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The 12-Month Wedding Planning Checklist
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- Name
- Saventify
A year sounds like ages until you start and realise the good venues are already gone for your date. The twelve months before a wedding are not evenly busy. The first three are intense, the middle calms down, and the last few ramp back up. This checklist follows that rhythm so you are never doing a late job early or an early job late.
12 to 9 months out: the foundations
This is the heavy lifting, and it is front-loaded for a reason. Everything after them depends on these decisions.
- Agree a total budget and who is contributing. Start here, see the wedding budget guide.
- Settle on a rough guest number, since it drives the budget and the venue. Build it with how to make a wedding guest list.
- Tour and book the venue, then lock the date. This is the scarcest thing you will book, see how to choose a wedding venue.
- Send save-the-dates, earlier if guests travel. See when to send a save-the-date.
- Book the photographer, and the band or DJ, before they sell out.
9 to 6 months out: the shape of the day
With the foundations set, the day starts to take form.
- Choose your outfits and book the first fittings
- Decide the theme, colours and overall look, see how to choose a wedding theme
- Confirm catering and book a tasting
- Book florals, transport and any stays for guests
- Plan the ceremony details and any readings
6 to 3 months out: details and dispatch
- Send the invitations and open your RSVP window, see when to send wedding invitations
- Finalise the menu after the tasting
- Order anything that ships: favours, signage, extras
- Buy rings and arrange the rest of the wedding party's outfits
- Confirm the schedule of the day with the venue
3 to 1 months out: closing in
- Chase RSVPs and finalise your headcount, see how to track wedding RSVPs
- Build the seating plan from confirmed guests, see wedding seating chart and table planning
- Final dress and suit fittings
- Confirm timings with every supplier
- Write any speeches
The interactive version
Tick these off as you go. The list remembers your progress.
0 of 10 done
The first month decides the rest
If you only get the first month right, you are most of the way there. Budget, guest number, venue and date, in that order. Everything downstream depends on these four, so do not let prettier decisions jump the queue.
Then the home straight
The final weeks have their own rhythm and their own checklist. We keep it separate so the year-out plan does not get cluttered with last-minute tasks. See the 3-month and week-of wedding checklists, and if you want the reasoning behind the order, what order to plan a wedding. The whole timeline lives in our wedding planning timeline guide.
Tick stationery off in an afternoon
Save-the-dates and invitations with RSVP built in, created fast so they never stall your checklist.