Your 12 Month Count-Down Calendar

12 Months Before

• Buy a wedding planner or organizer.

• Talk with your fiancé and all parents about wedding budget, style, size, dates, sites, and participants.

• Reserve the ceremony and reception sites.  wedding sites in major cities can book up a year in advance.

• Start shopping for your dress.  If you haven't booked your site, have a general idea of the wedding's overall style, so you can search for something suitable.

• Choose your attendants.

• Mail save-the-date cards, if your  marrying over a holiday weekend or in a faraway location.

• Send your engagement announcement to the newspaper.

10 Months Before

• Start scouting for a caterer, baker, florist, musicians, photographer, and videographer.

• Visit you clergy member, if your having a religious ceremony, to discuss requirements like premarital counseling.

8 Months Before

• Book your caterer, baker, florist, musicians, photographer, and videographer.

• Choose and order you dress.

• Establish a gift registry.  Add to it periodically, especially the week of the wedding, when most people buy presents.

• Begin the guest list.

6 Months Before

• Research the honeymoon.

• Plan the details with all the wedding professionals (talk menus with your caterer, bouquets with your florist, etc.)

• Book a calligrapher, limos, and a portrait photographer.

• Order invitations, response cards, and maps.

• Shop for bridesmaids' dresses (take just one attendant).

• Reserve a block of hotel space for out-of-town guests.

• Secure rentals (tent, tables, glassware, etc.) if needed.

4 Months Before

• Book your honeymoon.  Apply for passports if necessary.

• Finalize the guest list.  Give names and addresses to the calligrapher so she can start on the envelopes.

• Make an appointment for your first dress fitting.

• Order the wedding rings.

• Schedule the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.

• Visit a formalwear shop in town where you'll be marrying to select and reserve the usher's clothes.

• Reserve a hotel room for the wedding night.

2 Months Before

• Visit your officiant to go over vows, readings, and music.

• Shop for lingerie and honeymoon clothes.

• Have your portrait taken.

• Check to see if the state where your marrying requires blood tests, if so, make an appointment with your doctor.

• Mail your invitations.  To ensure your using enough stamps, have an invitation weighed at the post office.

• Choose gifts for attendants.

• Get name-change forms from the Department of Motor Vehicles, Social Security office, credit card issuers, etc., if you're taking your fiancé's name.

6 Weeks Before

• Have your final dress fitting.

• Pick up the rings.

• Get programs printed.

• Send your announcement to newspapers.

2 Weeks Before

• Apply for the marriage license.

• Submit lists of must-take shots to the photographer and videographer, and your playlist to musicians.

•  Arrange the seating plan.  Write out table and place cards.

• Confirm honeymoon reservations.

• Write toasts for the rehearsal dinner and reception.

1 Week Before

• Pack for the honeymoon.

• Give the final guest count to the caterer.

• Check final details with all wedding vendors.

• Remind all attendants of the rehearsal details.

• Throw the bridesmaids' party; distribute gifts.

• Pick up your dress.

• Give copies of ceremony readings to those doing them.

• Break in your shoes.  Scuff the soles to avoid slipping.

1 Day Before

• Treat yourself and your mom to a manicure.

• Hold the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.

• Go to bed early and try to get a good night's sleep.

Day of the Wedding

• Eat breakfast - nerves don't mix with an empty stomach.

• Make sure your announcements are in the mail.

• Enjoy!

Home

This calendar was from Brides' Sept '03 issue.