Two Years - How did you plan "slowly"?

We had planned a two-year engagement, which turned into three years thanks to Covid 😡 I had planned on taking the two years so I could take my time and plan slowly.... Didn’t happen! LOL I was way too excited to get started and began pretty much immediately. I think with the pandemic and tons of people rescheduling to 2021 and 2022, it definitely wouldn’t hurt for you to get started now. The sooner you start planning, the better chances of you getting your first choice of vendors!

Congratulations and welcome to WW!

I got engaged in August of 2018 and we set our 10/10/2020 date that month; I started planning that September, and had the big vendors (venue/food, photography, DJ) booked by the end of 2018. We also found our officiant around that time, because she was a referral from a friend.

For the other things like my dress, hair, makeup, flowers, a hotel block, etc., I waited until about a year out.
I have enjoyed our two-year engagement and felt like I had a lot of time to plan, take breaks, etc. It honestly wasn't stressful at all until the pandemic hit.
Even though you still have plenty of time, with so many weddings being postponed and planned farther out, I would book the big vendors (venue/food, photography, DJ) in the next few months.

View Quoted Comment That’s kind of what I’m thinking! Plus, engagement season is coming. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have everything lined up for major vendors.

View Quoted Comment For sure! I would definitely focus on picking out and signing contracts with your ideal vendors. Then, you can take your time planning out everything else (ie, picking a color scheme, slowly purchasing decor items, figuring out what songs you will walk to, lots of time to go dress shopping for you and your bridesmaids, etc.)

You can start now and put money towards vendors, decorations (if you have room) and any other expense that way you’re not putting out a bunch of money at once

You can definitely start getting your main vendors, like venue, photo/video, DJ, etc. Everything else, you can take this time to leisurely research to get a better idea of the kind of event you want and take advantage of any sales as they come up, so you don't spend a lot of money or decor or favors when you're making your big payments on vendors.

View Quoted Comment Lol this is pretty much my story too! We were only 60 days out when we had to make the difficult decision to postpone. So I had almost everything done. But I found the planning kind of happened in waves. Like a flurry of activity in the beginning and then weeks or months with nothing to do. But I still was always not far from planning. I really enjoy this forum, so still read all the time. I'm still looking for bargains on decor. I have collected bits and pieces this whole time. When I see a great sale at Michael's or Hobby Lobby I check it out. Just yesterday I found a few things on FB marketplace that I wanted. So there are things you could do, even when the big stuff is handled. I liked being able to take my time deciding on and putting together the little details. Do what makes you happy!