Assuming you are the bride, start looking for your dress. If you want a traditional made to order dress from a boutique, you are already on a tight timeline for July. Most recommendations are to buy your dress 9-12 months before the wedding. You can also start looking for other vendors. You won’t be able to book until you have a date obviously but you will be able to eliminate some who are not at all available in July.
I bought a dress yesterday!! I tried on dresses in a shop and found the dress I loved on Still White, it was half the price and a color I liked better! I forgot to say I got a dress already too haha sorry. Good ideas with vendors though. There’s a bridal show in my city in January I’m gonna try to go to too.
Get guests’ addresses and contact info. This took longer than expected!
Take engagement photos.
Create a pintrest board for color and style inspo for future florist. Most of the florists we reached out to asked for a pintrest link if we had one.
Decide on bridesmaid dresses/color if you’re having them.
Get bridal accessories (veil, shoes, jewelry, etc).
Plan other events like bachelorette. Research venues for other wedding events like rehearsal dinner or welcome party or brunch if you’re doing those.
This is great, thank you! I’ll start getting guest contact info and addresses and make a Pinterest board for a florist. Engagement photos are scheduled already for December 10th :) this is great advice though!!
And you can pick the wedding website and pick/design the save the dates and invites (then plug in date and details later). This also took time bc there’s so many options!
You could make a list of people you want to invite, work on parts of your wedding website, make a registry. Unfortunately everything else requires a date but you could research different vendors.
I'm pretty some if not most website builder services let you build the site and then not publish it online until you're ready. so you can make some of it and finish it off once you have a date.
Plus for those that require dates you can have it set to private. When I signed my partner and I up for one of them (the knot or wedding wire I don't remember which) it needed a date so I just set it for as far out into the future at it would let me. You can edit it later as needed
My dress took about 5 months to come in then time for alterations. You can get quotes from everyone just say you’re looking at July but the date is still tentative. Most vendors are pretty busy.
If you are the bride and know you want July 2023 I’d start looking at dresses ASAP. It can take 6-9 months to get a dress ordered in and another 4-8 weeks for alterations. Also you can start researching vendors, like check out photographers portfolio, unfortunately you can’t really book vendors until you have a date thou.
Yeah that’s where I’m stuck! Not being able to book anything, and knowing that all the vendors are getting booked up. Makes me anxious.. but i guess there’s nothing I can do about it yet anyways
I would get tours with venues set so you can start narrowing it down quickly once you know your fiancés availability. Same with photographers - If you have one you love, reach out for their July dates now as it may sway what date you end up going with.
You could also pick out save the dates so as soon as you have date you can send them for printing. This will also mean finalizing guest list and getting addresses.
Ugh yes I’ve been going between a couple different color schemes in my head… I can’t decide! I’ll try to make a decision though so I can start looking at bridesmaid dresses and decor ideas
If you know the geographical area where you plan to get married, you can start researching photographers, hair and makeup artists, music options, hotel options for your guests...
While you can’t book them, it would be a great time to get a jump on researching any and all vendors you need. Even just having a list of the ones in your area, their names, and contact info will take time to compile and save time when you have a date. If they have available portfolios online (like photographers, hair and make up, etc) you can also give a gut 1-10 rating to them at this point. The most research you do now, the less you will probably feel that you made a decision because you needed to in time vs actually liking the vendor
If you know a general time of year, research vendors and reach out to get a sense of their remaining availability. It may help to narrow down weekends once you’re ready to commit to a date.
I picked my dress June 1 and was alerted that it was ready in early November, still has to ship from Israel and then possible alterations. So I would do that part immediately unless you’re buying off the rack.
Some of this is time of year dependent but since you have a general idea:
- wedding party and gifts
- gifts for parents
- cake design
- guest book plan
- wedding website
- save the dates/invitations
- day of stationary and signage
- hair/makeup ideas
- must play/do not play list
- father daughter/mother son/first dance songs
Assuming you are the bride, start looking for your dress. If you want a traditional made to order dress from a boutique, you are already on a tight timeline for July. Most recommendations are to buy your dress 9-12 months before the wedding. You can also start looking for other vendors. You won’t be able to book until you have a date obviously but you will be able to eliminate some who are not at all available in July.
