planning a wedding! but don't know when to start :(

[rivi87]

pretty much says it all...as you may know..we have been engaged since May 23. Even though we are leaning towards a civil ceremony next month, we plan on having a ceremony in a little over a year still not sure of the exact date. I AM SO LOST HOW TO ACCOMPLISH THIS!! anyone that has done it before have some advice?? thank you in advance

[Crimson_Petal]

I actually used to work with a wedding planner, and having been obsessed with weddings forever I can give you a few hints and tips:
First of all, you need to set yourself a budget. If you're having the legal ceremony next month then that will cut some money off of your costs next year as it's more of a symbolic thing than needing a registrar etc.
Start thinking about what KIND of wedding you want. Big/small. Indoor/outdoor. Everything from number of guests to sit down/buffet meal will guide you on your kind of venue. You don't want to waste your time looking at small intimate venues when you're going to have 200 people.
You don't need the EXACT date yet but come up with a month/season and start looking for venues. People rarely come up with their own date, they're pushed in a direction by the venue so don't worry too much about dates. Of course if you DO have a specific date in mind the venue may (hopefully) be able to work with you.
Once the date has been confirmed you need to look for save the dates/invitations- depends if you want to have both or not. There's nothing wrong with it and it's totally up to you. You'll also want to think about how your overall theme would effect the style of your invites, order of service, menus etc. You can also download some REALLY good programmes where you can design your own invitations and have them printed. It works out well as ordering in invitations can be extremely expensive.
Then if you have a particular theme or style that you want to go for you can start doing bits of research for what you'd want to go for, whether that's particular colour schemes or table design (I remember one lady had pictures for her table numbers of different places she and her partner had been in their relationship. It really suited them and they managed to mingle that in with their food as there was stuff from every place they'd visited) Basically, try to make it personal, people like that.
Once you've established a theme then everything else pretty much falls in to place. Whether that be decoration, your dress, food, cake, music etc...
Around the 9-8 month to go mark you'll want to pick members of the wedding party and to some degree delegate certain tasks.
Depending on the type of wedding you're wanting you'll want to make appointments to try food (6 months to go), look at cakes(at least 3 months, if not before that), meet florists(again at least 3 months to do) and of course try on dresses(you can do any time really but you'll probably want/need to have at least one or two fittings just to make sure it fits like a glove so probably 3-4 months ahead of time).
Okay, this is not at all exhaustive but just a general starting point and a few time scales. If you need any more advice or useful websites etc, I'll only be too happy to help.
And congrats on the upcoming nuptials.

[Crimson_Petal]

I actually used to work with a wedding planner, and having been obsessed with weddings forever I can give you a few hints and tips:
First of all, you need to set yourself a budget. If you're having the legal ceremony next month then that will cut some money off of your costs next year as it's more of a symbolic thing than needing a registrar etc.
Start thinking about what KIND of wedding you want. Big/small. Indoor/outdoor. Everything from number of guests to sit down/buffet meal will guide you on your kind of venue. You don't want to waste your time looking at small intimate venues when you're going to have 200 people.
You don't need the EXACT date yet but come up with a month/season and start looking for venues. People rarely come up with their own date, they're pushed in a direction by the venue so don't worry too much about dates. Of course if you DO have a specific date in mind the venue may (hopefully) be able to work with you.
Once the date has been confirmed you need to look for save the dates/invitations- depends if you want to have both or not. There's nothing wrong with it and it's totally up to you. You'll also want to think about how your overall theme would effect the style of your invites, order of service, menus etc. You can also download some REALLY good programmes where you can design your own invitations and have them printed. It works out well as ordering in invitations can be extremely expensive.
Then if you have a particular theme or style that you want to go for you can start doing bits of research for what you'd want to go for, whether that's particular colour schemes or table design (I remember one lady had pictures for her table numbers of different places she and her partner had been in their relationship. It really suited them and they managed to mingle that in with their food as there was stuff from every place they'd visited) Basically, try to make it personal, people like that.
Once you've established a theme then everything else pretty much falls in to place. Whether that be decoration, your dress, food, cake, music etc...
Around the 9-8 month to go mark you'll want to pick members of the wedding party and to some degree delegate certain tasks.
Depending on the type of wedding you're wanting you'll want to make appointments to try food (6 months to go), look at cakes(at least 3 months, if not before that), meet florists(again at least 3 months to do) and of course try on dresses(you can do any time really but you'll probably want/need to have at least one or two fittings just to make sure it fits like a glove so probably 3-4 months ahead of time).
Okay, this is not at all exhaustive but just a general starting point and a few time scales. If you need any more advice or useful websites etc, I'll only be too happy to help.
And congrats on the upcoming nuptials.

[Deleted Account]

martha stewart and i think the knot.com have a list of things already organized for you to know when to do what and get more less of an idea of what you need... etc...

At least for me, the first thing you have to do is think of the date of when you want your wedding to be, and go reserve the location and the lawyer that will do the whole thing.. at the time you want it to be. The earlier you do it, the better because then it means that other people cant take your date and or place away.

This means that at this moment, if you dont know where to have your reception.. you must go out, and look at the different places it could take place, take pictures and then see which one you like the most. Do this, keeping in mind the budget that you have.

Once you have the place and the lawyer all set up, its pretty much just looking at flowers, and food etc...

Also, the whole laywer thing is where they probably request a few papers etc. If your fiance is not from where you live, that means that you probably need to get him to mail his papers and if he doesnt speak the same language as you, then those papers need to be officially translated.. etc..

[rivi87]

Thank you both for your advice! Im starting to get the ball rolling on this...me and my friend here went and tried on dresses yesterday...was def a fun experience..when I go home in a month I will try them on for my family! excited about that too!

I started figuring out bridesmaids as well...The thing is I want my fiance to be apart of this process but hes so busy doing army things now..that theres no time oh well I still have a year just starting the things that should be getting done now...:P

[rsvpnj]

I own my own Wedding & Event planning company. You can start planning now and by doing so, you might even be able to save yourself a little money. Please feel free to private message me if you need some advice.

[nicole]

I just got an account on theknot.com and it looks like it will come in a lot of use. It has a checklist for all the little planning details and a timeline for that too, you can even put your guest list on there to keep track of RSVPs etc- it's like a online wedding folder