The ultimate wedding planner checklist: month by month

But there’s a thing that can help you a lot to keep everything under control: a wedding planner checklist. Of course, if you need to organize your wedding within two months, this wedding planner check-list will be completely useless, because what you need is a real and capable wedding planner, who has the right contacts and can easily find a beautiful venue with such short notice. 

Considering that, usually, an engagement length is about a year, we thought to create a practical 12-month wedding-planning checklist, which is the one we usually follow with the couples who want us to organize their wedding day.

 

- 12 months: set a budget, find a wedding venue and hire a wedding planner

As you know, finding the perfect location for your wedding isn’t something you do in a couple of days, especially if you would like to marry in a sought-after city like Venice. But if you hire a wedding planner, you can forget about the whole exhausting research for the perfect venue. We do the dirty work, you just need to choose which one you like the most. 

Talking about budget, before thinking about the venue and hiring a wedding planner, you need to know how much money you want to spend on this wedding.

Working with numbers drives you crazy? We can help you with that too! 

Read also: Why hiring a wedding planner? and What a wedding planner do, exactly?

 

 

- 11 months: Plan your guest list

How many people would you like to invite? It’s hard to say, isn’t it? The thing is that you can’t invite everyone and you have to make a choice, especially if you plan a destination wedding, in Venice for example. 

We know that it might seem cruel excluding some friends from your guest list, but remember that you’re free to invite who you want. It’s your wedding we are talking about!

 

- 10 months: start looking for your wedding dress

It might seem too early to start looking for your wedding dress, but you won’t know what you want until you find the right one. You probably have an idea of the kind of wedding dress you want to wear on your special day, but we can assure you that finding THE dress is completely another story. This is why you should start looking for it even 10 months in advance.

 

- 9 months: book the photographer, the caterer, and the Dj

If you hire a wedding planner, she’s going to take care of all these things. For example, we have our trusted photographers and according to what the couples want for the wedding, we propose the one we think can capture the essence of their love.

The same thing happens with the Dj or the band: you say what kind of music you want to be played at your wedding and we do the rest!

Last but not least: what would you like to eat on your wedding day? We don’t need an answer yet, but let’s have a look at the one we proposed to Sicora and Ghinlon and to Irina and Erek.

 

                                                                                                                                                      

- 8 months: Buy your wedding dress and start planning your honeymoon

After two months spent trying on wedding dresses, the time for choosing the perfect one for you has come. Buying your wedding dress a few months in advance will let you have the time to make some changes, especially if you planned to lose some weight before the wedding.

Another thing to do this month is booking your honeymoon or at least thinking about where you would like to spend it. Of course, if you get married in Venice you’ve probably already chosen!

 

- 7 months: Start looking at invitations and make a wedding registry

Don’t underestimate the design of your wedding invitations, since they can tell your guest a lot about the theme of your wedding day. Working with a graphic designer will be a nice idea to create an original invitation template. 

During this month, you should also start thinking about your wedding registry if you plan to have one, instead, you can simply ask your guest to help you with your honeymoon).

 

- 6 months: think about the flowers

Flowers are the soul of a wedding. Did you know that every flower has a precise meaning? We have written an entire guide about how to choose the flowers for your bridal bouquet, according to what you want to communicate through them. 

Another article we recommend to read is the one about the floral arrangements, which have to be in harmony with the wedding theme and, of course, with your bridal bouquet.

 

- 5 months: book the hotel rooms for your guests

Are you planning a destination wedding? Don’t forget to book the hotel rooms for your guests! We can certainly help you with this since we know a lot of nice and comfortable places in Venice where your guests can stay. Of course, depending on where they are going to stay we can also arrange the transfer to the church, the venue, and the wedding reception. 

 

- 4 months: Choose your wedding cake, define the wedding menu

If you decide to hire a wedding planner, this is something you can delegate. The only thing you need to specify will be the size and the taste of the cake. 

Are you still not sure about what to eat on your wedding day? Here are 5 wedding food ideas your guest will love that can help you define your wedding menu.

 

- 3 months:  Write your vows and collect all the documentation you need

If you opted to write your wedding vows, this is the moment to do it. We know your feelings are crystal clear in your heart, but writing them down won’t be something you do in a couple of minutes. Take your time to think about what you want to say to your better-half on that day with no pressure. 

If we can’t help you write your promises, we can certainly do something for the documentation you’ll need since you’ll get married in another country. 

About the requirements you’ll need to get married in Venice, we wrote a whole article about this topic you can read here.

 

- 2 months: Give the songs selection to the band you hired

Do you have a song or a list of songs you want to be played at your wedding? It’s time to let the band you hired known what they are. But if you don’t want anything in particular, you can just let us know what kind of music you like and we can arrange a list of songs for you!

 

 

- 1 month: Create a sitting chart and start dreaming about your wedding day!

It’s almost time to get married, but there’s one last thing you must do before letting yourself dream of your wedding day: create a sitting chart. 

It’s the last point of this wedding planner check-list, but it doesn’t mean that it’s less important than the others. Deciding where your guest should sit is one of the hardest things to do, so here’s a tip: ask your wedding planner for a map of the venue you choose, print it out on a poster, then create as many name tags as the number of your guests and start locating them on the map. In this way, you’ll have a clear vision of who is sitting where. 

Well-done, now that you’ve completed our wedding planner check-list there are still 30 days left before your wedding day arrives: you’re finally free to dream about that day light-heartedly!