Any advice will help

First you'll want to come up with a realistic budget and a rough guest count. Your budget will partially depend on how many people you want to invite. The more people, the more expensive. If you're going to get a wedding planner then hire one of those first and they can help you navigate vendor questions. Then, look into venues within your budget and with the capacity to hold your guests. Sometimes all-inclusive venues are cheaper, while other times they're more expensive, so it's important to look at multiple options and go over each vendors they would provide vs. what you'd have to get somewhere else. If your goal is to get married no matter what when he gets back, then you may need to be flexible on your date. A lot of places have booked up quickly for next year as people had to postpone their 2020 and 2021 dates.

Next you'll probably want to look into catering and a photographer since those usually book up pretty quick. There are a ton of planning timelines online and there's also a checklist on WeddingWire to help you keep track of what things should be coming next. Good luck!

Military wife to be here also!

Can you guys afford a wedding planner? That way you have a full support system while he's gone to help with it?

1) Have a budget
2) Think about the kind of wedding you want
3) Pick a date (goes hand in hand with picking a venue based on availability)
4) Look into venues (goes hand in hand with picking a date based on availability)
5) Look at wedding wire's checklist (this helped me SOOOO much with my wedding planning process)

Other notes:
-Pick a dress 8-10 months in advance due to the possibility of ordering the dress, and alterations
-Make sure you choose your bridesmaids wisely
-Communicate with your bridesmaids if you have expectations from them being a bridesmaid (because at the end of the day a bridesmaid's role is to merely just wear her dress and stand by your side)
-Do NOT be afraid to ask for help during this wedding process and day of the wedding (parents, siblings, friends, bridesmaids, etc.)
-Be mindful taking money from family, especially parents (reason being is because once they pay, they get to have a say-as courtesy)
-Forget what people think, it's YOUR day
-Be open to other options (especially if it has to do with finances)
-Things will start to add up and fast (so stick to a budget as best as you can, my husband and I had a max of 15K but we only spent about 8k for everything-we had a very small and intimate wedding of 50 people in his aunt's beautiful backyard)

Congrats and have fun planning!

Being that you are marrying a service member, you can check out the MWR for the base he is stationed at; (if you want to get married in that area) you could save some money by having the ceremony/reception on base. It very much depends on the size and details of your wedding vision, but when I was in the Navy quite a few people I knew held their receptions on base to save a lot of $$$.