Wedding planning update: 12+ months out
Since it seems like y’all are enjoying the favorite wedding posts we will pick back up with them tomorrow, but since it’s been exactly one month since we got engaged, I wanted to give you an update on what we’ve accomplished so far! Official wedding planning guides can be very helpful (so far I’m using the online one on Martha Stewart Weddings the most), but I do think that sometimes they have their priorities a bit mixed up. I thought it might be helpful to give you an overview of the order we’re doing things in, and, for those of you who are engaged or married, I’d love to hear where we differ and where we’re the same.
Photo by Jose Villa via Style Me Pretty
At one month out (with 12+ months to go), we have:
— Told family and friends about our engagement
— Confirmed a wedding date
— Confirmed a ceremony location
— Confirmed a reception location
— Confirmed an officiant
— Narrowed down photographer options and spoke with two
— Narrowed down florist options and been in touch with two
— Gathered and narrowed down floral and design inspiration
— Begun to flesh out color palette
— Begun to draft guest list
— Spoken with all interested parties and established a preliminary budget
More details to come about all of these points soon! I’ll be back with more weddings tomorrow!
You are AMAZING! All of that in one month? Can't wait to hear more about your plans :)
You are on top of things! One thing we always recommend to brides in the early stages is DJ or band. The good ones book really fast, like the good venues and photographers.
How come I don't know about any of these details????
Hi Ellie! Good call! Music is one of the next things on our list, along with caterers.
I think the monthly online reminders are designed for people who have less time to plan/ under the 1 year mark. In total our engagement will be 16 months long, and so far I've been running out of monthly tasks on the knot/ MSW- when i know i have a lot more to do. I'm sure they will be helpful as we get closer/ but for now I want to keep planning away without thinking "oh wait, i'm not supposed to start that until 10 months out." Looks like we have similar priorities. For us it was venue/ date/ wedding coordinator/ officiant first. Now we are working on the caterer & photographer. Yipee! Can't wait to hear more about your planning!
The Martha Stewart planner is the best- make sure to take the time to enter your guest list with addresses into the guest tool. It'll save you a lot of time in the long run since you can create as many customized lists as you want for the master list. Perfect for separating each guest list for all of the events leading up to the wedding!
Emily, you sure are crossing a lot of items off of your list! That must be rather exciting and fulfilling (and maybe even scary in a good way?) I am so tickled to be able to follow along with your progress/inspiration/ideas/etc!
You are way ahead of where I was 12 months from my wedding! I can't wait to see what you come up with.
I too did pretty much everything you've done in the first month (but for the officiant) ~ because you were my trusted advisor! :)
Wow, I certainly didn't have the majority of that done by one month. I had pretty much told family and friends – that was it! Congrats on the engagement and it's so exciting to put all of the pieces together! Have fun!! –Sarah