How far in advance to book?

Jue'sDD

Hi Guys,

DH2B and myself are getting married in March 2010. We already have the church booked as it is very picturesque and we knew it would get booked up early, our reception venue is also booked as we found a place that was just perfect for us, and my dress is bought as I got it at a great price.

I was just wondering what is usual for booking all the other bits? For example flowers, photographer and cars. I have no idea what is 'normal'. I thought that 6-9 months in advance would be plenty of time but my mum thinks a year in advance.

Thanks! :j

flowerscotland

hi

I would book things a year in adavnce, possibly earlier so I know I had got everything ! I booked my registry, venue and photographer a year in advance, and I booked my cars about 9 mths in advance. I think Im going to have a go at doing my own flowers, I just want something very simple, but I will have a trial run so I am 100% sure I can do it !

Congratulations and good luck wit the planning

paddingtondoo

We booked things about 11 months in advance but that's only coz that was all the time we had.

You may be able to fix things at 2009 prices for 2010 now rather than having to pay the next year's prices.

Also if you want someone very popular they will get booked up quickly.

My friend did my flowers and they were fantastic - I only wanted something simple but stunning.

talulahbeige_2

I've been wondering this too, what concerns me is taking the risk if a company goes bust in the meantime, especially pertinent in todays climate. Yes I will have insurance but its still a pain to start again with something you had thought was done.
If you book nearer the time you run less risk of them going under

shelovestobuystuff

I would say 1 year.I tried to book things earlier but they would only pencil me in and get back in touch to book properly neerer the date.Now I have just under 1 year to go to my wedding and am actually starting to get a bit stressed out that I dont have solid bookings with anyone other than the venue.My string quartet still say its too early to confirm a booking,but I am pencilled in and should get back in touch neerer the time.I think 1 year is fine to be making final arrangements for the things you can and leave yourself free to spend time of the finer details nearer the wedding.
Anyone else had this sort of problem trying to book early?

p4girl

I play in a string quartet and we take bookings up to two years ahead. Get back to that string quartet you want! We find people book 12 - 15 months ahead of time.

Redleela

We found our venue, photographer, florist and cake lady 20-18 months before our planned wedding date and confirmed bookings 18-16 months ahead of time. This didn't seem to be unusual as all the people we chose already had bookings near and beyond our wedding date (we are getting married in Cambridge). Personally I just wanted to get all the bookings out the way and make sure we didn't miss out. Also I'm a project manager...

MrsPitcher2b

We booked our wedding in September for October 2010 - this was the next available weekend! I have since booked our photographer, and putting deposits down this weekend on Videographer/cars/choco fountain.

I found a florist but she hasnt got any appointments until January so will be hopefully bookign then (she has told us that she is almost booked for 2010 anyway!)

We did find a cake lady we loved, but she is moving to australia next year so wont be here in 2010!! So im glad i emailed her cos now i have to find a replacement!

We also have put a deposit on our stationary (50%) and paid for our save the date cards..

I found that most of the suppliers i wanted were booking up to 2010 (some even 2011!!) and we even got turned away for a few suppliers as they were already booked... i think you now have to be so quick and early booking now, even though you get the hole 'its way too early' from people at work ect, they obviously havent tried recently to arrange a wedding!

As Redleela has said, i personally want to make sure i have booked everything so i dont miss out on my favourite suppliers, and also so i can just concentrate on saving up what i need - rather than guestimating costs. As has also been said, with booking now you can secure todays prices with some suppliers. Our venue has promised to give us todays prices, and it is written into our contract that they will not be able to increase the costs!!

karen_newcastle

I am a photographer and have bookings for 2010 already.

Jue'sDD

Thanks everybody! I guess I need to get a move on without panicking then LOL. We've been looking around for photographers and have a couple of quotes already, next we'll be looking at flowers and cars.

Degeneratemoo

We're booking up for 2011 just so we know we're getting the venue we really like.