A Step by Step Guide to Planning your Wedding Day
You’re engaged! That is amazing and a big step in your relationship with your partner! Being engaged is so wonderful but also brings with it the job of starting to put together all the steps that will eventually lead you to your wedding day.
Most couples have never planned such a large event and might not know where to start and what a proper wedding planning timeline might look like.
If you are at the beginning of the wedding planning process, I thought a fun blog including all the steps with a comfortable timeline to get it all done would be quite helpful, so here it is!
Step #1
Pick your date and set a general wedding planning timeline.
Choosing a wedding date that is best for you, your family and your wedding vision is the perfect place to start!
Even if you just narrow it down to the month that you want to get married and leave the specific date up to what venues are available, setting your wedding date will help you with establishing a general timeline that will help give you a foundation of organization for all of your planning.
This is an example of a general wedding planning timeline which you can customize to your specific date:
10-12 months before your wedding: Set Budget and Pick Venue
9-11 months before your wedding: Hire vendors
8-9 months before your wedding: Pick your Dress
7-8 months before your wedding: Engagement shoot and send out save the dates
6-7 months before your wedding: Book your honeymoon travels
5-6 months before your wedding: another option for scheduling your Engagement shoot and Do your Hair/Makeup Trial and Cake/Catering tasting
3 months before your wedding: Finalize your Day-Of Timeline with your photographer and/or coordinator
2-3 months before your wedding: write your vows
2 months before your wedding: send invitations
1 month before your wedding: Finalize seating chart and ceremony specifics
Step #2
Set a Wedding Budget.
Setting a realistic investment in your wedding is a really important place to start. If you are getting assistance from any family members, set a time to have a conversation about what level of assistance they are comfortable with. If you are financing your wedding yourselves, keep in mind that financial stress from not sticking to a realistic budget can put undue pressure on your relationship that isn’t a good place to start your marriage together!
When you are setting your wedding budget, it is important to also set sub-budgets for the various parts of your wedding. The easiest way to do this is to list out the various parts of your wedding and organize them according to level of importance for you and your partner. Is photography one of the most important parts of your wedding day? Then make sure to allow a larger portion of your budget to be reserved for that. Are you huge culinary fans and creating an amazing dinner experience for your guests a top priority? Then be sure to apportion a larger percentage of your budget to that!
Setting a budget will also give you a starting point when you look for your venues and vendors as you’ll be able to filter out any which are far above or far below the portion of your investment you’ve allotted to each one.
Step #3
Choosing the Perfect Venue!
Does your wedding vision include an outdoor ceremony? Are you wanting something mountainous, or a venue with an epic overlook? Are you picturing a classic wedding in a gorgeous cathedral or a small little white chapel, or is something less traditional like in the middle of a forest more your style?
Choosing your wedding’s overall theme is the best place to start when you are searching for a venue as it will narrow it down and make your search less overwhelming.
Using Pintrest boards and searching Instagram wedding hashtags specific to your geographic location like #PNWwedding or #PNWbride will help give you inspiration and help you see what type of wedding venues you are leaning toward.
Using hashtags is a wonderful way to find not just your venue but your vendors as well! A lot of brides rely on sites like The Knot or WeddingWire (which are owned by the same large parent company BTW), but these sites tend to give you a limited list of vendor options that are prioritized by those who have the largest budget for advertising. Because of this, when you use these sites you are often steered toward larger companies that seldom give you an individualized wedding experience, so use those hashtag searches and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how many unique venues you’ll find!
For more specific help with picking a venue which is amazing for photography and fits your style, download my free Wedding Guide PDF here!
Step #4
Hire your Wedding Vendor Team!
Putting together a team of amazing vendors who go above and beyond for you is one of the most important aspects of your wedding day.
Again, I suggest going beyond just e-mailing those vendors listed on The Knot and WeddingWire (I’m not hating on these sites by the way! I advertise through them) and searching hashtags on Instagram, asking friends for advise, and also using vendor recommendations once you’ve found one vendor you love are some great ways to broaden your vendor search.
Check reviews and look for things that people talk about which are important for you. Are you looking for a photographer who is an expert in candid imagery? Look for reviews which include the couple saying how pleased they were with the emotions that came across in their images. Is finding a coordinator who is especially good at keeping to a wedding timeline important to you? Look for comments in reviews that talk about expert organization!
One of the most important vendors to book first (and yes, I might be a bit biased here!) is your photographer. Your photographer will only be doing one wedding a day and thus their schedules tend to fill up quite quickly as opposed to DJs, Coordinators or Caterers who might have multiple teams they run and thus can schedule more than one wedding per Saturday.
Your photographer is also the vendor who you will be spending the most time with on your wedding day, so taking the time to find one whose work is not only stunning but whose personality is the type that matches you and your fiancee is also crucial.
Once you’ve found one vendor who you love, don’t hesitate to ask them for their vendor recommendations! Asking this gives you a better chance at not only having amazing individual vendors but also gives you a team that works well together! The last thing you want is a photographer and videographer who don’t get along, or a DJ and Coordinator who butt heads at your reception!
Step #5
Pick the Dress!
It might come as a surprise to you how early on in the wedding planning checklist choosing your dress is. The reason for this is that if you purchase a new dress, it can take up to 6 months to receive it! Many wedding dresses are made to order due to the intricacy of the gown.
Not sure where to start on your wedding gown search? Check out this amazing app: StillWhite which is one of my 5 favorite apps for wedding planning (check out my other favorite apps in my blog on apps here). This app helps you narrow down your wedding dress by size, type, designer, condition (yup, you can find second-hand dresses through this app!), and price.
