Most wedding planning checklists are two hundred items long because a long list looks thorough and because every item is a category someone would like to sell you. This one is shorter. It is arranged by time, because that is how the question is asked, and it contains the things that have a real deadline, a real lead time or a real consequence if missed. Everything else is taste, and taste does not belong on a checklist.
12Twelve months out
The foundations
Agree the total budget
Before the venue. A number you both can say out loud without wincing.
Draft the guest list
The count decides the venue. Draft it in tiers: must, should, could.
Choose a season and two or three possible dates
The date is decided by the venue that says yes.
Book the venue
Ceremony and reception, or both in one place. Read the contract for the curfew, the corkage and the deposit terms.
Book the photographer and, if you want one, the videographer
The two bookings that cannot be redone.
Start one shared moodboard
One, shared, edited. Not a folder of five hundred pins.
09Nine months out
The long lead times
Order the dress
Made-to-order gowns need six to nine months plus fittings.
Book the caterer, if the venue does not include one
Taste before you sign.
Book the band or DJ, and ceremony music
Bands book a year ahead for summer Saturdays.
Book the florist
Send the moodboard and the budget in the first message.
Book the officiant
And find out the legal notice period for where you are marrying.
Reserve a room block
If guests are travelling. Hotels release blocks at ninety days.
06Six months out
The middle
Send save-the-dates
Or skip them and send invitations at four months instead.
Book hair and makeup, and schedule the trial for two months out
Choose the wedding party outfits
Bridesmaids and groomsmen need time to order and to be altered.
Book transport, the cake and the rentals
Chairs, linens, lighting, anything the venue does not own.
Plan the honeymoon
Passports checked. Visas applied for.
Buy the rings
Sizing and engraving take three to six weeks.
03Three months out
The paper and the people
Send invitations
Paper at ten to twelve weeks, digital at eight. Reply-by date one month before the wedding.
Give legal notice or apply for the licence
Where required. This is the one that cannot slip.
Book the rehearsal dinner
And decide who is invited to it.
Write the ceremony
Vows, readings, who walks, who stands where.
Confirm the suit and the shoes
Bought, altered, worn in at home.
01One month out
Closing the list
Chase replies and close the guest list
Send final numbers to the caterer and venue
On the date in the contract, usually fourteen days.
Build the seating plan
Only once the numbers are firm.
Write the timeline
One page, every supplier, every arrival time. Send it and ask for a reply.
Final dress fitting
Wearing the shoes and the underwear you will wear on the day.
Break in the shoes
Confirm every supplier in one email each
Date, time, address, contact on the day.
WThe week
Seven days
Pay the balances that are due
Pack for the honeymoon
Hand the rings, the timeline and the supplier list to one person who is not you
Print the vows, the readings and the speeches
Take a day off
Booked, in the diary, kept.
DThe day
Eat breakfast. Give your phone to someone. Be where the timeline says at the time it says, and let the rest of it happen. Everything on this list was done so that this day needs nothing from you but attendance.
If it is not on this list, it is taste. Taste is yours to decide, and it does not have a deadline.
Print it, cross things off, and ignore any list longer than this one. Length is not the same as care.
— The UNSTAGED Studio
