- Book the things that can only happen once first: venue, registrar or celebrant, photographer, caterer. Everything else bends around those four.
- Twelve months out is comfortable, six is realistic, three is a sprint. The 6-month page shows what to drop and what to compress.
- Guests drive the money. Lock the guest list before you sign the catering contract, and send invitations eight weeks out with a reply date.
- The last two weeks are confirmations, not decisions. If something is still being decided the week before, decide it and stop.
- Give every task a date and one owner. A checklist without dates is a wish list; the app turns this one into due dates you can share.
How to use this checklist
Read the whole thing once before you start, then work only the section for the month you are in. The order below is a dependency order: the venue fixes the date, the date fixes the suppliers you can get, the guest list fixes the catering contract, the catering contract fixes the budget you have left for everything else. Skipping ahead is how couples end up with a band booked for a room that has a sound limit, or invitations printed before the ceremony time was confirmed.
Two things matter more than the individual items. First, every task needs a date and one owner; two owners is nobody. Second, distinguish decisions from confirmations. A decision (which venue, how many guests, which menu) belongs early and only happens once. A confirmation (does the florist know the ceremony moved to three) belongs late and happens for every supplier in the last two weeks. Decisions made late cost money; confirmations skipped cost the day.
If you have less than a year, do not compress this list evenly. Some months carry things that cannot be rushed, and some carry things that can be done in an afternoon. The six-month checklist in this guide is that compression done for you.
12 months out: the four bookings that fix everything else
The first month is about the things that can only happen once and sell out first. Do these in this order, because each one narrows the next.
- Agree the shape of the day between the two of you: size (thirty, eighty, two hundred), season, city or countryside, one venue or two, formal or relaxed. Everything downstream reads from this.
- Set a total budget and a hard ceiling, and decide who is contributing what. Split it into rough shares before you have quotes, so the first quote does not become the budget.
- Draft the guest list to the nearest ten. Not the final list, but the number the venue and caterer will be sized for. Count people, not households.
- Book the ceremony: registrar, civil office, church or celebrant. In many European cities civil ceremonies are booked months ahead and the slot fixes your date.
- Book the venue, or the two venues if the ceremony and reception are apart. Ask for the capacity in seated numbers, the finishing time, the noise limit, the in-house catering rule and the deposit terms before you sign.
- Book the photographer and, if you want one, the videographer. Good ones are booked a year ahead in peak season.
- Book the caterer if the venue does not cater. Ask for a per-head price with a menu tasting included and the date by which they need final numbers.
- Take out wedding insurance if it is available in your country, before you pay the first deposit.
- Start the event in your planning app: date, venue, the draft guest list, and this checklist as tasks with dates.
9 to 11 months out: the people and the look
With the date and rooms fixed, the next quarter is for the suppliers whose calendars fill next, and for the decisions that other decisions depend on.
- Choose the wedding party and ask them. Their number affects the ceremony layout, the transport and the flowers.
- Book the band or DJ, and check the venue's sound limit and finishing time against the act you want.
- Book the florist, or decide that flowers will be minimal and put the money elsewhere.
- Decide the ceremony's legal and religious steps and any paperwork with deadlines: documents from a home country, a notice period at the civil office, a pre-marriage course if required.
- Send a save-the-date to everyone on the draft list, especially guests who travel. A digital one costs nothing and carries the date into their calendar.
- Start on the dress or suit; made-to-measure needs six months, off-the-peg still needs alterations.
- Hold a block of hotel rooms near the venue if guests are travelling; release dates matter, note them.
- Decide whether children are invited, and whether single guests bring a plus-one. Say it once, on the invitation, later.
6 to 8 months out: the guest side takes shape
This is the middle of the plan and the point where the guest experience is designed: what guests will see, eat, hear and sign. It is also when the money starts moving in earnest, so the budget gets its first honest review.
- Finalise the guest list to the person, with addresses and, for the invitation, e-mail addresses or phone numbers.
- Choose the invitation design and write the wording: names, date, time, venues, dress code, reply-by date, the plus-one and children rules. The wording page in the RSVP guide has thirty lines to copy.
- Decide how guests will reply: an online reply form, a card, or both. Set the reply-by date three to four weeks before the day.
