How to Plan a Wedding in Six Months
I’m not going to make you scroll past 3000 words to learn how to plan a wedding in six months. Here is your road map:
Now for the 3000-word essay on how to plan a wedding in six months. (Fret not, it’s under 800 words.)
Six Months Before the Wedding
The first month is dedicated to the big pieces of wedding planning. You need to settle on a budget, a guest list, and possibilities for the wedding date. These steps are often taken while consulting with parents or other wedding stakeholders. When planning a wedding in six months, there might also be calendar consultations with family and close friends to optimize who will be able to attend. From there, I, of course, recommend that you hire a planner to help you plan your wedding in six months. She will jump-start your venue search. If you can complete all this within one month, you are on the right track to plan a wedding in six months.
Five Months before the Wedding
The second month of wedding planning is dedicated to hiring your priority wedding pros and getting the word out to guests. There are wedding pros who can do multiple events per day (caterer, florals, cake.) We will pause those folks while we focus on photo/video, entertainment and possibly beauty, as they will be more limited in their availability. You also need to sort out your wedding ceremony officiant. Do you need to hire a pro or does your locality allow for a one-time officiant license? Some places even allow you to marry yourselves.
When you plan a wedding six months in advance, you must let your guests know as soon as possible. Skip the save-the-dates and go right to planning your invitations. They can be mailed 10 weeks in advance. You will also need to build your wedding website quickly. Your website needs to include hotel room block links and a registry, so take care of that in the second month as well.
Four Months before the wedding
In the third month of wedding planning on a six-month timeline, you will build out the rest of your wedding team. Hiring catering, booking dessert, and sorting out your booze are all part of the food & beverage side of wedding planning. You’ll also source your florals, rentals, decor, and lighting. Don’t forget about transportation. Once all these wedding vendors are booked, you can start to work on all the wedding day stationery and signage you want. And hopefully, by now, you will have sorted out your wedding day attire.
Three Months before the Wedding
You are now halfway done with planning a wedding in six months. Congrats! You can spend this month mailing your invitations, scheduling fittings with a tailor, planning your hotel welcome bags, and arranging for any Friday or Sunday wedding events that you want to have.
Two Months before the Wedding
In the fifth month of wedding planning, take some time to review all your contracts. Put deadlines in your calendar for quantity changes and payments. Get wedding insurance if required. Schedule your ceremony rehearsal at your venue. Apply for your marriage license – you may or may not need to get it in the county/city where your wedding will be. Take a few hours to write your wedding day timeline with your planner. Ask your hotel contacts for a room block pick-up report.
One Month before the Wedding
The final month is going to be busy. You are going to track down all your RSVPs and create a seating chart. You will make many final payments this month. Order items for your hotel welcome bags and have a final walk through at your venue with your wedding team to confirm timeline, flow and layouts.
Be sure to confirm the correct headcount and table count with vendors like your florist, your booze wholesaler, and your cake baker. Compare the guests at your hotels to the seats available on your shuttles. Create a group photo list and finalize your music choices. Send all your final stationery to print.
As the days tick down, make your final reviews of the timeline, floor plan and seating chart. Make sure your wedding weekend events have the correct head counts and menus. Assemble your hotel welcome bags, organize gratuities for your vendors, and prep the personal items that your planner will be setting up.
Remember self-care. Get a mani/pedi and/or a massage. Stop going to work. Keep your schedule as light as possible because last-minute things will pop up.
Do you like this kind of in-depth wedding content? Good news, I write like this a lot. Check out the Ultimate Guide to DAR Weddings, or How to Write a Ceremony Script from Scratch. You might also enjoy my Reflections on our 2023 Weddings. Finally, here is a pretty sweet DC NYE wedding that I did plan in six months.
