Weddingbee boards

Do as bruschetta did and start booking any vendors that you can early! They'll appreciate the advanced notice and you'll be able to get some good rates. Not to mention this will leave you with A LOT less stress when crunch time rolls around. As for purchasing or making things for your wedding, as long as you are set with the design of things and know you won't want to change your mind, then there is definitely no problem with getting started on those early. Are you making your invitations? Because if you are, the more time you have to make them, the better! I had a 3 month engagement so I pretty much had to get EVERYTHING done right off the bat. So be glad you have the extra time! Enjoy it!

I would hold off on commiting to the guest list until everything gets a bit closer. I was super-excited to begin planning and we sent out our save the dates about 9 months early. I rationalized that because we are having a semi-destination wedding on a holiday weekend that people needed to know ahead of time. Now I wish I had waited because some people we sent save the dates to are not really our friends anymore. We have (to my initial horror) cut about two or three guests who we originally sent STDs to because we haven't spoken to them since we've been engaged.

I would hold off on some things others have mentioned, such as the guest list (get a good head count) but don't send save the dates or anything, because things change.  And ultimately you may wish you hadn't invited some people.  Also, some of the details I ended up changing my mind a hundred times so I wouldn't set anything in stone till it's a little closer.  But def. look for ideas, write them down, and do some of the big stuff (like book vendors).  You'll gradually get things done, so it'll be less stressful then doing it all at once.   Time will fly by though!

It's never too early!  I'm getting married this June.  We booked our venue and photographer last April, our DJ last May, had our invitations printed and I scheduled appointments with a dressmaker by last August (we just guestimated and made sure to order more than we thought we needed; hell, our guest list is STILL a work in progress), had the invites addressed in January...

If you're fairly settled on what you want, and have a good idea of how that fits with your overall budget, then there's not a whole lot of reason to wait.  As others mentioned a few of the people I talked to were a bit rude (but I just knew not to hire them), and most of the vendors told me it was great that I was booking them early.  It was also great to be able to pick and choose because no vendors were booked for our date when we talked to them.  It's great to have options when you don't have an unlimited budget.

And now that there's less than three months to go (omg omg omg), I'm glad to have everything taken care of, so I can focus on the fun little details, and on the whole getting married thing!

I knew that my fiance bought a ring in October 2008-we started looking right away and got our names penciled in with our church and some vendors (photographer, florist & booked a block of rooms at the hotel) I am SO glad that we did because those vendors were BOOKED up almost immediately. Seriously. Even though we weren't officially engaged, I'm sure glad we did all of that pre-planning because if we hadn't, both the chapel (where we really wanted to get married) and the santuary at our church would have been booked. As it was, we had to pass on our first several choices of rehearsal dinner venues also-you guessed it, because they were BOOKED! A year out! Booked! All of that pre-planning has also made this part of the planning-meaning the next 7 months-very enjoyable bc there is no emergency to hurry up and book something. As far as I'm concerned, there is no such thing as too early when it comes to wedding stuff!

I would say it's never too early to start planning. I got engaged Sept of 07 and we set a date right away for June of 2009. We started booking our bigger venders shortly after. If you are someone who doesn't flip-flop back and forth on decisions I would say get started on things now. If you are not too sure on colors and theme ideas right now and want to wait a little bit I would definately take the time to get ideas you liked organized. Use this time to put together a plan for planning :) Start looking into DIY ideas that you really like, must have photos you want your photographer to take, start designing a wedding website (your story, about  the bride nd groom, etc..) and add colors later, start clipping pictures of wedding dresses you like the styles of (flower girl and bridesmaid included) research what different kinds of flowers you like the look of, ideas for how you want to number your tables (places, pets, numbers, etc...), start listing songs you like and picking out some of the key dance songs, research wedding venders and pricing to narrow down your options. A lot of this research can be done way ahead of time to help you narrow down and make decision making eaiser when the time comes. So it may be to early to make your menu cards, programs, place cards and such but if you know how you want them to look you can do a practice round see if you really want to make them or find something easier. Things like making a song list and a photo list now will definately make things easier when the time is closer! You can also edit them at any time. Beleive me the sooner you can at least start organizing a plan the better off planning will be later when you start to get in a time crunch. The last thing you want to be thinking about the month before your wedding is "man if only I hadn't wasted all that time in the beginning" Sorry this was long. Hope it helps and happy planning! :)

I am all for starting early.  Our wedding is 1 yr and 5 months out, and we started making plans 2 years out, before we were even engaged.  We live 3000 miles from our wedding site, and FH and I are both in school, and he is working so the extra time is much appreciated.  Though we seem to be in early for every vendor, there haven't been any that refuse to work with us because we are too early.  They all see to appreciate not being rushed to get things in order with us, this will be especially true if you are getting married in a wedding hotspot (we are getting married in San Diego).  As of now we have a reception venue, caterer, photographer, florist, officiant, and I know the dress I want.  Also we have designed the invitations, and have a good handle on the guest list.  Planning ahead has allowed me to not be stressed,a nd enjoy this entire process.

Start early, just don't be surprised when you get some weird looks from people.

WE are having a relatively short engagement (10 months) but have always known where and when we wanted to have it. It's the details that are bogging us down. 

We are getting married outside of a very small town, so when I requested appointments with florists, bakers, and hair people 8 months out, they kept saying "my you are doing this early!" which I didn't feel was the case at all. (This from the same people that were surprised that I would want to do a tasting to see if my cake was poison or not...) 

One of my bridesmaids is shocked at how "early" I have done some stuff as well (dress at 8 months out, register at 6 months). She keeps saying that I have plenty of time and should just wait. When normal people have two planning periods (at beginning and towards end for details) mine has never stopped because no one is easy to work with in a small area and tends not to be that explicit in details or communication... 

So start as early as possible ! Just ignore the snide comments... they have no idea... 

It is NEVER too early to start planning and purchasing stuff. I have been engaged since Oct 07 and we won't be married until Oct 09. The best part is, I have nearly the WHOLE wedding planned! Favors, centerpieces, flowers, invites, etc. DONE! It will relieve SO much stress if you plan ASAP. Plus, it give you the best choice for vendors since you are doing it all early! :) Good luck, and happy planning!