How long before your wedding day did you start planning...

I'm getting married next august, We knew we were not going to be able have a really expensive wedding so we looked as cheap but as nice as we could!

We booked the church and the reception and the tog then started saving!! knowing how much we had to save for next year! which is working for us, August is going to be a popular month, i'd say venues and togs will be booked up fast!!

My TOG only had my weekend free in August!

Hi, welcome to Hitched!!

We got engaged in October 2010 and We get married June of this year, so had a pretty long time in the planning stage. It is wise to book the main suppliers like the Venue, Church,Photographer etc early, as these tend to get booked up pretty quickly. Especially if you have someone in mind!

Make sure you shop around with prices as you will find that adding the word 'Wedding' onto anything tends to double the price! Online shopping is great. Many hitchers find the 'for sale forum' here a great source, as you can get some great bargains! Keep a look out! Also Ebay!

Make a checklist of all of the things that are important to you both and prioritise what needs to be done first. For example you need to know how many guests you would like to have and what sort of style you want to go for. Something formal with wedding breakfast etc or something a little more laid back. This will help you gauge what sort of venue you will need.

Hitched is a great source of information and there is so much advise and tips you can get by being here, not to mention being able to work with some fantastic suppliers and chat to other Brides and Grooms to be!

Happy Planning!

We are getting married April 2013 and have so far booked the venue, registrar and the photograph as her diary was filling up fast!

We bought our rings last week as well but only becuase they had 10% off so we saved £50! x

Congratualtions and welcome to the world of wedding planning x

Got engaged in Jul 2011 on holiday, within 2 weeks of being home we'd found and booked our venue (with help on the deposit from parents). In sept we booked the tog and since then we've not made any big purchases. Coming up to a year to go now we will start buying and booking more. I don't advocate use of credit cards but I got us a 0% one so we can still buy stuff while we are saving. Soon as the 0% ends I'll pay it off with what we've got saved.

We just started looking at venues about a year after getting engaged and then the ball started rolling! Once you have a venue everything sort of falls into place.

We are doing it in quite possibly the worst way, lol. Decided over xmas to get married and (thankfully) my gorgeous future mum in law gifted us 2k. I don't have expensive taste really so we are on course for a budget wedding - the gifted money will cover the immediate big things (venue, food, registrar and the outfits) and for everything else I will have to decide book and pay for on an item by item "when I have the dosh" kind of a way! OH works and pays household stuff and I am a self employed artist and work on private commissions from clients so my money is going on the wedding bits and my time will be divided between work to pay for the wedding and So personally I wish I had started this a year ago!!!!!!!!!!!! If you ever want to compare bargains just message me, lol x

Hi Toni, congratulations and welcome to Hitched!

We got engaged in February 2010 but didn't set a date and saved a bit!

We eventually decided to bite the bullet then in August 2011, We know we didn't want a summer or winter wedding - some venues etc charge more for 'peak' months like June, July and August and didn't fancy the winter weather - so it was spring or autumn and spring 2012 was too close and spring 2013 seemed to far away so eventually we decided on September 2012 lol

From setting our date we then went venue hunting right away and booked venue, registrar, TOG and insurance all in the first month as these are the things that get booked up early!

The rest we're just doing as we go, I have a timeline checklist off the internet and am trying to plan everything against these guidelines.

Most things only need a deposit so we're still saving right up to the wedding day!

Have you booked anything yet?

We got engaged in March 2011, at the same time we also found out we were expecting our second child. We'd been trying for a while but it meant that it we really couldnt look to getting married until baby was born, all our earnings were going on her bits and bobs and we wanted to clear all of our debt before she was born.

Baby Macie arrived 6 weeks ago, our debt is all gone (YAY) and we (me lol) are now onto wedding planning. I work from home so its so easy to spend all day looking at wedding ideas ect and i really have to keep telling myself that the fundamental basics are all thats needed now church, venue ect.

Next week we are going to our chosen venue for a second viewing and to go through figures/ideas with the owner. We are hoping to come away with our March 2013 Date. We haven't saved any money yet but after our deposits are paid we will be putting away money each month. And ill be working extra hard!

AND i only just realised this... but March seems to be a very good month for us! lol Baby news, engagement, my birthday and hopefully our wedding!!

We got engaged in February but didn't do anything until the end of October.

A small wedding fayre came to our town and we thought we'd go and have a nose as the hotel holding the fayre was on our shortlist of place we'd like to get married so we thought we'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone and go and get some ideas and look around the hotel.

*every* single person on the stands asked 'when are you getting married?' so we replied 'Oh, not set a date yet, we've just come to get some ideas' and instantly the majority of them went cold on us because they knew they wouldn't get a booking out of us that day so once we'd got home from that I said to H2B 'well, everyone keeps asking us a date, so why don't we book one?' and then the ball hasn't stopped rolling since really.

Turns out the hotel where the fayre was wasn't suitable as we were already adamant our reception would be at our friends pub/restaurant and they (amongst many others) wouldn't just perform the service and a drinks hour, they wanted the whole day booked with them

Finally found a beautiful hotel which turned out much nicer than our previous enquiries who were willing to do that for us so we booked it with a 10% deposit which was only £30!

