Wedding Planning from A-Z

With so many things to do and little time to do it, your wedding check-list should be prioritized by importance, but also by urgency. Some items need to be tackled immediately, while others can sit on the backburner for a bit. The following is a suggested timeline. 

Determine your budget – This is crucial to ensure the rest of your planning goes smoothly. If you have wiggle room, determine how much. If others are helping you pay, get the hard numbers from them. 

Select your wedding venue and date – Perhaps the most important part of your wedding journey is securing your location. Wedding venues are booking out literal years in advance, so jump on this activity immediately. 

Select your caterer – Like venues, caterers are busy – not only with weddings but private and corporate events, too. This means it’s smart to jump on the booking early.

Decide on your theme and colors – Your overall theme and wedding colors will set the tone for the rest of your planning, and make it easier to decide on things like your dress, bridesmaids attire, and flowers. 

Shop for your wedding dress – It’s taking longer and longer for things to ship, and you don’t want to be left without a dress on your big day. Lock it down! 

Determine your guest list – Knowing how many people you anticipate at your wedding will help tremendously as you finalize your menu, order alcohol and brainstorm party favors. 

Book hotel blocks for your guests – This one’s especially important if you anticipate inviting a lot of people from out of town. You don’t want them crashing with you, right? 

Hire your photographer, DJ and videographer – These vendors can only work one event an evening, so prioritize booking them early.

Take your engagement photos – Yay! A fun thing! P.S., you now have photos to put on all your wedding materials! 

Create your wedding website – This is especially helpful for out-of-towners, but also increases excitement for your guests and allows them to start shopping for gifts. (More on that later.)

Send save-the-dates – Just like vendors book up quickly, so do friends and families with busy social calendars. 

Register for gifts – Take a break from all the logistics and start making a wish list! 

Pick your bridesmaids dresses – And arrange fittings if necessary. You want your friends to look amazing, too! 

Find your florist – And start workshopping color schemes and bouquet ideas. 

Lock down your rehearsal dinner venue – And brainstorm the menu. Fun fact: If you don’t want to deal with the logistics, the rehearsal dinner is often planned by parents or wedding party members.

Rent what you need – Whether that’s chairs, linens or a photobooth.

Hire your officiant – Dive into talking points and no-gos.

Choose your baker – And schedule cake tastings. 

Rent all transportation – Whether for yourself and your spouse-to-be or for guests who may need to be shuttled between the venue and the hotel.

Book your honeymoon – And start making your itinerary, whether that’s seeing world-famous museums or just lying by the beach all day.

Buy wedding bands – And get a little emotional when you do.

Lock down groomsman attire – Make sure the dudes are looking fresh. 

Schedule your makeup and hair trials – And make sure you truly love what they’ve created for you.

Send invitations for the wedding and rehearsal dinner – And see the RSVPs roll in.

Write your vows – If you want them personalized, of course. Remember, this may take more than one sitting!

Pick up your marriage license – Social media post required.

Finish your wedding playlist – And make sure it’s boogy-licious.

Have your last wedding dress fitting – And snap plenty of photos for your gals. 

Pay all your vendors – And allot for tips, too. 

Break in your wedding shoes – This goes for the girls as well as the guys. New shoes, whether six-inch heels or loafers, can lend themselves to blisters.

Do your pampering – Whether that’s a spray tan, manicure/pedicure or a blow-out.

Deliver final headcounts – And ensure everyone at your venue is ready for the big day.

Practice your vows – Bonus points if you can get through them without crying.

Try to relax – All the major logistics are handled. Get some sleep, hydrate and prepare for the biggest party of your life!

What’s in, what’s out, what’s semi-acceptable but a little cringy when it comes to 2025 weddings? It seems to change every few weeks… but here are a few wedding trends that are holding steady into the new year: 

Surprise, Surprise

We’re bringing a bit more spectacle to weddings this year. For example, you may have seen some risk-tasker brides online cutting off the bottoms of their gowns for the reception – or even chopping their locks before they head into the big celebration post-ceremony. Additionally, couples are inviting friends and family to a supposed engagement party, only for it to be the wedding itself. Surprises are in, folks! 

