followed by the officiant, photographer, and then flowers,

Congrats on your engagement first of all and welcome to the community.

The 2 most important things to get done are the venue booking and guest list to know your numbers for crunching meals and bar wise to see where your budget is set and how much more it would cost for extra time after the set hours of bar.

I figured out my numbers then picked a venue that would accommodate that and just went around that, everything finally fell into place.

Figure out how much you and your future spouse want to spend and how many people you want to have at your wedding. This will help with find the right venue for the amount of money you want to spend and how many people it will hold. Having your date secured with your venue will help with the next steps of finding the right vendors to fit with your wedding day! Then start looking for DJ, Photographer, Officiant, Catering if you need one, Cake etc

Congratulations on your engagement, and welcome to the Wedding Wire community! There are tons of great ideas here, with lots of varying opinions and planning/wedding styles. I'm sure you'll find everything you're looking for!!

Here's my suggested priorities:

1) Budget
2) Date
3) Theme/style
4) Guest list (size)
5) Venue
6) Photographer
7) DJ
8) Bridal
9) Caterer
10) Officiant
11) Florist

Congrats Holly! And welcome.

I agree with Julie, Venue is #1 priority, as that sets the timeline for everything else. Venue locks down a date, and what else you may need (catering, decor, ect). Then I found this sites "checklist" were quite helpful for keeping me on track. Some were a little earlier than I would have done, but gave me a good idea of what I should be considering. Plus its super customizable so you can remove items that dont pertain to your celebration!

You're quite welcome! Enjoy every minute of it. Reach out if you have questions and/or you need/want to vent

Congrats Holly and welcome to WeddingWire. The first thing we decided on was do we want the ceremony and reception in one place. The next big thing was budget. Then I began looking at venues that could accommodate both ceremony/reception. Found quite a few vendors through WeddingWire. Make sure you book with their event coordinator and actually go in and see the space. I liked having a walk through where my ceremony was going to be, cocktail hour and reception. I think once you have this one decided on, the rest just flows The big items are venue, officiant, photographer/videographer, makeup / stylist. While you're researching, you might want to start searching for your dress!

Good luck!!