Entering panic mode!!

Congratulations on your engagement! I got engaged at the end of October and we are getting married in August this year, we had venues in mind straight away so that helped narrow our focus. One venue was offering a package deal with catering, DJ, guest accommodation included so that's what we went for. We did have to compromise and have a weekday wedding but the trade off is worth it! Having the package means we didn't have to organise some of the big bits ourselves, and I haven't had any issues with suppliers being booked up as it is a Thursday wedding 🙂


So I would start by trying to find a venue and seeing what is included with them and take if from there. Although it's daunting having a lot to do in a short period of time, you also get to throw yourself straight into planning the fun stuff instead of having to wait

I'm going to drop some truths that this will be difficult - it's not out of the realm of possibility, but it will be difficult. I think it's sensible to ask yourselves why August and is that more important than anything else? An option could be to get legally married in a small civil service in August, and then plan a big celebration later to give yourselves time to have the wedding you want - this approach is becoming increasingly popular. If you want the whole shebang in August, some big things to factor in...

We booked our venue 18 months in advance and they only had 3 Saturdays left for the year. Of course, there was more availabilty for mid week - but bare in mind this may cause your guests issues with annual leave if they work traditional working hours. Bare in mind our venue was a package deal that covered our food, drinks, DJ and room for bride and groom - all these other things can also require a long lead time if you're not booking via your venue.

Our florist also advised that they typically booked up 18months - 2 years in advance. We thought we were early, but we only wound up with a choice of two that had availability on our date. Again, this is partially affected by us choosing a "peak time" date on a summer Saturday.

It's a similar situation with photographers, who typically book up about a year in advance.

Do you want a dress from a bridal boutique? Most need at miniumum of 6 months lead time to order your dress, and that may still exclude some options for you, the typical guidence is 9-12 months in advance. If you're happy to buy off the rack though from somewhere like ASOS or Coast, then you have more time.

Groom's and groomsmens suits, if you're renting not buying, can have a lead time as well. We're getting married in July, and Moss Bros advised ordering between January-March if we want to rent because their availability in certain sizes gets booked up fast.

Inviting guests is the other factor - August is a key summer holiday time, and many guests will be planning their annual leave now, so bare in mind you'd need to send save the dates speedily to avoid guests being away on your date or (if you choose a weekday over a weekend wedding) having used up their annual leave. It may also affect any out of town guests who will need to book accommodation, depending on your venue location and whether it is a summer holiday destination.

Of course, this isn't to say it's not possible! I'd just say brace yourselves to potentially need to make a lot of compromises on what you want out of your day and think about how much you're willing to compromise to get the date you want.

A big piece of advice I've seen a few times, is for each of you to write down your top three wedding day priorities to help you with deciding what to compromise on (e.g. this August could be one of those for your FH, but is it for you and does he want this over everything else?). Any priorities that you both write down should be at the very top, next anything that one of you writes down, and then anything not on that short list is where you should look to make compromises.

Hope that helps!!

We got engaged in April and get married in less than 5 weeks!! The to do list can look intimidating, but if you get rid of all the stuff you don't want or need it will be more manageable. When planning in a shorter time frame try not to go over board on all the little things which are unnecessary. So for example, do you really need 5 bridesmaids? You don't need a band and a DJ. Don't think you guests need "entertaining" chatting and mingling is enough. You don't have to have favours. Dresses can be got off the peg or second hand- still go to a boutique to try on different styles tho. We are having fake flowers due to valentines day pushing up cost to a silly level, also means they are all sorted now.
The only other advice I'd give it don't be too particular and fussy, it will stress you out too much. At the endnof the day ots about two people who love each other getting married. Who cares if everything isn't perfectly colour coordinated. No one will care or notice or remember!
Congratulations and happy planning x

It's totally possible if you want a fairly small and simple wedding and if you are prepared to be flexible on dates, venues etc. If you want a very extravagant wedding, are set on having a specific date in August or specific vendors, then it will be harder.

We got engaged at the end of October and planned our wedding for the middle of June. Our planning was done & dusted by February. But we did have a fairly small and simple wedding in mind - 30 people for a lunchtime reception. If you want 250 people for an all-day wedding, it's going to be a lot more work!

Don't forget, you don't HAVE to have everything that is listed on the 'to do' list. So if you don't want favours, bridesmaids, speeches, etc, etc, don't have them. All you need to get married is two witnesses and the officiant (and the relevant paperwork) EVERYTHING ELSE is optional!

Start off by working out your budget and guest list. Once you know how many people you want at your wedding and how much you can afford, you can start looking for venues. As soon as you have a venue, make sure that you can get an officiant for the date you want - no officiant, no wedding! Once those things are in place, you can start looking at photographers, florists etc, but they are all going to need to know the date and venue before they can accept a booking.