We've now also booked the reception venue, which is our friends place this includes food (sit down meal for day guests and evening buffet), wine, table linen, disco and a bouncy castle for the kids. They are perfectly fine us paying them what we can when we want so we're just chipping away at it each month.

Wedding car again is through a friend, my best friend knows a couple who run a taxi firm but also have a range of posh cars for weddings, I know them too, but not as well as my best friend but it's all sorted anyway. I've been told not to worry, it's all booked and guaranteed, no idea how much we will pay but my best friend thinks it will be a gift or at the very least very good mates rates.

Tog again is a friend, we thought long and hard about this one as his photography is a (serious) hobby and he's not a full time tog but he is a great tog, I've seen his portfolio (which has included over 30 weddings) and I'm more than happy with his style and end results. We have a contingency plan in place too, that was a must!! Again, this will be done at mates rates and will include an engagement shoot this summer.

That's it so far, next on this list is rings. We've booked an appointment with Smooch for Jan 30th, they come to your home with their range of rings and everything is done at your house and then you pay them monthly with no interest. We're doing this so early as the earlier we do it, the less the monthly payments will be as we can spread the cost longer!

After that's done we're saving hard for Shoot it Yourself as you need a 50% deposit to book them and the package we want is costing £900 and since they've been on Dragons Den and Hilary Devey is guiding them they are getting bigger and better by the day so I want them booked way ahead so we can guarantee our date!

After that we'll be doing a combo of saving for final payments due a few weeks before the wedding like the hotel and Shoot it Yourself and buying the smaller things each month (I want bride/bridesmaid dressing gowns for example, I can buy 1 a month) and the next big purchase will be my dress but until I go shopping I don't know how the payments will work for it

Hey Toni,

We got engaged earlier October 2011. By December 2011 we had booked our Venue [£500 deposit] and TOG [£100 Deposit].

At the moment we have decided upon but not booked: cars, cake design, colour scheme, invites/table design and favours.

Still working on honeymoon & flowers.

We have just bought my wedding ring - as it's a one off, shaped ring as soon as we found the right one we bought it incase it vanished! Also, OH has decided upon his ring and we are saving Tesco vouchers to purchase it from Goldsmiths for free.

Also, where the money is concerned we have worked out what we need to save per month from now until 2 months before our wedding. This means as we see/find things we have some money for a deposit/purchase things and if we don't see what we want we are still saving. I think we need to hit 6k for the reception, so in 2/3 months we'll have done all we can wedding wize at the moment so it'll be a case of just saving and not spending the wedding fund.

Alipops x

Hi, my wedding is sept next year and we booked the church (no deposit needed) and then booked our reception venue, that was very costly but as they only had 3 saturdays left for 2013 we realised we had to do that asap even though we were hoping on not paying out for much this year and saving, now thats payed off we can just save up our money and start looking at the other important stuff that we would be upset if we didn't get e.g a good photographer, wedding transport and a decent D.J and as they wont want the full amount up front only a deposit we disided that looking into that now was a good idea, just don't forget wedding insurance as theres so many companys going bust at the moment its not worth the risk!

Its always worth looking into things early, i have a friend planning her 2014 summer wedding already! so its really worth booking stuff asap as all the best and best value for money places go fast!

We got engaged on 29th July (a Friday) and by the following Tuesday we'd booked the church, met with the vicar, booked our wedding breakfast venue and the evening reception venue. We went abroad on 11th August and before we left we'd chosen our menus, booked the tog, and chosen the BM dresses. Spent a lot of our fortnight on holiday discussing plans and flicking through literally dozens of donated wedding mags so came back feeling pretty clear about what we wanted.

Everything went fairly quiet for a little while then, and then in Sept / Oct I ordered the BM dresses, petticoats, bought my shoes and jewellery, ordered my dress, booked the car, ordered the flowers and booked our wedding night hotel. In November we bought OH's suit and I got my fascinator, chose all my make up, booked my hairdresser and sent out our save the date cards. Oh, and chose our rings but haven't ordered them yet as we're just waiting for some money to be released.

Now we've turned the corner into the actual year we get married and have 6 months to go, we're starting to think about our invites, gift list (as that'll need to be sorted by the time the invites go out), and the time-consuming fiddly bits such as decorations (have just started making bunting). Also dieting, to fit into the amazing dress ?

Thank you for your replies ladies!! Much appreciated

So far i have...NOTHING booked, but constantly looking at things thinking yes i want this that and the other, but since we only decided a date 5 days ago, the saving now needs to start, and bookings need to take place! I was trying to keep the cost down as much as possible, but i have just fallen in love with the most amazing place, costing alot more than i expected, but if we tighten our belts we can afford it, only going to take me a year to save for it!! lol!

My mam makes cakes at home for people, and is out of this world with what she can do, so she will definately be doing my cake, so thats one thing that will definately stand out lol. I also have a friend who's parent is a DJ so that should still be quite cheap, and also a friend is a photographer so again should be quite cheap...thank god!!

Tomorrow i will be booking the registrar, and also booking to run through everything with the venue i have fallen in love wih and pay the deposit for that.

WoW so stressful! If i could afford it, id have a wedding planner to do all this for me lol xx

The registrar is the one thing I'm desperate to book but in our area you can only book up to 12 months in advance so I'm having to sit on my hands until August and I hate it!