Engagement Season: How to Prioritize Wedding Planning Tasks
Engagement season is here, and with it comes all the excitement and joy! Sometimes it can feel a little overwhelming not knowing where to start with wedding planning. If you’ve recently said “yes,” congratulations! Now begins one of the most exciting journeys of your life, but it’s easy to feel like there’s too much to do and not enough time.
The good news is that you don’t have to do it all at once. Prioritizing your wedding planning tasks will help you feel calm, confident, and fully able to enjoy this special season. As a premier wedding planning company we have put together a guide on how to focus on what matters most, while still enjoying this sweet season of life.
Clarify Your Vision Before Booking Anything
Before diving into contracts, deposits, and Pinterest boards, take some time to define the vision for your wedding. Ask yourselves questions like what type of wedding you want (i.e. dress code, location, formality, etc.), how many guests you are wanting to invite and what your non-negotionals are (i.e. plated dinner, band over DJ, hiring a live painter, etc.) Knowing these answers early can help you prioritize your tasks and prevent chasing every new trend or idea that pops up. It sets the foundation for every planning decision you make moving forward.
Photographer: Hannah Cree
Budget, Guest Count, and Timeline
These three factors influence nearly every decision you’ll make during the planning process. Your budget sets the boundaries for your venue, vendors, and decor choices. Your guest count affects catering, rentals, and the size of your venue. Your timeline determines vendor availability and how much time you have to plan. Early on, it’s essential to create a skeleton timeline that outlines key moments like the ceremony, cocktail hour, reception, and end time.
Lock in the Essential Vendors First
Some vendors truly form the backbone of your wedding day and should be secured first. Prioritize booking your venue and date, wedding planner or coordinator, and photographer and videographer. These vendors tend to book up quickly and often have limited availability. Securing these vendors early on in the planning process ensures you get "first pick of the litter" and are not left scrambling for your third or fourth choice.
Priorities Shift Depending on Your Engagement Length
Every engagement is different, and your priorities should reflect that. Longer engagements of 12 months or more give you time to focus on design details and non-essential vendors after securing essentials. Shorter engagements under 10 months require locking in your venue, planner/coordinator, and key vendors immediately to avoid availability issues. A simple planning timeline can help visualize what to tackle first versus what can wait until later.
Photographer: Hannah Cree
What Can Wait and What Cannot
Items that can wait:
Decorative details (i.e. place settings, linens, candles, signage, etc.)
Seating assignments until final RSVPs come in
Specific timeline details down to the minute
These are just to name a few!
Items that cannot wait:
Booking your must-have, essential vendors (i.e. venue, planner/coordinator, photographer, videographer, etc.)
Creating a skeleton timeline that gives a rough idea of how the day will flow
Creating an initial floor plan
Securing your wedding dress
These are just to name a few!
Tools for Prioritizing Like a Pro
Staying organized makes prioritization much easier. Consider using priority worksheets or checklists to rank vendors and tasks by urgency and importance. Planning apps with digital timelines, reminders, and collaborative tools can help everyone stay on track. Even small tools like these can take a lot of stress off your shoulders and make sure nothing important slips through the cracks. If you have a wedding planner, you can leverage the planning software they use (we use Aisle Planner) to help you stay on track throughout the planning process.
Be Flexible and Enjoy the Process
Remember that priorities can and often will shift. Maybe your photographer becomes your top priority after seeing their portfolio. Or your budget needs adjustment due to an unexpected guest count change. The key is to stay flexible, communicate openly with your partner, and trust that your planning process is moving forward intentionally.
Photographer: Hannah Cree
Prioritizing your wedding planning tasks is the secret to enjoying your engagement season without stress. By focusing on the essentials first, clarifying your vision, and letting smaller details follow naturally, you’ll feel confident and excited every step of the way. Your engagement is a once-in-a-lifetime season. Embrace it fully, celebrate each milestone, and trust that thoughtful prioritization now will make your wedding day as seamless and meaningful as it deserves to be.
For our Full-Service Planning and Design package, we will guide you through each step. For our Month-of Coordination package, we provide you with resources and a month-by-month planning checklist to follow. Reach out today to learn more and find out how we can help make your wedding planning experience one you will joyfully remember!
