One Year Away
You and your partner are officially one year away from your wedding day – congratulations! Whether you’ve been engaged for years or months, take a moment to celebrate this new milestone.
Now is a beautiful time to touch base and start conversations about planning your big day! Visit your wedding venue and take in the space that will soon be filled with your love. Afterward, ask each other three questions:
- What are you most excited for on our wedding day?
- What are you most nervous about while planning our special day?
- Finally, what are you excited about once we become a married couple?
To start your planning process, it’s helpful to create a Pinterest board with visual ideas. This is a really fun way to help share your vision of the details of your wedding with your partner. Don’t forget to select your wedding party, and decide what details you might delegate to your loved ones.
10 Months Away
By now, planning is in full swing, and there’s so much more to come. This is an ideal time to take your engagement photos, and focus on booking essential vendors like caterers, photographers, videographers, florists, and musicians. If you’re hosting here at the Garden, remember to book from our preferred professional list. You can also consider starting to looking for a wedding dress, booking your hotel rooms, and creating your wedding website!
Nine Months Away
With nine months left, it’s a good time to send your Save the Dates. Include the wedding date and city, along with a link to the wedding website for more information. Grab those addresses from loved ones and start stamping! Other things to work on include purchasing your wedding dress, planning music for the ceremony and reception, hiring your officiant, and securing a dessert provider.
Eight Months Away
Now’s the perfect time to start creating your wedding registry to hand select items you would love to have in your home to celebrate your marriage. Amazon, Target, The Knot, Wedding Wire, and Zola, are all great places to consider having your registry. They also have the ability to link your registry right on your website! So, plan a cozy date night on the couch to build that registry. It’s also critical to begin planning your rehearsal dinner, order your rental décor pieces, and shop for wedding party attire. Be sure to scope out bridesmaid dresses, mother’s dresses, and flower girl dresses!
Six Months Away
The sixth month mark is the perfect time to start focusing on the little details – timelines, color shades, flowers, and more. Take time to decide on your hair and makeup vendor, keeping your personal style in mind. It’s important to book early to ensure they have time reserved for you and any other party members who would like services on your wedding day. Also, clarify whether you’ll travel to a salon or if the artists will be available onsite. Some other important steps this month include researching your honeymoon destination and working on your day-of timeline!
Five Months Away
At five months, start thinking about guests’ transportation. If you’re coordinating transportation, consider organizing a shuttle bus from your reception to your hotel, setting up an Uber code for your guests to use over the weekend or coordinating trolley rides for your guests to enjoy between ceremony and reception. It’s also common to allow guests to arrange their own transportation, reducing costs for you and allowing them more flexibility. This month, don’t forget to book your honeymoon and get the big details such as flights, hotels, and rental cars solidified!
Three Months Away
Three months from the big day, and you may have already eloped by now. Only kidding! Now’s the time for tiny details like song timing and who stands next to who during the ceremony. It’s also an ideal time to order your official invitations with all the day-of details! Include a month-out RVSP deadline to make life easier. While you’re at it, be sure to select meal choices for dinner, book hair and makeup trials, purchase wedding favors for guests, finalize beverage choices, confirm your dessert selections, finalize your cake topper, and choose who will be cutting the cake!
Two Months Away
Now’s the time to decide if you plan to tip your wedding vendors. This looks different for everyone, so don’t feel pressured to offer additional money. Many couples tip vendors that provide day-of service, like your beautician, photographer, DJ, or the officiant. Recommended tip amounts can vary, as some say to allocate 10%-20% of the charge, while others advise to tip $50-$200. By assigning a loved one to hand out these tip envelopes, you can keep enjoying your day while ensuring your vendors feel appreciated. If you forgo tipping, be sure to handwrite a thank-you note after the honeymoon or leave reviews on Google, The Knot, or the vendor’s website!
Some other to-do-list items to consider right now include sending invites, scheduling your first dress fitting, purchasing wedding party and parent gifts, hosting your wedding shower, securing suits for the wedding party, and ordering those wedding bands!
One Month Away
Only one more month! An important detail to remember is your marriage license. Marriage licenses can be ordered 4 to 60 days prior to the wedding, so if you haven’t already, now’s the time to get yours. There is a three-day waiting period after you get your license, so make sure you arrange this in advance.
This final month, make your final song selections, pay final bills, host your wedding parties, write your vows, plan thank you cards, confirm arrival times for vendors, and finalize the day-of timeline. Don’t forget to take a deep breath and get excited! Remember, the most important thing is celebrating the love that you’ll cherish forever. Your special day will be beautiful no matter the circumstances, so don’t forget to pause for a moment and take it all in.
If you’re ready to take the leap into wedding planning and think the Garden might be a perfect fit, reach out to our Events Team at weddings@gbbg.org or 920.593.5683. We can’t wait to work with you!
