When to Book Your Wedding Vendors

Wedding planning involves endless important decisions, but one of the most crucial is knowing when to book your wedding vendors. Timing is everything when it comes to securing the right vendors to make the big day perfect.

Wait! Stop! Doing this one thing before you start reaching out to potential vendors will save you a lot of time and energy as you move through your wedding planning: Create an email for you and your partner to use exclusively for wedding related things. It may not seem like it now, but as you get closer and closer to the big day, you will receive so many messages from vendors, potential vendors, and more. You do not want to use your personal or your work email for wedding planning. You’ll be drowning in emails before you know it and you risk overlooking something important or time sensitive!

Your wedding email can be anything you want it to be – have some fun with it or keep it simple! But trust me, you’ll be glad to have everything separate. Don’t have a wedding email? Take a second and set it up now – go ahead, I’ll wait!

Okay great, now that that’s taken care of… First things first when it comes to booking wedding vendors: secure your venue (and your date). This truly affects every aspect, and every vendor, for your wedding, so make sure you have that set before you do literally anything else!

Once you have your venue and your date set, it’s time to pull out your priority list and budget and get ready to start inquiring with vendors! You’ll want to start locking in those who have stricter limitations when it comes to their availability, anybody who can only accommodate one wedding per date (or per week/weekend). This is typically includes: planners and coordinators, photographers, videographers, catering and food, hair and makeup artists, DJs and musicians, etc.

Vendors that need a lot of lead time and/or work before the wedding day itself are next on the list! So, who needs a lot of lead time? The best example of this: your wedding dress. Most dress designs (once ordered) require several months for delivery, plus you need to allow time to complete any necessary alterations. And what services do you need before your wedding? Well, your stationery, of course! (This is where I come in!) Your Save the Dates and your wedding invitations will be sent to your guests well before the big day itself, so you’ll want to start designing them earlier than you’d think. (Here’s a cheat sheet I put together to help you figure out your stationery timeline!)

Keep referring to your priorities list and your budget as you make inquiries and sign contracts with your vendors. Once you’ve confirmed your vendors from the two groups mentioned above, go back and look at your list again. Is there anything on there you didn’t book initially that you’d still really like to have on the big day? Something you tried to DIY but hate it? Planning a wedding is a process – you can always change your mind! If you do, don’t hesitate to reach out to those vendors again and see if you can make it work!

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Ready to check stationery off of your vendor list? Let’s chat! Working with an experienced invitation designer can help you create the perfect design for your big day! With custom designs and unlimited revisions, Beach City Creative is here to help you have a fun, stress-free experience!