- Book the officiant's rehearsal slot if the ceremony has one, and the transport for the day: cars, a coach for guests, the last-train question.
- Book hair and make-up, and the trial dates.
- Book the cake, or decide dessert comes from the caterer.
- Choose the wedding party's outfits and order them; group orders take longer than yours.
- Order or design the stationery you will print: menus, place cards, a table plan board, signs. The invitation can carry a QR code that opens the online reply form.
- Review the budget against real quotes. Move money between lines now, while there is still room to move it.
- Plan the honeymoon and check passports, visas and travel dates against the wedding week.
4 to 5 months out: menus, music, rings
The decisions here are the pleasant ones, and they are all the kind that quietly slip if nobody owns them.
- Attend the menu tasting and choose the menu, including the vegetarian and the allergen-safe options the reply form will offer.
- Choose and order the wedding rings; engraving and resizing take weeks.
- Book the readings and the readers, and the music for the ceremony itself: entrance, signing, exit.
- Build the first version of the playlist for the reception, and the do-not-play list; give both to the band or DJ.
- Buy or order the shoes, the accessories and anything that has to be worn in before the day.
- Arrange the wedding favours if you are giving them, or decide against them and say so on the budget line.
- Agree the photography shot list and the moments that must not be missed; tell the photographer who the key people are.
- Confirm the accommodation for the two of you on the night before and the night of the wedding.
2 to 3 months out: invitations go out
Invitations leave eight weeks before the day, with a reply-by date three to four weeks before it. Everything in this section either feeds the invitation or waits on the replies it brings back.
- Send the invitations, digital or printed, with the reply form linked or the reply card enclosed. Note who received what.
- Publish the guest page: schedule of the day, directions and parking, hotels, dress code, gift note if any, an FAQ. One link for everything guests will ask.
- Book the final dress or suit fitting for two to three weeks before the day.
- Write the ceremony order and the vows, or start; nobody writes vows in a weekend.
- Buy gifts for the wedding party and the parents, if you give them.
- Confirm the marriage licence or the civil office appointment and any documents they still need.
- Plan the seating on paper: which groups sit together, which must not. The seating plan guide has the rules; the real plan waits for the replies.
- Check the reply count weekly and call the quiet ones after the reply-by date, once, warmly.
1 month out: the final numbers
The reply-by date passes, the guest count becomes a number, and that number goes to everyone who charges per head. This is the month of totals.
- Chase the last replies and close the list. A guest who has not replied after a reminder and a call is a no.
- Send the final headcount, the menu counts and the dietary list to the caterer by their deadline, usually seven to ten days before.
- Finish the seating plan from the final list, and order the place cards and the table plan board.
- Write the running order of the day, hour by hour, with a name against every handover: who has the rings, who pays the band, who takes the gifts home.
- Pay the supplier balances that are due before the day, and note which are paid on the day and in what form.
- Confirm the transport timings against the running order, including how the last guests get home.
- Have the final fitting and collect the outfits; break in the shoes.
- Brief the wedding party and the parents on their moments and their timings, in writing.
The last two weeks: confirm, do not decide
Everything from here is confirmation. The last-minute page in this guide is the full two-week and day-of list, with the emergency kit; the headlines are below.
- Call every supplier with the running order and confirm the arrival time, the contact on the day and the balance due.
- Send guests the final details: timings, the address again, parking, the dress code; a short message with the guest page link is enough.
- Pack the day-of kit and the honeymoon bag; hand the rings, the licence and the cash for balances to the person named in the running order.
- Rehearse the ceremony if there is a rehearsal, and eat something on the morning of the day.
After the day
The list does not end at midnight. A few things in the fortnight afterwards are easy to forget and awkward to remember late.
- Return the hired items: suits, décor, the cake stand, the car.
- Send thank-you notes within a month, matched to the gifts; the gift list in the app keeps who gave what.
- Pay the last supplier balances and leave the reviews that good suppliers live on.
- Order the album and the prints, and share the guest photos from the day.
- Do the name-change paperwork if there is any, and update the documents that carry it.
