When should i start planning my wedding?

Fall weddings are very popular as of lately. Many venues book up for popular dates at least a year or two in advance, but not all! If you aren't able to start planning now, you could certainly wait until August, but keep in mind that you might not be able to get your desired 2024 date at your top choice venues. You might find a venue with availability on your preferred date, or you might not. If you can't find availability, you could either choose a different venue, change your date based on what the venues have available (consider hosting your wedding on a Friday, Sunday, or even a weekday), or push your date out to fall 2025. It's tough to say what venue availability will look like a year in advance, but I'd like to think that there would be at least a couple date options for fall 2024 available a year ahead of time. If you know what area you'd like to get married in, maybe you could start looking at venues in person during one of your school breaks?

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the advice! And I mean I wouldn’t mind having it on a Friday or Sunday. I honestly would prefer a Friday. And my fall date is pretty flexible (September-to mid October). I live in a semi cold state for the fall and the weather is unpredictable. I have my venues saved. I only get one break during the spring semester (spring break) but my fiancé and I have different dates for our spring breaks, so that doesn’t exactly work out, unless he or I just went. I also have to factor in moving. If we did move to another state, I wouldn’t want to force everyone to make the flight or drive over there.

Have you checked a venue on campus? Or are you trying to escape from the campus?

View Quoted Comment They don’t host weddings at my campus anymore and it’s my last semester (his as well) , so I don’t really want to have it there. I’m not the biggest fan of my fiancé’s campus (neither is her) because it’s not in the best area.

View Quoted Comment That makes sense! Since your date is flexible and you're also willing to consider Fridays or Sundays in addition to Saturdays, I honestly think you will likely be able to find at least something for next fall if you book this August. You could also occasionally check in with the venues you look at online between now and August and ask what their availability is looking like. If they start booking up for that time frame quicker than anticipated, you could try to make a decision on venues sooner than August. Otherwise, August will probably be fine!

Do you have a desired location in mind? If you know what state you'd have the wedding in and an idea of which city, I'd say go ahead and get at least the venue booked. The rest of the vendors you can probably hold off on until August, but venues can book up quick, especially for fall weddings.

My husband and I were in a similar situation where we got engaged in our last semester of school and planned to have the wedding the fall of the next year. We knew we were going to be in the same state, so we went ahead and booked our venue fairly quickly. My husband didn't want to do a ton of planning until we were out of school and into our careers so we'd have a better idea of what kind of budget we'd be looking at, whereas I wanted to dive in and start planning right away. Since we really wanted a certain month and the venues I liked booked fast, we compromised on just booking the venue so we could lock in a date and make sure we at least had a space.

I personally starting looking a year out my wedding is October,7 2023 wedding dresses are kinda behind so to order my dress was 9 months for it to come in so it just depends on how you are feeling and what you are wanting places mostly book a year out

View Quoted Comment We don’t really have a month, just a time period in the fall. My state has unpredictable weather, so early September to mid October is the best. He wants the wedding outdoors and I like the cold or at least cooler weather, so I thought fall would be a good choice. I don’t care if we have to have it inside, even if we pushed it back towards end of October to November. We also don’t mind not doing it on Saturday and are open to other days. I would like to have it in the same state we both grew up in and everyone who we’d want to invite will most likely stay there. The biggest problem with planning is the fact that me and my fiancé might move west for a huge job opportunity. I wouldn’t be able to just drive over to all the venues. We would have to fly back and forth to look at them. Unless there is anyway we could do it virtually. However, if we end up staying here that won’t be a problem. I still would like to wait till we graduate before I plan. I would say I’m a very flexible and reasonable person. If I don’t get my favorite venue, or even my second favorite, I wouldn’t complain. My fiancé doesn’t want to plan anything until we graduate and I understand his reasoning.

View Quoted Comment I’m also think about using a whole year. We will most likely be settled by August. We have the rest of 2023 and up until the fall of 2024 to plan. We would most likely have to come up with a guest list before we book our venue because that can change our options (my fiancé has a large family and I have like no family). If we decide to not invite his entire family, we don’t need a large venue.

First thing you need is a budget. Then you'll know what venue and how many people would fit within your budget. If you're looking for a larger event, then I would start planning soon. We just booked a venue for August 2024.

I say start now. I started a little bit over a year and there were a lot of venues already booked on the day I wanted. So it’s better to be safe than sorry. The sooner the better. Congratulations and happy hunting!

If you are flexible with date and location and price you may get away with a later search. But if not, I would start sooner over later. I’m getting married in NY June 2024. We booked our venue in December 2022. We wanted may or April 2024 but it was already booked at our location of choice. Wedding planning is way crazier than I thought it would be can’t lie lol

I started 13 months in advance for my October wedding and there were definitely vendors available but a lot were booked. We had to get married on a Sunday because our venue only had like 2 dates left for the following october

Start now. I'm a planner by nature and we started two years prior to our wedding date. We had been casually looking at venues and found out one of them was already booking years in advance. Great vendors sell out quickly, especially for fall weddings. We locked most things in early, including my dress!

A lot of people start early but I did start planning until mid March 2022. We got married in my hometown in wine country California (aka highly sought after location/date and thus expensive). We didn’t get our top choice of date as we were flexible to have a Sunday wedding. Ended up having everything planned really quickly. Ceremony was early October 2022.

First off...congrats on your engagement, graduation, and big move. Take a step back and realize you all have a lot going on. Wait until you graduate and move before planning. Your wedding priorities may change after graduating and moving.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the advice. I think we are thinking 15k for our max budget (that’s with like everything). I still feel like the guest list could change where we put our money (less people, more money on other things). I have looked at venues, but I am still waiting till we both graduate before we actively visit them.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! I hope we don’t have to move but I have accepted the possibility. I am going to wait until I graduate before I do any heavy planing (especially if I have to move). My fiancé wants to help me plan too but he wants to wait till school is over for the two of us before we do anything heavy. I know my priorities could change, but I’m kinda dead set on getting married in the fall of 2024.