Wedding stress - when to book?

fitzparker

Hi,

This year we are trying to buy a house and due to get married in August 18, so the wedding has kind of taken a back seat.

Can you advise when we should really be booking stuff such as band,photographer? I presume everything else can wait until the new year? and these are the main things to get sorted?

what would the average price be for each etc..

SarahMollie

I assume you're talking August 2018?

I'd get the band, venue and photographer sorted as a matter of priority - IMO everything else can wait, but those are the things that tend to get booked up well in advance in my experience.

Also, buying a house can take bloody ages as so much of it is out of your control, waiting for other people etc. I'd be focusing on what is in your control such as the wedding, as the house purchase will take as long as it takes.

GingerLily

The ceremony itself you'll want to book ASAP especially if it's humanist or a high demand church!

Venue and ceremony are the most important, band and photographer then about 12 months out.

If you want to focus on your house then I think going for a venue that doesn't need much extra work is your best bet, a wedding really doesn't have to be that much stress!

I'm doing a DIY wedding and it's chaos, but I'm used to chaos so it's grand

Sunny Dayz

Have you the church/venue/hotel booked? Once you have your date set with these I would recommend that you do book your music, photographer etc as soon as you can. If you know what band/photographer you want, then book them straight away. If you don't know what ones you are using, then going around to wedding fairs, meeting photographers at studios, going listening to bands at venues, that all takes time.


Get the main things booked and out of the way, a few less things to worry about.

fitzparker

thanks All,

yes August 18( year and a half)

yes we have the Venue booked, still undecided about getting married in hotel or church, but as per the above posts It seems best to decide now as church could become available.

so really its getting band/photographer/church out of the way then the rest can be got within 9-12 months to go, does that sound about right?

bee06

As early as possible for church, hotel, photographer and band. I found the make up artists were booked up very early as well. I was looking a year in advance and found a lot I contacted were already booked.

baby and crumble

fitzparker wrote: »

so really its getting band/photographer/church out of the way then the rest can be got within 9-12 months to go, does that sound about right?

The way I looked at it when we were booking was get someone to marry you and somewhere to get married/ have reception, and that's actually all you NEED. You may decide to book a photographer at the same time because it's important to you- we did and I'm delighted because really everything we do from now is an extra.

Be aware that if you want a specific church/ minister/ celebrant you might as well try to book it now that you have a date and reception venue. Then you can really relax until a year beforehand.

Bacchus

I'll just add my support to the recommendations above... Once the venue and church are sorted the next main things you need to get done (in order to get your preferred vendors) are the band, photographer & makeup. Those are 3 things where the most sought after vendors will book up fast.

After that, flowers & ceremony music should be on your radar but it's not urgent. All the other stuff (dresses, suits, rings, extra flourishes, invites, etc.) can wait till 2018.

mcgiggles

What Bacchus said! ^ ^ :)

Plankton1

Exactly, prioritise what's important to you. If you're fussy about what kind of music you want, start researching bands now and get your preferred one booked. there are a ton of amazing photographers out there but again, if you want a particular style or name, get them booked in too.
We had venue, church, band, photog and video booked within 4 months of getting engaged and then did nothing for another 6 months ha!

clint_silver

If you look at it like this, the longer you leave, it the less choice you'll have.

18 months is the average for in demand suppliers. Inside 12 months and choices start to narrow or you start making compromises as all the ones you do like or have been recommended to you aren't available.