The bookings that sell out, in the order they sell out
Suppliers with one date per day sell out first. The table is the order most couples find works, with the month it belongs in and what it depends on.
| Booking | When | Depends on | Ask before signing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ceremony (registrar, church, celebrant) | 12 months | Season, city | Which dates are free; notice period; documents |
| Venue(s) | 12 months | Ceremony date, guest count | Seated capacity, finish time, sound limit, catering rule, deposit |
| Photographer / videographer | 12 months | Date | Hours covered, second shooter, delivery time |
| Caterer | 12 months | Venue rule, guest count | Per-head price, tasting, final-numbers deadline |
| Band or DJ | 9 to 11 months | Venue sound limit and finish | Set length, breaks, playlist policy |
| Florist | 9 to 11 months | Venue, colours | Delivery and setup time, what is hired vs kept |
| Dress / suit | 9 months | Nothing | Alteration lead time, fitting dates |
| Hair and make-up | 6 to 8 months | Date, party size | Trial date, how many people, start time |
| Cake | 6 to 8 months | Guest count, menu | Servings per tier, delivery, stand |
| Transport | 6 to 8 months | Venues, timings | Waiting time, return trips, guest coach |
| Stationery / printing | 4 to 6 months | Wording, design | Proof, quantity, reprint cost |
| Rings | 4 to 5 months | Nothing | Engraving and resizing lead time |
Ten mistakes this checklist prevents
Every one of these comes from doing a task in the wrong month.
- Signing a catering contract before the guest list is real, then paying for thirty uneaten dinners.
- Printing invitations before the ceremony time is confirmed with the registrar.
- Booking a band without asking the venue's sound limit and finishing time.
- Setting a reply-by date in the week before the wedding, leaving no time to chase or to seat.
- Leaving the seating plan until the replies are in and then trying to do it the night before.
- Ordering a made-to-measure outfit with less than six months to go.
- Forgetting the notice period at the civil office and discovering the date cannot be legal.
- Having no running order, so every question on the day comes to the couple.
- Paying balances on the day in a form the supplier does not take.
- Not deciding about children and plus-ones until guests ask, one by one.
The checklist as tasks with dates
A checklist on paper is a good start and a poor system, because nothing on it has a date and nobody is reminded. The spreadsheet below is the whole list with a column for the month, the owner and the status, and it opens in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets. In Vowly Event, the same items become tasks on the event: each with a due date, a priority, a category, and, for payments, an amount, sorted into today, this week and overdue, and shared with whoever is planning with you. The app page in this guide shows how that works.
FAQ
- How far in advance should I start planning a wedding?
- Twelve months is comfortable and lets you book the suppliers who sell out first: ceremony, venue, photographer, caterer. Six months is realistic with some compromises on choice, and the 6-month checklist in this guide shows where to compress. Under three months is a sprint that works best for small weddings.
- What should I book first?
- The ceremony slot and the venue, in that order, because together they fix the date. Then the photographer and the caterer, because they have one date per day and fill first. Everything else bends around those four.
- When should wedding invitations go out?
- About eight weeks before the day, with a reply-by date three to four weeks before it. For a wedding abroad or one that needs travel, send a save-the-date nine to twelve months out and the invitation three to four months out.
- When do I need the final guest count?
- Caterers usually want it seven to ten days before the wedding. Put the reply-by date three to four weeks before the day so there is a week to chase the quiet guests before the count is due.
- Is there a wedding checklist I can download?
- Yes. The spreadsheet on this page holds every task in this guide with columns for the month, the owner, the due date, the status and the cost. It opens in Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets.
- Can I use this checklist in the Vowly Event app?
- Yes. Tasks on an event carry a due date, a priority, a category and, for payments, an amount, and they are sorted into overdue, today, this week and later. Today you add the tasks yourself; a one-tap import of this checklist is on our list.
- Does this checklist work for a wedding in another country?
- The order is the same anywhere; the paperwork is not. Check the notice period and the documents your civil office or embassy needs, and add a month to every step for guests who travel.
- What if we are planning with less than six months?
- Use the 6-month checklist in this guide. It keeps the four bookings that cannot be rushed, drops the tasks that only exist because there is time, and compresses the rest into weeks.
- Is planning free in Vowly Event?
- Yes. Tasks, the guest list, the budget, the seating plan and the menu are free without a time limit. The guest side, publishing the invitation and collecting replies, is the paid part, from €7.99 a month with a 14-day trial.