The other urgent issue is likely to be the wedding dress - I went dress shopping the week after getting engaged and was told I needed to be putting in an order that week to have any chance of it arriving in time for June! So if you want to order from a boutique, you need to be doing it almost immediately. But if you are happy to look at second-hand, sale models, or high street/mail order dresses, then you have loads of time.

View quoted message Wow thank you so much! There's a lot here i hadn't considered, I'll definitely sit down and have the conversation with FH ASAP!

View quoted message Congratulations to you too! We have a few ideas already but nothing set in stone yet. I think we're going to sit and talk about it this week when he's off work 😅

View quoted message Wow its getting close! Congratulations! Thats great advice thank you. I had already considered making my own bouquets to save on money (and also so I can keep it 🤣). I hadn't thought about deleting task that weren't relevant, I assumed they all were! Thank you so much x

View quoted message Thank you for the great advice, I have a lot to consider now. I'll get started going through the list and talk to FH this week to iron out the main details x

It might be that your FH threw August out there without really looking into what planning a wedding entails. We are on an 11 month time scale (10 really because took the first month just to enjoy being engaged without planning anythung properly). We're having a fairly traditional church wedding followed by a reception at a local golf club (availability was helped by the fact it isn't a bespoke wedding venue) and we found hair and make up artists and photographers with availability, I got the florist I wanted and I got my dress from a warehouse (they ideally needed 3 months notice to get alterations done but had expedited it before). The only area we thought we might struggle was DJ/band but we did end up with a few options in the end.
The basics can be done in a short time frame if you are prepared to compromise like others have said, most people that really want to come to your wedding can probably make it happen with at least a few months notice (although there are exceptions to this of course so you need to be prepared for some to decline).Some vendors offer discounts for late availability too, but I personally wouldn't have the flexibility to take advantage of that.So doable, but I think it will be good to see after chatting with your FH if you think it will work for you.Good luck!

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Thank you Laura, we were looing at at our local civic centre and then having the reception at our local golf club so I'm not looking to plan anything too extravagant. My main concern at the minute is that the golf club wont have the marquee sorted out in time (they already have it but its not suitable for a wedding in its current position or state). We haven't set a date in stone yet so the first move is probably meeting with the golf club owner and getting estimated dates? I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the minute.

Hi Katy Boyle

View quoted message Hello Katy

It's perfectly possible to plan a wedding in that timeframe, we got married 7 months after our engagement. However, that was November so we weren't competing so much for suppliers. I would think for August you would be compromising on suppliers and may find a lot of the first people you contact are booked already. So it depends on the priority you put on the date.

It is doable but I would suggest checking the legal but first. Check with the registry office of that's the route you're going down that they have availability. We're not getting married till June 24 and even when I booked it last month they had 1 time left for the day I wanted

View quoted message Thanks Alice, I hadn't even thought about that yet!!

View quoted message Thanks hayley, we're going to talk about it this weekend and come up with a plan hopefully!!

Congratulations!


As long as you have a venue first of all then it’s possible! It may be difficult to secure well known and popular suppliers however.
Set daily tasks to get through and remember to breathe! Good luck x

Hey girl, I completely get you! I got engaged late September and my partner wanted to get married by this summer, I pushed for September so it would give me a year but still a bit stressed haha, but yes it’s possible❤️ a lot of places will have venue spaces left! My advice would be get married on a week day or a Friday, things should be a little less busy (like suppliers) so you will have a higher chance of people being free, but there’s so much out there! You will manage it, get easy wins ticked off like sorting wedding favours (if you’re having them), buying wedding rings, even if it’s not things that are needed right now at least you know you’ve got them done - best of luck 😘 xx

Hi Maddy, Congratulations on the engagement! Very exciting times. Like what a few others have said, it is completely doable but it depends on how big you want your wedding to be and what your expectations are, also on how much your budget is. We're getting married in July 2023 but booked the venue last summer. We checked the venue availability first then submitted a form for the legal bits. Once they confirmed their availabilities, we confirmed things with the venue. With your wedding being in summer, keep in mind that if you're wanting an outdoor wedding, venues will probably limited because of how quickly they get booked up. Mine is indoors so that wasn't much of a problem. I got my dress from a charity shop for £10 but got it altered for a better fit and a more customised design for the back. I found that the main things I really needed to find and book asap were the following: venue, catering, photographer, DJ and cake. If you can find a venue that does catering and offers drink packages, even better. Try to get as many quotes as possible (I think I've got at least 20 quotes for photographers) to ensure you've got the best deals. I hope this helps!! try not to stress about it too much and enjoy the process. At the end of the day, your wedding is about you and your other half, so if it makes you both happy, that should be enough Chaz xxx