Twelve to nine months before
- ✓Agree a total budget and who is contributing.
- ✓Draft a guest list; it drives the size of venue and the budget.
- ✓Choose a date and book the venue.
- ✓Book the vendors who get booked up first, often the photographer, caterer and band or DJ.
Eight to five months before
- ✓Choose outfits, allowing time for fittings.
- ✓Send save-the-dates, especially for guests who must travel.
- ✓Book the remaining vendors: flowers, cake, hair and make-up, transport.
- ✓Plan accommodation and travel if you are marrying away from home.
Four to two months before
- ✓Send invitations with a clear reply-by date.
- ✓Plan the ceremony and the order of the day.
- ✓Arrange any legal paperwork your country requires, and check its deadlines.
- ✓Buy rings and plan any favours or decorations.
The last month
- ✓Chase RSVPs and confirm final numbers and meals with the caterer.
- ✓Finalise the seating plan.
- ✓Confirm every vendor's times and send them the day's timeline.
- ✓Make the final payments that are due before the day.
The final week
Hand jobs over to the people helping: who greets vendors, who has the payments and the emergency kit, who keeps time. Pack for the day and any trip afterwards, and plan to rest the night before.
Keep the budget current all the way through
Record every deposit and payment as it happens, with what is still due and when. Weddings rarely go over budget in one big step; it happens through dozens of small extras that nobody totalled.
If you have less time
With six months or less, do the first two stages together in the first few weeks: budget, guest list, date, venue and the in-demand vendors. Venues and photographers are the hardest to find at short notice, so start there, and be flexible on the day of the week.
After the wedding
Plan the last few jobs too: returning hired items, final vendor payments, thank-you notes, and any name change paperwork if you are changing your name. Note them now so they do not linger for months afterwards.
The whole wedding in one shared spreadsheet. The Wedding Planning Spreadsheet has a budget with estimates and actuals, payments with due dates and overdue warnings, guests with RSVPs, meals and plus-ones, a seating plan, vendors and a checklist that counts back from your date. The free Wedding Budget Sheet tracks costs, what you have paid and what is left.
View in the StoreFrom the Stelaah Store
- ✓Wedding Planning Spreadsheet. An Excel and Google Sheets wedding planning spreadsheet with a budget, payments, guests and RSVPs, a seating plan, vendors and a countdown checklist.
- ✓Wedding Planner. A free, undated 12-page fillable PDF wedding planner with a budget, guest list and RSVPs, vendor tracker, timeline and day-of schedule.
- ✓Wedding Day Timeline and Vendor Run Sheet. An Excel and Google Sheets wedding day timeline that retimes the whole day from the ceremony start, with vendor arrival times and a printable run sheet.
We build Stelaah and the Stelaah Store. These guides cover the everyday problems our planners, kits and tools are made for, in plain steps you can use with or without them.