Now is the time to start booking the vendors and sites you want to use. Popular wedding vendors are often booked up to one year in advance -- so the sooner, the better. Call all your top choices and find out if their services or sites are available for your wedding date. Find out the deposit amount they require to reserve the date, and if it's within your budget and your date is available, go ahead and book it. Here's a list of the vendors you should be booking now:
- Ceremony Site
- Reception Site
- Caterer
- Florist
- Photographer and Videographer
Decide on your wedding color scheme. If you've decided to plan your wedding around a theme, finalize those plans and ideas now, too. Make sure your colors appropriately match that theme and style.
Start the wedding gown and tux hunt. This one's more for the brides since the grooms don't really try on a hundred tuxes before making a decision. So, ladies, get out there and start looking around and testing things out. Give yourself plenty of time. And, if you don't find the right dress on your first shopping trip, don't worry -- few brides do.
Get a jump start on the guest list. Consult both sets of parents and start compiling names and addresses. The earlier you start, less likely you are to leave off someone important.
Start looking at attire for the wedding party. Will the bridesmaids all wear the same dress? Will the groomsmen rent tuxedos or will they need to buy their attire? Start looking at your options and decide on your favorite options.
Make sure your maid of honor and your best man are aware of what you expect of them. These two people are the bride and groom's right and left hands when it comes to a wedding. Let them what know what help you will need, so they can be there for the whole ride.
Keep looking for inspiration and ideas. Anytime you run across an idea that you like in magazines or on the Internet, file away for future reference. This will save you a lot of unnecessary"search time" in the future.
If you are going to be a fall bride next year, this is an important time for you in the wedding planning process. You may have more than eight months to prepare, but in order for the rest of your plans to run smoothly, there are a few key things you want to take care of now. Just use this checklist as a guide and everything will keep running right on schedule.
