Wedding Planning: 5 Month Countdown
When Chris and I got engaged, we decided to schedule our wedding for over a year out, giving us plenty of time to plan and get every little detail in place.
Now here I am, 150 days out, feeling like we've gotten a lot of work done but that there is still plenty left to do! Because we're trying to keep our budget as 'affordable' as possible (this wedding industry is freakin' expensive!), we decided not to go with a full-on wedding planner but to work with a day-of/month-of coordinator instead.
By going this self-planning route, I've worked directly with our venues and vendors and have a few tips to share for any of my fellow brides-to-be out there:
Book your big vendors first. Whether there is a cake baker whose cakes you have been eyeing since before the engagement or a DJ or band that you know needs to play at your wedding, make sure to get in contact with those vendors as early as possible (especially if your date falls in popular wedding season, June-September). You'd be surprised how early some of these vendors book up, so the sooner you get started the better!
Use a spreadsheet to keep yourself organized. I've got a bit of a tracker personality and have always been notorious for keeping lists and planners to stay organized, so the first thing I did before even starting to think about planning was make a Google Drive excel spreadsheet. I have found this spreadsheet extremely helpful in tracking everything from budget to all of the different vendors I got in contact with regarding costs and availability. Obviously its up to you how you want to organize yourself, but this spreadsheet has been great because I can easily share it with family and the bridal party and they can see everything I've been up to! If Google Docs aren't quite your style, there are plenty of other ways to stay organized. My good friend Lauren got me this awesome wedding planner which has been super helpful and I've really been enjoying using wedding planning apps as well, which brings me to my next point...
One word: Zola. My coworker recommended Zola to me when I first got engaged and I signed up right away. Of all the different wedding websites and tools out there, Zola was my favorite for the following reasons: website, guest list, registry. I liked Zola's website template options best and it was super quick and easy to put our wedding website together. They also let you create and link your gift registries to the website so guests can shop and RSVP all in one place - super convenient!
Of course weddings are a very special and unique experience for each and every couple, so I hope that some of my tips were helpful (if not all of them). And if you have questions about any part of the process, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm happy to help in any way that I can and always love hearing from you guys!
