How Soon Should You Book Your Wedding Vendors?

So you just got engaged! And your head is probably spinning with all the things you need to do to plan the biggest party of your life. You’re probably wondering how early is too early to start planning. Frankly, my opinion on this is there's no such thing as too early, but usually two years ahead of the wedding is typically the earliest you should be planning a wedding. Especially in light of recent events, a lot of 2020 weddings were postponed, which took up a good chunk of 2021 dates for vendors, and a lot of early 2021 got postponed to late 2021 or even into 2022. Dates are filling up more quickly than other years in the past have thanks to the chaotic year that was 2020. So what does that mean for you? Don’t wait to book your vendors!

On a personal note, I don't usually book further out than two years just because that's a really long time away. With my fiancé's job, there's always a chance that we might move if he gets a better-paying job somewhere, so I usually like to stick with a two-year booking range. 

For us personally, we booked our wedding venue two years ahead of our date, and then we booked our photographer 18 months out. We had a meeting with our wedding planner nine months ahead of our wedding, and we told her all the things that we had booked. At that point, she told us that we were really ahead of schedule in booking our vendors. I was like, “I know, I do this for a living,” haha! 

But with 2020 postponements, I knew that 2021 was going to be busy for me and for my business. I wanted to be able to devote a lot of my time to my clients and couples in 2021, so that's why I want to get most of my planning done in 2020. Now, all I really have to do is just show up to the wedding and get married! 

So if you are engaged and you're wondering where to start, the first things you need to discuss with your partner is your priorities. What’s important to you on your wedding day? For us, we knew that our visuals were the most important part of our day since that’s all we’ll really get to keep from the wedding. When it came to selecting a date, we picked our 5-year dating anniversary, which happened to fall on a Thursday. From there, we found a venue that had our date open, and then selected our visuals team after that. Once you have those big things knocked out, the other big ones (like planner, florist, DJ, attire, etc) will follow suit!

Are you checking things off the list and ready to book your favorite photog (aka me)? :) Get in touch and let’s party!