Can't decide on a wedding date

Anything is possible if you have the timee to dedicate to it, however I think younwil be lucky to find a venue and suppliers with availability for summer this year for to all the postponements from COVID. A fried who started looking lat lest year found nothing was available till 2023, it is not just the venue you need to consider but catering, photographer, hair and make up artists, florist, cake maker,accommodation if needed etc. I think you are beat to shortlist suppliers now and the see if your venues have any free dates you can then see if your other suppliers allign, but most importantly if the registrar is available as without them you can't marry. Wish you luck and hope you can find something

View quoted message Thanks for your advice Charlotte
I have been lucky enough to find a beautiful venue we both really like and it has plenty of availability for July time. It has catering and accommodation but like you said it will be the photographer, florist and cake suppliers that would potentially be an issue. I’d be making all my own stationery etc.
I suppose I need to start asking suppliers for availability before booking the venue 🤔

That's good as you have a lot of boxes tocked and have a few dates to play with. Definitely speak to other suppliers and get their availability tonyhen see if you can line up a date they are all free. Then speak to registrars and book them in for your date and then book the venue, you can normally get the venue to hold the date for a week or so while you get the registrar confirmation. For your dress be mindful they can take months so if you go for July you will need to go to somewhere like wed2be as you buy it off the peg there and then. I think it is all achievable if you get on it I'm the next week or so, good luck!

It's definitely do-able as long as you have a registrar and venue, especially if you are prepared to go for a simple laid-back event. You will probably find it easier to get a registrar, photographer, florist, hairdresser etc if you pick a midweek date - plus it might also be cheaper. We got a special deal from our photographer because we had a midweek wedding, so go for a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday if you can.

The important thing is to check that you can get a registrar for your preferred date and location - you can shop around for vendors, but if you can't get the registrar, you can't get married! And order your wedding rings asap - although ours only took a couple of weeks to arrive, but it's best to be on the safe side.

For everything else, be prepared to think outside the box - can't find a cake maker? Buy a supermarket cake and stick a custom cake topper on it. Cant find a florist? Buy a supermarket bouquet! You'll be too late to have a dress ordered in specially from most places, so shop sale samples, second hand, high street or mail order. Or go non-trad and get a coloured dress from an eveningwear department.

I agree with all of the above. I only started planning mine in January this year (engaged December) and we are marrying in August this year so its definitely doable.


I was pleasantly surprised that a number of suppliers had availabilities... the one I found most difficult to find available was an MUA.
It may be worth drafting standard enquiry messages to send to a few suppliers now to get an idea of availability? This is what I did.

Make sure that you've given your notice of marriage as well - this needs to be done at least 29 days before your ceremony.

We got engaged end of February 2022 and have booked our wedding for August 2022. We are having a low key wedding. Church and church hall. Mobile carvery rather than proper wedding breakfast and my friends are decorating the hall. I got a dress from Wed2B which is an off the rack dress and have booked a seamstress. The photographer I wanted was already booked up buy my friends DIL is a photographer so we booked her.


I think it is doable.

Thanks for your feedback everyone
It’s nice to hear I’m not being overly optimistic by thinking of a July date so thank you for that. I think it’s doable as long as I can get some suppliers. As I said some things like stationery and favours I will make myself, with the help of family as there’s plenty of creatives in our bunch.
I didn’t think about registrar availability though, so that’s one I’m going to look into straight away too.Thanks again everyone, really appreciate you sharing your thoughts. Happy planning to you all