Attention all brides to be

good advice Chris, im having appointments with florists right now and my wedding isnt for 16mths, but one already has bookings AFTER my date!

Well I am glad you have said that as my mum thinks I am crazy for booking a venue, florist and a photographer already and I too have 16 months to go.

When I was dress shopping last May I was having a good old natter with the lady who worked in the shop and she was saying that she had noticed a new trend. Women coming in and ordering their dresses for their weddings in summer 2011 but not booking ANYTHING else until the last minute in a bid to get a bargain wedding. Soooo not a risk I would be willing to take but looks like she was right with what you are experiencing Chris!

Thanks I will get on to it ASAP! Still 18 months off but would hate to lose out on a tog we love because we haven't acted quickly enough!

Totally agree Chris it seems like the whole wedding industry has seen an unprecendented demand this year, we didn't even stop over Christmas & I was answering emails in between cooking the Christmas Lunch!

I was at 2 wedding fairs on sunday & all the exhibitors were saying they were experiencing no recession - seems love really does make the world go round!

Just wondering, is it the done thing to haggle with togs and vogs??? Or try to get extra bits and bobs added in for the price? Or is that just sooooo rude? I have no idea, like I would never haggle for stuff by my OH is in business and does it all the time with great results. I just wouldn't want to risk offending a spplier we really want and risk losing the booking or anything.

Awww this made me smile ?

It's bonkers eh? We're going to two wedding fairs in February to get the big things booked up for July 2012

Thanks for the advice Chris

There are times to haggle. A short notice wedding in January on a Wednesday has maximum haggle room, a Saturday wedding in July has no room whatsoever.

Usually a good supplier will be priced fairly in the first place and won't have the room to discount further.

Thing to remember is that good people are in demand. There is usually someone else a few days away who'll take a supplier at their asking price and as the days fly by the amount of couples chasing a smaller number of venues increases dramatically.

It's why I only advertise between January and March, after then nearly every enquiry I get I'll be booked and it's not worth the outlay until next year.

I'm trying to get all my stuff organised nice and early - when we got engaged it was 19 months and a day til our wedding day - it's now just over 13 months and I can't believe how quickly the 6 months have flown by! I'm making or doing a lot of stuff myself so am glad to have had 19 months but there's still so much to do! I was pleased with my dress organisation though - I went to a Berketex mega sale a month after getting engaged, just to look (!) and bought both my dress for the actual wedding and the one for our day over here - both for £750 :-)

That shows real dedication Sherrie, answering emails on Xmas day While in the middle of cooking ! Lol

Two of my friends got engaged at christmas and they are both planning to get wed sometime this year, one even as early as August and the other has booked for October so it seems that people don't want long engagements.

Many thanks for the advice - I had a feeling that would be the way it was, so I will restrain OH from embarassing us! I have now arranged a few appointments so have got the ball rolling, phew. It is tricky knowing what is a good deal and what is just going to be awful! Thanks for your tips.

Hate to say it but do you think this has anything to do with the fact that every bridal to do list out there seems to tell b2b to book their photographer 5-6 months in advance? Even the to-do list on this website says to book you TOG 6months before the wedding. If I hadn't had joined this forum I probably would have booked in that time frame too.

Is that what they say? hahahaha

I'm glad you have said that because there was a recent thread where some members expressed the opinion that it is madness to be engaged for over a year!

ETA - I booked my tog last week and it's the one I really wanted!

After venue & church my photographer was the first thing I booked - and that was 2 years & about 4 months before our big day.

The early bird gets the worm...

Eliza Claire.

ETA - Special thanks to Bluewater for recommending her to me!

Couldn't agree more Chris - crazy, crazy, crazy this year! I'm choc-a-bloc until the end of November this year with only early December left. I hate turning away orders but there are only so many hours in a day. People just don't believe it when you say you're full for the Summer already.

Randomly this is my friend's wedding date and they are only just booking things now.

Before Christmas we'd booked our church and venue for May 2012 the month before and they were only just speaking to the vicar. Think they've booked the church, marquee and string quartet but still have lots to do! And he doesn't seem to see a problem. TOG still isn't sorted yet for them either....

I agree with what Sapphire_22 said. All the wedding planner timetables say to book togs in the 6 - 9 month range. Until I started looking at hitched I thought I was very organised and have booked everything less than 12 months before our wedding. Maybe I've been lucky but so far, I haven't had any problems with suppliers been unavailable on our date. All the togs I contacted in December for our October wedding were still available. I am currently researching florists and everyone I've contacted so far are still available on our wedding day in October. I guess this is very dependent on when (summer months being a lot more in demand) and which part of the country you are getting married.

Around 20 years ago this information was about right. The photographer back then was one of the last things booked of all suppliers. I remember the Guild of Wedding Togs had a "matrix" of how much in advance things were booked and sadly we shooters were near the bottom. One of the reasons was that the photography then was a very different animal and coverages over a much shorter timespan of the day. This allowed some togs to shoot 3-4 weddings in a day!!!! So a "late" booking was possible to squeeze in to the days photography.......As said, coverages and styles of coverage have evolved enormously and only one wedding a day is now standard.

Things have changed and to get who or what you want, you need to get in early as Chris suggests.

Peter