One thing to consider when dress shopping is that this is actually a great area to save a bit of money! This might be quite a controversial tip for saving money, as the wedding dress is a focal point of your wedding for sure! But, this tip comes from my experience as a Wedding Photographer and being surprised again and again at the cleverness of the Kate Holt Photography Brides I work with who have fabulous dresses that were quite inexpensive!
The amazing thing about wedding dresses is that you only wear them once! What that means for you is that there are SO MANY gorgeous dresses that you can purchase second hand for a fraction of the price! There are also “Sample Sales” that dress boutiques have which allow you to purchase a designer dress at a fraction of the cost!
Step #6
Schedule your Engagement Shoot!
An engagement shoot is one of the best ways to make the portrait portion of your wedding day comfortable, relaxed and produce amazing, natural portraits. It also allows you and your photographer to get to know each other on a deeper level, making the more intimate portions of your wedding day easier to have your photographer a part of.
Especially if you or your partner are a bit more camera-shy, scheduling an engagement shoot earlier on in your wedding experience will save you some of the extra nerves that might crop up. Knowing and trusting your photographer gives you a vendor you trust and can go to for advice, especially if they are the type of photographer who is interested in being involved in the wedding planning and in educating you so that you can take advantage of all their years of wedding experience!
Scheduling your engagement shoot this far out from your wedding also allows you to use your images on your Save the Dates, which is super fun!
Step #7
Book Your Honeymoon Adventure!
At this stage in your wedding planning it can be a really fun shift of attention to start planning your honeymoon! Booking flights about 6-7 months ahead gives you better prices and if you find lodging this far ahead you’ll have the best selection as well!
Make sure to think about planning in rest/relaxation days in addition to exploring your honeymoon destination and I encourage you to also splurge a bit on a spa day if your location allows for it!
Looking for something unique? Pop over to my blog about unknown Honeymoon Destinations to consider here!
If you are planning on reserving a block of rooms for your out-of-town guests you and need to make reservations then why not take that task on at the same time as booking your honeymoon get-away reservations!
Step #8
Hair/Makeup Trial and Cake/Catering Tasting!
Your hair and makeup are a big part of your final wedding day look and most of us have a pretty specific vision in mind. Or, if you don’t have a specific idea of what you want on your wedding day, I’ll bet you have specific ideas of what you WOULDN’T want for your hair and makeup, am I right?
Well, the best way to not take a gamble on this is to schedule a trial run! Most aestheticians include this trial run in their bridal packages as they know how much stress comes from creating a look the bride is displeased with on her wedding day.
If you haven’t done your engagement shoot yet, you can also plan it for after your trial makeup run, that way you’ll get a great idea of how the makeup will photograph!
Another thing to add in on this step is choosing your cake! If you are planning a traditional wedding cake, schedule an appointment with your chosen bakery to choose your flavor and bring along some friends or family to make this a fun and delicious outing!
Taste-testing of your catered meal can also be done at this point for you to narrow down your wedding day menu.
Step #9
Finalize your Day-Of Timeline!
Finalizing your wedding-day timeline this far in advance will help give you a stable foundation for all the remaining details you’ll be planning and bringing together in the final months leading up to your big day.
Work close with your photographer for your final timeline to make sure your day is relaxed and gives you plenty of time to fit in all the photos you want. Especially if you’ve allotted a larger portion of your wedding budget to photography it would be a shame to then skimp on the time allotment you give it!
If you have chosen to work with a day-of coordinator, you’ll want to balance your timeline planning between your photographer and coordinator so be sure they have each other’s information so they can work together to bring you a beautiful and cohesive wedding day timeline.
As a wedding photographer, I work with all of my Kate Holt Photography Couples to plan the perfect timeline, so I’ve written quite a few blogs on timelines and tips for creating a stress-free wedding day schedule, so for more specific information on what to consider for your day-of timeline, make sure to check those out!
Step #10
Write Your Vows!
Tackling your vows a few months prior to your wedding allows you plenty of time to gather inspiration, have grace with yourself over any writer’s block, and allows time to edit and practice their delivery as well!
That might seem like a lot of work that goes into just three minutes of your wedding day, but spending the time to make these vows really personal and include everything you want in them is time well spent I promise you!
If you are searching for inspiration on how to write your vows, head over to my blog with helpful tips here!
Step #11
Send Invitations!
Getting your invitations out 2-3 months prior to your wedding gives your guests plenty of time to get them sent back and also gives you enough time to record their RSVPs, give your caterer a final head count and write your seating chart.
Choosing invitations can be as elaborate or as simple as you want! A very low-maintenance and money-saving version is to do on-line invitations, or you can work with a stationery artist to create an intricate and handmade invitation suite which will photograph beautifully.
Whatever your style, get these sent out and enjoy receiving RSVPs from your closest family and friends over the next few weeks!
Step #12
Finalize Your Seating Chart and Ceremony Details
If you are planning a seated dinner for your reception with a specific seating chart, take the last month to collect all your RSVPs and get your reception chart finalized.
Organizing all of your guests can be a bit complicated, but there are apps to help you with that such as my personal favorite SeatPuzzle which allows you to import your guest list from contacts and move them around as much as needed before the final chart is written up.
If you are planning a wedding ceremony which is not pre-scripted due to religious traditions, there is a fair amount of personalization and creativity that can go into your ceremony, so getting your ideas together and fully formulated for your rehearsal dinner is a must.
Have fun making your ceremony unique to you and your partner and work with your officiant to create a memorable union!
Once you’ve worked through all the above steps, you get to just enjoy the last weeks leading up to your wedding! Plan a night with just your fiancee to enjoy the last part of your engagement and give yourself an evening of relaxation while you soak in all those pre-wedding feels!
Are you looking for a photographer who will help you every step of the way on your wedding journey?