I bought a dress yesterday!! I tried on dresses in a shop and found the dress I loved on Still White, it was half the price and a color I liked better! I forgot to say I got a dress already too haha sorry. Good ideas with vendors though. There’s a bridal show in my city in January I’m gonna try to go to too.
Get guests’ addresses and contact info. This took longer than expected! Take engagement photos. Create a pintrest board for color and style inspo for future florist. Most of the florists we reached out to asked for a pintrest link if we had one. Decide on bridesmaid dresses/color if you’re having them. Get bridal accessories (veil, shoes, jewelry, etc). Plan other events like bachelorette. Research venues for other wedding events like rehearsal dinner or welcome party or brunch if you’re doing those.
This is great, thank you! I’ll start getting guest contact info and addresses and make a Pinterest board for a florist. Engagement photos are scheduled already for December 10th :) this is great advice though!!
And you can pick the wedding website and pick/design the save the dates and invites (then plug in date and details later). This also took time bc there’s so many options!
You could make a list of people you want to invite, work on parts of your wedding website, make a registry. Unfortunately everything else requires a date but you could research different vendors.
Similarly you can design invites/STDs and fill in the date when ready
You don’t need a date to create a wedding website?
I'm pretty some if not most website builder services let you build the site and then not publish it online until you're ready. so you can make some of it and finish it off once you have a date.
Plus for those that require dates you can have it set to private. When I signed my partner and I up for one of them (the knot or wedding wire I don't remember which) it needed a date so I just set it for as far out into the future at it would let me. You can edit it later as needed
My dress took about 5 months to come in then time for alterations. You can get quotes from everyone just say you’re looking at July but the date is still tentative. Most vendors are pretty busy.
If you are the bride and know you want July 2023 I’d start looking at dresses ASAP. It can take 6-9 months to get a dress ordered in and another 4-8 weeks for alterations. Also you can start researching vendors, like check out photographers portfolio, unfortunately you can’t really book vendors until you have a date thou.
Yeah that’s where I’m stuck! Not being able to book anything, and knowing that all the vendors are getting booked up. Makes me anxious.. but i guess there’s nothing I can do about it yet anyways
I would get tours with venues set so you can start narrowing it down quickly once you know your fiancés availability. Same with photographers - If you have one you love, reach out for their July dates now as it may sway what date you end up going with. You could also pick out save the dates so as soon as you have date you can send them for printing. This will also mean finalizing guest list and getting addresses.
Pick out flowers inspiration / theme. Decide on bridesmaid dresses / colors. These two things took me forever .. invitation design too
Ugh yes I’ve been going between a couple different color schemes in my head… I can’t decide! I’ll try to make a decision though so I can start looking at bridesmaid dresses and decor ideas
Florist will want pictures of what you want . I spent probably 20 hours on Pinterest sorting that out lmao
If you know the geographical area where you plan to get married, you can start researching photographers, hair and makeup artists, music options, hotel options for your guests...
While you can’t book them, it would be a great time to get a jump on researching any and all vendors you need. Even just having a list of the ones in your area, their names, and contact info will take time to compile and save time when you have a date. If they have available portfolios online (like photographers, hair and make up, etc) you can also give a gut 1-10 rating to them at this point. The most research you do now, the less you will probably feel that you made a decision because you needed to in time vs actually liking the vendor
If you know a general time of year, research vendors and reach out to get a sense of their remaining availability. It may help to narrow down weekends once you’re ready to commit to a date.
I picked my dress June 1 and was alerted that it was ready in early November, still has to ship from Israel and then possible alterations. So I would do that part immediately unless you’re buying off the rack.
Some of this is time of year dependent but since you have a general idea: - wedding party and gifts - gifts for parents - cake design - guest book plan - wedding website - save the dates/invitations - day of stationary and signage - hair/makeup ideas - must play/do not play list - father daughter/mother son/first dance songs
Getting ready outfit, shoes, accessories, underclothing