Congratulations! You’re engaged! While it’s perfectly ok to soak it all in for a few days, don’t wait too
long to start planning your wedding. We are sure you’ve heard planning a wedding can be stressful (we
can help you with that!) but what’s even more stressful is falling in love with a wedding vendor only to
find out they aren’t available on your special day. We’ve compiled some helpful advice on where to start
with your wedding planning!
CREATE A WEDDING EMAIL
Creating a wedding email address that you ONLY use for wedding related things is SO helpful! Everything
wedding related stays in one spot and doesn’t get mixed up with everything else in your regular inbox.
There are multiple places you can create a wedding website. This is a great place to include all of your wedding details and registry info for your guests. This way your guests can easily find all of your wedding infomation in one place and you can update it as needed.
CHOOSE A VENUE/DATE
You may have heard you should pick a date first, but that’s not necessarily true. Sure if you have a
special date you’re set on, that’s fine of course, but it could limit your venue options. We suggest
choosing a venue first. This way you can choose a date based on your dream venue’s availability to
ensure you’re getting married exactly where you want.
CREATE YOUR REGISTRY
Its time to decide what kind of registry you want to have and to create it! Check out our blog post about gift registries vs. a honeymoon fund. Both are great options!
CHOOSE YOUR OTHER VENDORS
We’ve spoken to several Austin wedding vendors and have put together a date range of how far out
they tend to book out. This will be really helpful when you start booking your other vendors! Keep in
mind this could vary a bit depending on the location. One tip would be to look at companies that have
the ability to do more than one wedding per day.
Venue: If flexible, within a year. If not flexible, at least 1.5 years out
Planner: 6 months to over a year out
Photo/Video: 6 months to a year out
Band/Musician/DJ: 9 months to 1.5 years out
Hair/Makeup: 12-18 months out for larger weddings
Lighting: 3-6 months out
Cake/Dessert: 2-6 months out
Catering: 10-12 months out
Officiant/Minister: 1-2 years out
START A PINTEREST
Starting a Pinterest will really help to give you so many different ideas that you’ll be able to decide what
kind of style you are going for. You wedding style is something you’ll be thinking of when you make most
of your wedding decisions, including things like your dress, invitations, signage, etc.
WEDDING PARTY
If you want a wedding party, now is the time to at least start thinking about who you want to be
standing by your side on your special day. It can be hard to choose, so make sure you give yourself
plenty of time to make this decision. Also keep in mind that the people you choose will most likely be
helping with things like a wedding or bridal shower and bachelor/bachelorette party.
*Pro Tip: CHECK REVIEWS!!! Do not forget to check reviews on credible wedding websites like The Knot
and Wedding Wire!
START YOUR GUEST LIST
You won't need to finalize your guest list for a little while but its a good time to go ahead and start. Make sure you are both on the same page about who you want to come, including your stances on plus ones and children attending your wedding.