Plan Your Wedding Like A Boss With This Handy Month-By-Month Checklist

You’re engaged – ARGH!

And while planning your wedding is going to be more fun than stressful, we promise (well, we hope), by the end of it you WILL have an honorary qualification in event management.

Now, you know the way when you’re trying to cook a Sunday roast and it’s not the individual parts that are the problem, but the bringing it all together at the right time? Well, a wedding is pretty much the same thing.

So to help you, you’ve we’ve put together a handy timeline so you’ve everything sorted before the panic sets in.

12 months before

1. Well, unless you have a trust fund (in which case please contact the editor for my phone number) you’re going to have to first and foremost set a budget. How else will you know what venues and vendors you can afford?

2. Pick your general time of year before you start scouring for ceremony and venues. Once you find the venues you want, it’s time to refine your date and set it!

3. Book your photographer / videographer. We’re not trying to put the skids under you unnecessarily, the best ones book out VERY quickly.

4. Start looking for a band, if you’re having one. Lots of wedding bands hold showcases all year round so it’s worth making the trip out to see what they’re really like.

8-10 months before

5. Ladies start looking for the frock. If you’re buying it in a bridal salon you’ll have to give at least six-month’s notice to get it made. If you’re going vintage or high street you can wait longer, but it’s good to get this big job done and dusted as soon as you can.

6. Decide on your bridal party and let them know. Choose wisely.

7. Book your band, DJ and ceremony musicians.

8. Book your rentals – cars, chairs, that decorative birdcage.

9. Fellas, start looking for your suit and book in groomsmen rentals.

6-8 months before

10. Decide on your bridal party, ceremony and reception flowers and car ribbons and book them in with your florist.

11. Let people that live abroad know the date so they can sort out travel arrangements.

12. Order bridesmaids' dresses and sort their shoes, gifts, cards, accessories, bags, robes and cover-ups. Yep, bridesmaids are a shockingly demanding bunch of divas.

13. Brides, book your hairdresser and make-up artist.

14. What fastens two people, but touches only one? A ring of course! And when you've finish gagging from that cheesiness, choose and order your wedding rings.

15. Start planning the HONEYMOON. And play "Holiday" by Madonna while you do it for effect.

4-6 months before

16. Attend your pre-marriage course if you’re getting married in a church.

17. Design and order your invites.

18. Book an appointment with the HSE to give notice of your intention to marry. You have to do it at least three months in advance but there’s no harm in getting it sorted earlier.

19. Decide on your guest list.

20. Book the wedding cake.

2-3 months before

21. Take a well-deserved break from all the planning and go on your stag or hen. SESS-ION!

22. Book your trials with the hairdresser and make-up artist.

23. Choose your readings.

24. Pick your first dance song and your ceremony music.

25. Send out your invites.

26. Lads, get your groomsmen's gifts.

1 month before

27. Review your RSVP list and chase up anyone who hasn’t responded yet – without including the words ‘how’, ‘dare’ and ‘you’ preferably.

28. Decide on the menu with your venue.

29. Do your table plan. Mentally prepare though by reading A Brief History Of Time and doing a Rubik’s cube.

30. Do your final dress and suit fittings. 

On the day

31. Get married (this is an important one – make a note of this)

So there you have it

Reckon we left anything off? Get in touch and let us know!