Stricter Dress Codes

No, this doesn’t mean everyone has to wear a ballgown or a tuxedo. Instead, couples are often requesting that guests wear a certain color palette or follow a certain theme to supplement an overall aesthetic. Think “shades of green” on the wedding invite instead of just “formal.” 

More Social Media Content

We’ve recently seen a back-and-forth between “unplugged” weddings, with no digital footprint at all, and weddings that play out like a social media extravaganza. In 2025, it seems that more video content, often created professionally by a videographer, will swing back around in favor, with Tik Tok trends aplenty. 

Serpentine Tables

Similar to a banquet table, a serpentine table is extra long, but also winding. It seems these tablescape types are trending for outdoor nuptials for 2025, especially for smaller, more intimate weddings. 

Reworking Wedding Parties

Brides and grooms are reconfiguring their wedding parties. Some are slimming down the number of members or cutting them completely, others are having them sit down during the ceremony, some are having the wedding parties switch sides so they have a better vantage point of their bestie during the wedding.

Bringing in the AI

Love it or hate it, artificial intelligence is helping couples streamline their planning. AI can assist in crafting feasible timelines, tracking budgets, creating communications with vendors, and even refining wedding themes.

If you’re looking for a theme for your wedding, read on. Not only do themes set the tone of your celebration, they also help exponentially when it comes to planning, from color schemes to food choices and even your playlist. Some popular wedding themes you may want to consider include:

Fashion-forward: If you love following the trends and remaining at the height of fashion, let your wedding reflect that – from your wedding dress and tuxedo choices to bridesmaids dresses, quick-changes between the ceremony and reception, to your guest dress code.

Eco-friendly: Let’s face it, weddings can be wasteful. To counteract that, some couples decide to put their sustainable mindsets at the forefront of their celebrations. This can look like repurposed florals, recycled materials for the invitations, or an antique wedding dress.

Nature-inspired: Earth-tone palettes, florals galore, abundant greenery, and an outdoor venue all help lend themselves to a nature-inspired wedding.

Micro-weddings: If you’re looking to save money while remaining on-trend, micro-weddings are all the rage. Small, intimate gatherings with close family and friends, as opposed to large bashes, help to focus on what matters: enduring love between two people.

Minimalist: Different from micro-weddings, minimal weddings can still involve plenty of people. But the design of a minimalist wedding evokes words like sleek, elegant and understated. The concept of ‘less is more’ is at play here, allowing couples to invest in higher quality items with less volume.

You often hear horror stories of wedding guests acting inappropriately at a celebration under the guise of not knowing any better. That excuse won’t fly in 2025, so let’s break down some etiquette rules of thumb to follow.

• RSVP on time, and only RSVP for the number of guests you’re allotted. You will know if you have a plus one. If you don’t, don’t ask for one.

• Arrive 20 minutes prior to the ceremony. You should not be rolling up the venue at the time on the invitation; that’s when the ceremony starts. Give yourself ample time to find a seat and get comfortable. 

• Follow the dress code. And if you’re confused about what to wear, check the wedding website. If you don’t get answers there, consult your good friend Google. 

• Stay off your phone. We promise you don’t need blurry shots of the ceremony from the back row; the couple paid for a photographer for a reason.

• Be considerate of religious or cultural aspects. Maybe you aren’t religious, or don’t come from the same cultural background as the couple. You are there to celebrate them, which means respecting their beliefs.

• Wear white. I mean, honestly, guys, this should be a no-brainer at this point. This also means cream, or any iteration of white. If it photographs white, try something else.

• Expect a long conversation with the bride and groom. Yes, you should certainly get a hello and a thank you. But the couple needs time to enjoy the big day, too.

• Skip the ceremony in favor of the reception, or vice versa. Unless you have an excellent reason for missing one or the other, just commit your evening to this couple and their wedding. 

• Overindulge. An open bar can be tempting, especially if you’re kid-free for the evening. That said, be gracious and socialize responsibly. And, if you do drink too much, make sure you have a ride arranged. 

• Leave too early. While you may need to relieve the babysitter or it may just be past your bedtime, remember that the couple put a lot of work into their wedding, and chose you to celebrate it with. Traditionally, guests should at least stay until the cake cutting, or through dinner.