How to plan a wedding in 6 months

By Aimee on

So Sam and I recently got engaged! We’re super excited and happy about this obviously and I wanted to share my planning with you all. We are planning a rather short engagement and have given ourselves six months to get organised. This is ample enough time for us as we have already been saving for a while and don’t want to wait. Choosing to have a winter wedding makes it easier as well because it isn’t wedding season and vendors and suppliers are more readily available.

Where to start?

With 6 months to go

Budget and Guest list

If you know how many people you are planning on having and have a rough budget in mind you can narrow down venues. This will also determine where you want to put your effort. The less people you invite the cheaper the wedding so if you have a smaller budget think of just having your nearest and dearest. Sam and I plan on having roughly 40 people. This includes close family and friends. The people we couldn’t imagine being without.

Theme/colour scheme

Once you have a budget set out you can now plan some ideas on what you want your wedding to look like. This will help you plan where you want your wedding to take place. Think beach theme or floral garden. Sam and I love reading and stationary so that’s part of our theme and helped us to choose the state library as our ceremony venue. Being a Winter Wedding we’ve also picked a warmer colour scheme of burgundy and navy.

Date/Venues/Photographer/Celebrant

I’ve lumped all of these together because some of them play on each other. First of all research the absolute crap out of the venue, celebrant, and photographer but don’t take too long to choose. You’ll want to book all of these as soon as possible as they’re bare minimum requirements needed.

Some people have a specific date they want that is important to them. Other’s pick the perfect venue and find a date that’s free. Sam and I did a mix. I had a rough date in mind that I wanted but was willing to change if the venue I chose wasn’t available. I booked the Ceremony location first as that was the most important to me. I then booked the photographer, reception venue, and celebrant after that. We were lucky that all the ones we wanted were free on that date. You’ll want to book these ASAP.

Also you can put videographer in this section too but we won’t be having one. We were able to do all of these within a week of becoming engaged but only because I had heavily researched venues prior. We have been talking about this for a while now so knew this was coming. Give yourself a month to get this all done but the sooner the better.

What’s Next?

With 5 months or less

Since your main things are booked you’ll be wanting second level of importance things sorted. It’s important to make a list of wants and needs with your partner and then collaborate them so you’re on the same page. I would say a basic list of these things are:

These all need to be done within the next few months because they all need to be either booked or take time to come in / be made. After all of this is done you’ll probably have roughly 3 months to go. Then comes the lower level items.

Decorations and last minute things

With 3 months or less

Table centrepieces, card holder, wishing well, welcome sign, table numbers, seating chart. These are all things that we can live without but you will find at almost all weddings. They usually go with your theme and tie the wedding together. You’ll probably want to buy accessories for your outfits at this point, get gifts for the wedding party and have a bachelor/bachelorette party soon. A few other little things that can be done at any time are:

The week before the wedding

Final head count to the caterer as well as menu selections, get your nails done, spray tan if you choose, break in the shoes, double check with vendors and sort last payments then relax. You’ll be married soon.

Remember also it is just one day and don’t sweat the small stuff. You won’t remember all the tiny details 20 years from now. What you will remember though is how you felt on the day. So go with the flow and just enjoy it.