How early is too early?

Myself and my partner have been together 14years, engaged for 7 and only just decided to finally get married. Our date is 18th June 2023. We have booked our venue, paid deposits for DJ, Florist, Venue dresser, LED lighting and photographer. I don't think its to early but everyone will have there own opinions on it. We like to be organised and if we start early it gives us plenty of time to pay for things.
Our family and friends have already booked their accomofation at our venue too. Xx

Hello I booked fairly early on for 2023 just in case with people pushing back weddings due to Covid. I would make sure you can get a registrar (if you need one for your venue) for the date/time you want. No good spending the money if you haven't got a registrar. Bookings depend on each area so might be worth ringing to see when you can book in. If you're thinking that there is a better venue for you or you're not too sure then it might be worth waiting until you are sure to save disappointment?
I was 100% sure about my venue so I booked as soon as I could! But if you're impulsive might be worth setting it aside for a bit then revisiting to see if you feel the same? Good luck x

It is never too early, most venues get booked up 12-24 months in advance so if you have a specific date and you know the venue you want then I would book as soon as you know it is where you want. I would also suggest you secure the registrar before signing your venue contract to ensure they are available. Usually you pay a holding deposit to secure your date. Once venue is booked you should look for and book caterer (if needed) photographer, hair and make up, as these are key suppliers for your day and they will get booked up. Once that is done you can sit back and relax for a year or so but at least you know you have the venue you want. If you are impulsive I would suggests you research and make pro/con lists for each venue and suppliers, discuss with your partner and be sure you are both on the same page, leave a few weeks and re visit to be 100% sure before you book

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Piggy-backing this to ask a question about exact timeline of steps - you mention securing the registrar before signing venue contract, and then paying holding deposit. Does the holding deposit come before or after signing the contract? Like would you 1) find a venue, 2) agree a potential date and pay hold deposit, 3) confirm registrar, 4) confirm venue date and sign contract? is that how it works or are the steps in a different order? And sort of how much time would usually be between first agreeing on a possible date and then confirming the registrar, are we talking days or weeks? New to this and very uncertain of what important bits should be done when!

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Once you have your venue ask them to hold the date, they will normally do this for a week or so. We then called registrar and confirmed they had our date and time and paid then £50 to reserve the date. We then contacted the venue to proceed with the contract and then signed and paid deposit. The reason I say to book registrar first is if they are not available you run the risk of not being able to have the legal bit which means you may have to change your date or timings which, if you have already signed your venue contract, could be trick or costly if your venue try and charge for changes. Venues know you have to get registrar confirmed so are normally pretty good at giving you time and the registrars are fairly quick to confirm availability,

We did things a bit backwards, we’re also getting married in November 2023 and booked our venue a few weeks ago before officially getting engaged on Saturday (after discussing it for about a year).
Whatever works for you is what’s important!

Never to early. We're getting married 26th November 2022, and I'm booking and organising things, but lil stressed due to pricing. So tbh, I'd rather of had that extra year for funding. Go for it. Definitely gives you more time to look around for exactly what you're looking for. All the best in planning!!!! Xx

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Love it!, congratulations! We already knew what venue we wanted and photographer a year before he finally popped the question! His delay has meant that prices have gone up massively since Covid so our budget has had to go up by 4k!!

Considering I am currently looking at venues for 2026 I would say It is never too early. Granted we are having a 2 day wedding and therefore Double the costs and Double the planning, I feel like we will need the just over 4 years to pay for the wedding we want!!

We also have International Guests from Australia, Canada, Africa and India!! So we would need to get them details at least 2 years in advance so that as soon as flights are released they can all start looking at them and they aren't left paying lots of money at last minute!

Never to early! My chosen venue had already booked up for next summer when we looked in March so we booked it for summer 2023 over two years in advance!

Saying that I might just be an over planner as we booked the venue and registrar in March/April and since then I have chosen my dress, shoes, hair dec, flowers and food!

Have fun planning! x

Defo not too early. We booked our wedding in January 2021, for an August 2022 date. Definitely glad that we booked it when we did, as we can now slowly plan everything else bit by bit. It’s removed any stress from us, and actually made the process enjoyable, and something we look forward to planning at the weekends.

View quoted message We approached a venue we loved. They gave us the contract and gave us 7 days (without having to pay a holding deposit) to contact the registrar and book the date. Once we’d booked the date with the registrar after a couple of days, we then paid the deposit with the venue and we signed the contract. To be honest, our experience was probably a bit skewed, as my fiancé’s mum works in the registry office, so she helped us with booking it. It will probably vary between areas.

We're getting married on 17th September 2023 and we booked it in August 2021 - when we went to the venue, they were very busy and nearly all booked up for next.

Completley dependant on area/venue but if you fall in love with a venue - go for it!

Yeah i echo what everyone else says. We're getting married in June 2023 (there was only 1 saturday date left in May-Aug 2023 for the venue we liked so we booked it!)


Also since booking the venue we've been researching suppliers and already 4 photographers and 2 bands we've been in contact with have said they're busy on our date! Just due to the backlog of Covid.
Especially if you're getting married on a Saturday I definitely recommend getting things sorted asap!

Me and my partner have been together for 17 years, been engaged for 3 and a half and have only decided to get married now as we lost his younger brother in august at age 36 due to a heart attack. we have pretty much sorted everything except the caterer and the decor in 4 weeks. and i got the venue of my choice booked for the 23rd of february 2022 (so we haven't booked far in advance at all lol) my biggest piece of advice is read the small print or find out what the venue catering costs are pp and also find out if you can use alternative caterers, and then whether they would be able to use the venue kitchen. we didn't check this..and have just found out thats its going to cost 1,200 to have a classic buffet by the venue, but if we order an outside caterer they aren't allowed to use the kitchen and we have to pay a charge of 5pound pp to use somebody else, so check all that out before you pay anything xx

We got engaged at the beginning of this month and last week we booked our venue and paid the deposit for November 2023. It gives you longer to save too!

I'm getting married in Oct 2023 and I booked and paid for my venue in May! Definitely not too early... the only thing is its annoying to be so excited when you know its so far away lol xx

View quoted message That is so accurate 🤣 gives us loads of time to plan but I'm so impatient!

View quoted message I've booked and paid for my venue, deposit to my photographer, picked (but not bought!) my dress and shoes, bought my tiara, veil and crinoline, decided on hair and make up, made my bouquet, flower hoops (for bridesmaids) and ceremony tale centrepiece, designed my invitations, decided on decor, cake design/flavours and wedding favours.... All I need is for the day to arrive 🙄🤣 xx

Hello Teri. The earlier you can start the better. At least to get a feel for what you want and do not want. I have written an article on when you should book a venue , that may be of interest.

But for your target date of Nov 2023 I would casually start researching online for venues now and then start viewing them early next year with a view to booking around Nov 2022.

Hope this helps!

Never too early! The advice we've received so far is that if your date is a way off but you get a lot of your planning done early on then it actually gives you time before your wedding to enjoy your engagement and get excited about the big day and everything else. I've found that the COVID backlog hasn't been as bad as I expected but if you like planning and want to get things booked in then I can't see a downside at all!