STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I would talk to your SO about a possible date - not anything concrete, but maybe the month/season you'd like to get married in.  Then talk about an approximate budget and who will be paying/contributing, so you don't get your heart set on something that's too expensive.  Then start looking for sites!  We purposefully toured sites (4 in all) before we picked a date to ensure that they'd be available.  We also chose our photographer, quartet, florist, etc and made sure they were all available for the day as well before we put deposits down on anything.  Luckily, we were planning about 18 months out so we pretty much had our pick!  Enjoy!

I bought "The Easy Wedding Planner."  I couldn't find it on Amazon, but
this
one looks very similar.

The first thing I did was figure out a month,
not a date. That way I could begin looking for dresses in my spare time.
The hardest thing by far for me was setting up a date that the chapel, reception
venue, caterer, florist, and band were all available. I also bought three
plastic accordion folders and labeled them dresses, reception, and decorations.
When I was going through all my bride magazines, I ripped pages out and put them
in the folders. By the time I consulted with caterers, florists, etc., I had a
pretty good idea of what I wanted.

-- Edited by Bastet at 10:01, 2005-06-01

You can do what I did, buy every Bridal magazine out there that you see. Not sure if it helped but it sure was fun.

Seriously though, the first thing we did was decide on a month then we called the Church. If you have a specific place you want to get married at ie a Church or such find out what dates they have available for your month and book one. Since there are so many florists, photographers, reception sights out there you can always find one you like available for your date. I really found Theknot.com very helpful in choosing vendors that were local. Set the date and then choose the vendors. We also looked for a reception sight that included a caterer, linens, lighting, of course it's at a cost but it was nice to have it all in one location.

We booked in this order

Reception Sight (ask them for a list of references of people who have worked there before)

Photographer

Florist

Videographer

DJ/Band and now

Four months before we are ordering invitations and booking limo/transportation for bridal party

Good Luck!

 

congrats again!

the first thing i did was buy all of the wedding mags i could find. the next thing i did was have a nervous breakdown!

in terms of setting a date, we had originally wanted a spring/early summer wedding, but because there were so many other things planned for spring/summer 05, that didn't work out for us. we printed out a blank calendar that i found online and wrote in all of the weekends that were already reserved - other weddings, reunions, graduations, etc - then we looked at the remaining weekends and picked a few preliminary dates. we weren't getting married in a church, so we had more flexibility, but it was important to have several open dates when we went looking at venues.

the very first thing we did was select the reception location, and thus the date. once we had the date set, i started researching vendors on theknot.com and made a list of all the ones i wanted to contact.

sit down with your fiance and anyone else who is contributing financially and rough out a budget - that will help guide you when picking vendors. my advice for vendors is the earlier you book them the better. we had an 18 month engagement and most of our vendors were booked long before the 12-month mark. in doing this, we secured some vendors 2004 prices, even though we were getting married in 05, and we also had our selection of all of the vendors we wanted. no one was already booked when we first started looking.

we booked our vendors in the following order

photographer (the first vendor we booked, and imo the most important)

caterer (the food is the most important thing after the pictures, imo)

videographer

DJ (we actually debated band vs. dj for several months before deciding)

florist, baker (you don't have to know exactly what you want in order to book these vendors - better to book someone whose work you love and then hash out the details later)

ceremony musicians

i bought my dress in july 04 - more than a year before my wedding - but i'd say you are safe as long as you order a dress at least 6 months before

most people send save the date cards about 6-8 months before the wedding. you can send them farther in advance if your wedding is over a holiday weekend or in a very busy tourist area.

invites should be sent out about 2 months before your wedding date, and i recommend ordering them about 4-5 months before your wedding.

ahhhhhhhhhh. I am in the freak out stage....

I just talked to my mom for an hour...here are my concerns...

1. Location- I want an outside ceremony with boats in the back.
A. I don't want to be in the sand for the ceremony, but pics there would be great!
B. Another cheaper hotel very close.
C. If it rains, the inside must be plain or nuetral, so my decor take first place.
D. No more than 6 hours away from Atlanta, so people can drive.
E. No one has to drive while they are there, everything is in one place.
F. We can have a clambake for our RD outside or by a pool.
G. Somewhere nearby to go for our afterparty...

2. Date- I want Spring or Summer, not too hot, not in the month of May(another friend is getting married then and I don't want to crowd them), and no rain!

3. Dress- I am not ready to try them on yet...I want to wait till at least August so I can lose at least 20Lbs....but in all I want to lose 40lbs...so is this realistic to pick one out yet? Yes I am going to be that bride. I will lose the weight though...5 lbs. down! I just want to look like what I used to look like. I only recently gained all this weight.

Also when do 2006 Spring dresses come out?


I already know that I am asking for the impossible! So anything close would be good and greatly appreciated.

Also thank you so much for all your kind words and help so far. I really appreciate it! Y'all are the best....and the colors are....