2013 Wedding

Congratulations and welcome to hitched!

and i'm a fellow 2013 bride and you can plan loads already.

I've booked the church, the reception, the photographer, made my invites, sorted the men's suits, got the stuff for my favours, got my shoes and added gems, got the presents for the bridesmaids and the ones for the ushers, best man.

you'll get lots of help here!

Welcome and congratulations! ?

Take your time, there's no rush right now just get your venue and tog sorted first and then take more time over the other stuff as you may change your mind/find better deals as you go along.

We sent save the dates 15 months before but thats because I had them all ready and just slipped them in with xmas cards to save postage!! The general guideline is about a year before.

I'm like you, I wish I could just plan everything right now, but I'm the kind of person who worries about finding a better deal down the line, so although I'm planning and dreaming about things, all we've actually booked is the venue. Other than that I'd say book your photographer at least a year out as I've seen a lot of people on here saying that good ones are booked up early. Someone even said they were getting bookings for 2014 already, so while I think that's probably rare, I'd start looking for ones in your area and meeting with them. Luckily, with all this time you can meet quite a few, get quotes, and probably get the best value for money!

As for the rest, I don't plan to book anything else until 12 months out at the earliest. I wouldn't want to do my invites this early in case we change the timing of our day. Nothing is set in stone except venue, and although the invites I'm looking at are going to be £50 total, still not worth having to redo them at a later date.

As for sending out invites, all the magazines say to do it a couple months before the wedding. As more than 50% of our guests are travelling from overseas, we're doing an email save the date 12 months out, then first round of day invites 5 months out, with a 2nd round of day invites going out 4 months out depending on number of 'no' RSVPs we get, followed by evening invites 3 months out. If we get a significant number of 'no' replies for the day at that point, I might invite a few additional evening guests to the day. I know it's kind of confusing, but with only 62 guests allowed for the day I've have to put 6 of my cousins on the evening guest list and I'm hoping enough people will say no that I can bump them up as a group before sending out evening invites. I can't bump of one without the rest, and I know they'll be disappointed not to have made the day list.

Hi, I haven't got anything else to add but just wanted to say congratulations on your engagement welcome to Hitched!

Wow!

Thanks everyone, you are all SO helpful!

Looks like I can certainly start to do a few things.

The Invite Info is massively helpful- a big thanks for that xx

Hello, and congratulations.

We are also getting married in 2013. All I did last year was organise the venue, photographer and provisionally book the registrar.

I agreed with the OH that nothing else would be done until Spring 2012 as I look and look and look on the internet and in mags all the time, and change my mind all the time! Dress shopping is first on the list - exciting times!!

Good luck with your planning

I also continually look thru magazines and online at things.

Everyone on here has been so helpful already. I cant wait to go dress shopping but am gonna wait until the summer at least- I want to lose some weight first.

Thanks for the tips everyone. And many congratulations to you all! ? xx

Hello, welcome and congratulations!

I'm just beginning to piece together my big day now with 16 months to go, I'll be marrying my former colleague and best friend of nearly 8 years on 24th May 2013. We're having a Humanist wedding blessing so we can make our day more personal so in a way I've got 2 weddings to plan (although the only ones going to the registry office will be the wedding party, no guests). I printed off a script of a standard wedding last night so that we could cut out the bits we don't want and rearrange it to the way we do want it. I don't think 18 months is too early, in fact if anything it's been a blessing as when a venue has quoted us a really high price we've had all the time in the world to decline it and look elsewhere.

Good luck, and happy planning!

MrsStobe13 x

Congratulations on your engagement! I'm also a new 2013 bride and I must say everyone seems very organised... I'm one of these oh I've got plenty of time kind of girls but think I might need to get a move on a bit.

Hi and congratulations! Im getting married next year too, we havent set the date yet but it will be in the summer. We've found our venue and are going to book it when we have the next viewing, were waiting for them to email us to say when we can come and see the ceremony room set up for a wedding so we can decide if we want the ceremony there too. Once thats booked im going to find and book a photographer then I think ill leave the other stuff til a bit nearer the time, unless theres anything that i should be doing earlier anyone? Im going to start trying on dressess soon too.

Take your time, there's no rush right now just get your venue and tog sorted first and then take more time over the other stuff as you may change your mind/find better deals as you go along.

Hey congrats

you have plenty of time and excitment!

I am a August 2013 bride:

booked venue, and chucrh (in process of booking TOG)

Good luck xx