Congratulations, you’re getting married! Now comes the exciting part: planning your dream wedding. No doubt you already have a lot of ideas floating around your head about colours, dresses and themes. If not, don’t worry, you’ll find your perfect wedding coming together in no time with the help of our wedding planning checklist.
Looking for a more basic checklist to help you organise the key items first? Take a look and focused on dealing with the big-ticket wedding plans and then come back to this checklist to finalise the details!
12-18 months to go
Don’t stress yourself out too much during the initial planning stage. There’s still a long time to get everything organised. This time is mostly spent researching. All you really need to think about right now is where you want to get married, when, and who you’d like to share your special day with.
- Start a wedding binder to organise all details and to collect inspiration for colours, flowers etc.
- Work out your budget
- Choose your wedding party
- Start compiling a guest list
- Choose a date
- Book your venue
- Hire an officiant
- Start researching photographers, bands, etc.
6-12 months to go
Now you’ve had plenty of time to think about what you do want included in your wedding, you can start making some more official bookings.
- Hire the photographer
- Hire your band or DJ
- Begin meeting with caterers
- Buy your wedding dress
- Start writing invites
- Buy bridesmaid dresses
- Begin researching honeymoons
- Meet with hairdressers and makeup artists
- Start buying wedding favours
- Send save the date cards
- Order the wedding cake
- Meet with your officiant
3-6 months to go
By this time, all of the major decisions have been made. You can now start thinking about the finer details and the practicalities of the day.
- Book your honeymoon
- Start planning your hen do
- Go in for a second dress fitting
- Arrange wedding transport
- Book your hairdressers and makeup artists
- Book a rehearsal dinner
- Finalise the order of the ceremony
- Buy wedding underwear, shoes and accessories
- Buy your wedding rings and get them engraved
0-3 months to go
This can feel like the most stressful part of wedding planning because you have lots of things going on at once. Just trust that your plans will all come together. Remember that you have hired professionals who have done this a thousand times before!
- Have a trial run with your hair and makeup team
- Confirm everything is on track with your vendors
- Review your playlist with your DJ or band
- Send out invites
- Meet with the photographer
- Confirm guestlist and chase up RSVPs
- Have a final dress fitting
- Confirm times and venues for wedding day hair and makeup appointments
- Organise your seating plan
- Write your wedding vows
Week of the wedding
There’s not much left to organise this late in the game, although you may start to feel some wedding jitters or fear that you’ve forgotten something important. Try to relax, your wedding day will all come together perfectly!
- Reconfirm the plan of the day and approximate arrival times with vendors
- Pick up your dress
- Break in your wedding shoes
- Start packing for your honeymoon
- Confirm number of guests with your vendors and caterers
- Pay any outstanding payments
- Print place cards
- Have your hen do (if you haven’t already!)
- Have everything delivered to the wedding venue (place cards, wedding favours, cake, etc.)
That’s it. Go get married!