WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN PLANNING A WEDDING DATE

Congratulations - You’re engaged!

Soon everyone will be asking you when the big day is.

The first step in planning your wedding is setting a date. Once that’s done you can work everything out around it.

There are quite a few things you have to consider before setting your wedding date, let’s take a look:

Your Timeline

If you’re excited to be engaged and aren’t in a huge rush to tie the knot you have more options. But, if you want to rush it a little you may have to forgo some of the plans you’ve envisioned for your wedding day. For example, if you want to get married within six months of your engagement you might not get your first choice of venue or the summer wedding you’ve been dreaming about.

In other words, you need at least a year to plan a wedding if you want it to be the wedding day of your dreams. The longer you have to plan the more relaxing and fun the whole wedding experience will be for you.

The Season

You may have dreamed of a summer wedding on the beach or a cozy winter wedding in the snow. Whatever it is, as long as you know more or less what time of the year you want to get married finding a date will be easy.

But, if you don’t have your heart set on getting married during any particular season, maybe you should consider getting married in the off-season. Most people get married during the warmer months, which means that these weddings more expensive and the best venues are harder to snag.

Your Budget

Your wedding budget is probably what will influence your wedding most.

Did you know that hiring the venue and vendors for a winter wedding will be less expensive than for a summer wedding? If you have a modest wedding budget you might think about having an off-season wedding.

The Venue

The longer you have to plan the more chance you have to snag the venue that you’ve been dreaming of. Dates for popular places fill up fast, so the earlier you contact them the better.

Vendor Availability

Photographers, hairdressers, DJs, bands…and the list goes on. You may have a particular vendor in mind for each of these tasks, but you might not find a date when every single vendor on your wish list and the venue are free. You may have to choose the vendor in second place on your list for some of these, but don’t sweat it, there are plenty of talented wedding vendors out there who will make sure you have a perfect wedding!

The Holidays

Getting married during the holidays may seem like a good idea as you already have the time off work. You have to think about whether the holidays would be a good time for your guests as well as for your budget. Special venues get super busy during the holidays, so you might not be able to get the wedding venue you want, or if it is available, it could be costly.

Consider that your guests might have long standing holiday plans that they can’t cancel or change, some of them might even resent having to go away during their favorite family quality time. On the other hand, some guests might enjoy a holiday getaway.

Your Calendar

If you’re not having a holiday wedding you need to consider your work places and set the wedding date to coincide with your work holidays, especially if you plan on taking some time off after the wedding for a honeymoon.

And, while you’re looking at the calendar, don’t forget to ask other engaged friends and family for their wedding dates, you definitely don’t want to overlap wedding dates!

Tip: Don’t get married on or around your birthdays. It may sound romantic now but think ahead….do you really only want to have only one special day to celebrate every year? When your birthday and wedding anniversary are in the same week you have to wait a whole year for another special day to roll around again.

Sporting Events

You may not have even thought of this, or you may think it’s just ridiculous to set your wedding date around sporting events, but believe me, you don’t want your wedding to fall on the day of a big game. I still remember my cousin’s wedding which fell on the day of a big sport match, half the guests walked around with earbuds in their ears listening to the game. There wasn’t much dancing that night. I’ve also heard of weddings where guests RSVP’d that they couldn’t make it –because it fell on a game day. Just don’t do it!