In a previous article, we enumerated 10 general steps to make wedding preparation easier, as well as some important tips that you might miss out on like booking venues that can easily accommodate any crowd of your choice or filing the necessary paperwork that some articles may fail to mention. However, even with general guidelines, there can be elements of the wedding that you may miss without which is why we’ve organized a timeline and checklist you can use to make sure that all the things you need can be reviewed, ticked off, and secured at a glance.
12 (or More) Months Away
Engagements in the Philippines typically last for 12-15 months. This is just about the right amount of time to plan a big wedding. The first few months of the engagement is best used to celebrate the engagement, planning the creative stuff, booking wedding support (like a coordinator/planner), before you dive right into the more heavily involved parts of your wedding preparations. Even though the wedding seems a year or more away, this is the best time to book a venue as well since aesthetic, comfortable, and functional venues like Hillcreek Tagaytay tend to go really fast—some even get booked 2-3 years in advance!
8-9 Months Away
It’s less than a year away and at this stage, your wedding is starting to feel more real. It’s time to dive deeper into the details and make some important decisions. While some aspects of your wedding might still change moving forward, you’re pretty much set on more general details like the style, themes, and vibe you want. It’s time to secure your primary vendors like food, decors, video, and photography to name some. This is also the time that you can set the date for your prenup location shoot; we recommend Tagaytay since shoots can be sweaty situations but not if you’re doing them in a place that’s as cool and breezy as Tagaytay. Additionally, keep an eye out for wedding expos and events; these are great ways to find vendors that fit your vision.
6-7 Months Away
You’re a half a year away from the wedding so it’s time to prepare for the most important participants that will attend your wedding like the entourage, your parents, and your major sponsors. This is also the best time to make sure that they’ll all hyped for the wedding with reminders of pre-wedding festivities.
4-5 Months Away
As the wedding draws near, tick off some more things off your list by finalizing them. This is the best time to finalize things for the wedding like the flow of the reception (so that you can also plan out how you want things to go), menu, as well as the accessories you’ll be using. Most importantly, you will need to secure the legal documents at this stage so as not to hassle you as the wedding draws near.
3-2 Months Away
It’s almost the month of your wedding and we aren’t going to lie, this might be the most hectic but also most exciting time of the wedding preparation. It’s best to do your prenup shoot during this time just as you enter the final stretch and everything starts coming together. If you’ve booked Hillcreek Gardens Tagaytay for your prenup shoot location, expect a stress free and almost magical video shoot. Shooting your prenup video from 3-6 months away before the wedding will also help you determine if you like the overall style that the videography team has. You can either give them inputs on how you want them to adjust during the wedding or hire a different team to handle the videography for the event itself—after all, the photos and videos are most of what you’ll take away when the wedding is over.
Wedding Month
On your wedding month, you’ll more or less be preparing everything for finalization but not finalizing everything per se; you’d want to save that for until a little late in the month. For now, take a breather, follow up on what you can, and take the time to draft your messages for the wedding.
2-3 Weeks Before
Follow up on RSVPs and try to finalize everything during this time. It feels like you’re cutting it too close but you’re doing a balancing act here. You want to finalize things as close to the wedding as possible but you also want to make sure that you’re already relaxing as your wedding week happens.
Wedding Week
It’s finally here; if there’s anything you still have to prepare, they’d be things you’ll need on the day of the wedding as well as emergency provisions and last minute items. If nothing else, take this week to bask in your engagement for one last time as you count down toward your big day.
