Be On Schedule, Have A Wedding Timetable

Your date at the altar has been set. The series of events and preparations would be enough to fill you with stress, worries, and sleepless nights for the rest of the days or months leading to the big day. The same is true whether you have hired the services of a wedding coordinator, or doing everything hands-on.

But you can spare yourself from these worries and have more time to attend to the details of your wedding gown or to decide on what make up to wear by making a daily, weekly, or monthly wedding planner or timetable.

It would be all too easy to fall out of time and control once you are right smack into the middle of frenzied and overlapping schedules for gown fitting, shopping, or food tasting. Every minute, hour and day counts and there is no better way to keep right on schedule but by preparing a checklist or timetable for your wedding preparations.

Ideally, all the planning and actual preparations should be done within 2 years before the wedding date, and within 1 year at the very least.

Here is a sample timetable to get you started

12 Months Before The Wedding

Get some ideas on anything and everything about weddings from magazines, books, shows and the Internet. Without necessarily getting into the details, set the date and place of the wedding, and the venue for the reception.

Review your finances and decide on a working budget. Decide as early as now whether or not hire to a wedding coordinator.

Look around and make a list of professional help that you would need, such as videographers and photographers, florists, and a gown designer. Accomplish all the legal documentary and seminar prerequisites for marriage such as a marriage license, church seminars, and other related requirements.

9 Months Before The Wedding

Make the necessary date reservation at the church, venue, or restaurant where the wedding and the reception will be held. Draw up the list of guests and sponsors. Decide on the color scheme or theme. See a designer to start the work on your wedding gown, and the other gowns and suits for your entourage. Or if dictated by budget limitations, have the same purchased or rented off the rack, after doing the rounds of wedding stores and shops. Purchase your wedding tokens and party favors. Plan your honeymoon.

6 Months Before The Wedding

Finalize your list of sponsors and have your invitations printed out after final proofreading and revisions have been made. Go over your overall plan and look for missed out details because this would be the best time to make some important alterations such as added number of guests, changes in the color scheme or theme, or minor revisions on your wedding gown.

3 Months

Finalize your guest list. Discuss final items and arrangements with your make-up artist, wedding singer, florist, musicians, and others. Buy the bridal accessories that would best complement your gown such as headpiece, shoes, or jewelry. Make some hotel reservations for guests and transportation arrangements.

4 to 6 Weeks Before The Wedding

Send your invitations in person, or by mail. Some 4 weeks before the wedding, schedule the final fitting for your gown. The same must be done with the gowns or suits of your entourage.

2 to 4 Weeks Before the Wedding

Make a list of guests who have confirmed their attendance, and inform the caterer of the estimated headcount. Finalize all hotel and transportation reservations for guests. Do the same for your honeymoon trip. Have pre-wedding studio photographs. Confer with your wedding organizer for final updates, briefing, and instructions.

A Week Before The Wedding

Make more room for relaxation. Treat yourself to a full day at the beauty salon and have a body massage, facial, and other relaxing treatments. But most important of all, have some quiet time with your future husband, your last date together as unmarried couples.