When to start wedding planning?

The ring is shining on your finger, you have announced it to your family and friends, it’s social media official, but when does the actual wedding planning begin? 

Sometimes people will suggest planning your wedding 18 months out, others might say 9-12 months out. But if you ask us, when to start wedding planning, we as luxury wedding planners will say one month after you get engaged. 

Calculate from your engagement date

We take the perspective of using your engagement date rather than your wedding date as the way to calculate the start of your wedding planning journey. One major reason is because oftentimes, once you are engaged, couples are not sure when they would like to get married. In that case it makes it much harder for them to decide when to start planning. Depending on the personality of the couple this might possibly cause the couple to put off planning until too much time has passed. 

We suggest starting wedding planning one month after you are engaged so that you have some time to let everything sink in and to enjoy the special engagement chapter before having to start making decisions on various things. This month is also good to take a bit of a breather so you have enough time to think about what you are looking for and what you don’t want for a wedding.

From the wedding planner’s experience

From our experience as a wedding planner, we have found that couples who begin planning right after they are engaged, perhaps a week or so, get overwhelmed quickly. While basking in the joy of this new engagement, they are also hit with a lot of questions, research, and decisions that they need to make.

With a mixture of all these things, many things will seem to be a good idea, and it makes it much more difficult for them to be clear of what they want and looking for. For some brides, they might have been thinking about their wedding even before they are engaged, or they have been dreaming about it from a young age. If that sounds like you, then this month is really a time to take a step back and to see if those are still things you want and what you no longer want. 

Enjoy your engagement

We believe it’s important not to rush into wedding planning as this will set the tone for the entire wedding planning process. After engagement, one of the first things is to begin to think about the season you would like to have your wedding and then move into the particular months that you are interested in. From there, consider the budget, number of guests, and style of wedding you are looking for. If there are particular things you would like to stay away from, make a note of those things as well. Spending some time thinking about these things will all help give you a better picture and make it easier for you to answer questions and make decisions. 

Wedding planning really is a journey and a special experience. Enjoy the engagement chapter and enjoy the wedding planning.  

If you’re ready to start planning, one of the first things to decide is to see whether you want to work with a wedding planner. For additional resources, we love the advice this BRIDES’ article included for newly engaged couples and you can also learn more about the type of wedding planner you might want.

If you’re ready to work with a wedding planner for your beautiful day, contact us here and we would love to see if we are a good fit for what you’re looking for.

Congratulations and happy planning!

All photos featured in this post are our events captured by Jen Huang Bogan.

This post was first published on September 23, 2022.