Six months is not a rush. It is a normal engagement in most of Europe and a short one only by the standards of American wedding media, where the twelve-month checklist was written by people selling twelve months of things. What six months does require is that the big decisions happen in the first four weeks, in the right order, and that the couple stop researching once each one is made.
This guide assumes you are planning it yourselves, that the guest list is somewhere between forty and one hundred and fifty, and that you would like to still enjoy each other by the end. Everything is arranged by month, and the first month is deliberately the heaviest.
01Month one: the decisions that decide everything
Do these in the first two weeks, in this order
Agree the total and the number of guests
The two numbers every other decision answers to. Set both before you look at a single venue, because a venue will otherwise set them for you.
Book the venue
With six months to go, popular venues have gaps rather than seasons. Ask for any date in your window, not your preferred Saturday, and be ready to take a Friday or a Sunday, which are also cheaper.
Book the photographer
The second-hardest booking after the venue, and the one you cannot redo. Shortlist three, meet them on a call, book the one whose recent work you like rather than the one whose portfolio you like.
Book the officiant or registrar, and file the paperwork
Legal notice periods run from four to twelve weeks depending on the country. This is the step that actually cannot slip.
Order the dress
A made-to-order gown takes four to six months. At six months out, buy from stock, from a designer with a short lead time, or off the rail with alterations. All three produce beautiful weddings.
If the venue includes catering, month one is done. If it does not, add the caterer to the list above, because the caterer decides more about how the day feels than the flowers ever will.
02Months two and three: the people who make the day
Book, in roughly this order
Music
A band or a DJ for the evening, and whatever the ceremony needs. Good bands book out; DJs are easier at short notice.
Florist
Send the moodboard and the budget in the first message. A florist who has both can say yes in a day.
Hair and makeup
Book the trial for month five, not the week of the wedding.
Send the invitations
Digital is fine and fast. Paper needs three weeks for printing and a further three for the post, which at six months out means designing them now.
Book the honeymoon
If there is one. Flights at three months out are the most expensive they will be.
03Months four and five: the details, without the drama
Rings, the suit, the wedding party's outfits, the cake, transport, the accommodation block, the rehearsal dinner. None of these is hard, and all of them are easier if you do one a week rather than all of them the week before. Chase RSVPs at five months and again at four weeks. Build the seating plan when the numbers are firm, not before.
Every week, one decision, made once. Six months is twenty-six weeks, and there are not twenty-six decisions that matter.
04The last month
The final four weeks, in order
Final numbers to the caterer and the venue
Usually due at fourteen days. Confirm the date they need it on the day you book.
Final fitting and the shoes worn in
Two weeks out. Wear the shoes at home for an evening first.
The timeline, sent to every supplier
One document, one page, everyone on it. The venue coordinator and the photographer need it most.
A day of nothing
Book it. The week of the wedding fills itself and the couple who arrive rested are the ones who scheduled the rest.
What to let go of
A custom gown, letterpress stationery, a florist who needs a mockup, a venue that only takes Saturdays in June, a five-tier cake. Not because they are wrong, but because each of them needs the months you do not have, and each has a version that fits six months and looks the same in the photographs.
Six months is enough. The couples who struggle with it are not short of time; they are still deciding in month four.
— The UNSTAGED Studio
