Planning Your Wedding In Three Months – Everything You Need To Know
So you’ve met the person that you’re going to spend the rest of your life with, why wait around and plan for 18 months?
It might be a bit tight, but planning a wedding in three months is totally achievable and here’s how to do it… (if you would prefer a little longer, check out my ‘How To Plan Your Wedding In Six Months‘ guide)
Your Three Month Timeline
Month One
Book your wedding venue
Send out the invitations
Book your caterers
Buy your wedding dress
Book your Cornwall wedding photographer
Secure your evening entertainment
Month Two
Book your florist
Arrange a cake
Buy or rent the groom’s/groomsmen suits
Buy your bridesmaids dresses
Month Three
Reception decorations
Arrange stag and hen parties
Bride and groom shoes / accessories
Buy gifts for the bridal party
Any final tasks
When you’re planning a wedding in just three months, it’s important to have a timeline of events that you should follow. The main tasks and most important wedding planning jobs have been separated above into a three month time span. There are other little jobs in between which you will also need to consider but below are the main things (in detail) you will need to cover off …
The Venue
Before you start deciding on the style of wedding bouquet you want or what bridal accessories you’re going to wear, you need to make sure the foundations for your wedding are put in place and this means booking your wedding venue.
With three months to plan your wedding, it’s certainly worth looking for a wedding venue that advertises late availability and mid week offers.
If you are getting married in Cornwall, there are certainly plenty of beautiful wedding venues to choose from, whether you fancy a wedding by the sea or a barn wedding in the breathtaking Cornish countryside.
Invitations
As soon as your venue is booked, send out your wedding invitations. Save the dates usually come out first but with just three months until the wedding, you can skip this step and send out something as soon as you have booked your venue and confirmed a ceremony time.
The quickest way to make sure that your invitations are received and noted is to send them online, meaning that you don’t need to wait for them to be delivered.
Many online invitation companies offer great deals to couples who want to send their invitations this way, ensuring that they still look just as beautiful as a paper based invitation.
When it comes to the finer details and menu choices, you can send another email at a later date with those specifics.
Caterers
Your venue may include catering but if it doesn’t, then aim to book your caterers within a month of choosing your wedding venue.
Cornwall Wedding Photographer
Wedding photographers can get booked sometimes as much as two years in advance, so aim to contact a few that you like now with your chosen date.
With only three months to plan your wedding, it’s a good idea to ask for recommendations from friends and family to help you with your search.
Florist / Cake / Evening Entertainment
All of these are key elements of your wedding day and need to be booked within the first month of planning.
Wedding Dress
Most bridal wear boutiques will require a minimum of six months for your dress to be ordered in, so be prepared to shop for sample dresses off the rail.
Lots of boutiques will offer sample dresses but to save any time being wasted, it’s best to check what they offer before you arrive at an appointment to avoid being disappointed. Failing that, you can always see what the high street has to offer.
Another option for buying a wedding dress includes using a second hand wedding dress seller, either through a private seller or a professional wedding retailer. Second hand dresses (once professionally cleaned) can still be found in perfect condition for a snip of their original cost.
Suits
When it comes to the groom and his groomsmen’s suits, a bespoke or tailored style isn’t usually possible in a short space of time, so hiring a wedding suit is a good option. Plenty of high street brands will offer this kind of service and are pretty good at working to a shorter time scale.
Bridesmaid Dresses
Bridesmaid dresses don’t take as long to organise in comparison to the bride’s wedding dress but depending on how long you leave it, it’s worth considering mismatch bridesmaid dresses.
This option has become quite popular in recent years due to differing body shapes and fashion styles suiting different types of girls. You could consider different styles of dress, or maybe different shades of the same colour but it’s worth keeping this option in mind, just in case it proves difficult to find the same dress in all of the sizes that you need.
Reception decor
Some wedding venues will include chair sashes, table cloths and centre-pieces on booking, so it’s worth checking what’s included before you invest in your own decorations.
If you’re buying it all yourself, keep the reception decor simple. Websites like Etsy are great for bulk buying beautiful decor items for any themed wedding and you can combine an order for reception decor with wedding favours and other wedding items to save using multiple retailers.
Bridal Beauty
If your busy wedding planning schedule leaves you no time for hair and make-up trials, invest some time in watching YouTube tutorials and ask a friend to watch with you. You can spend quiet wedding planning evenings practicing your newly found skills and will look gorgeous, even without a professional’s help!
Summary
Ask others for help
One of the most important things you can do when planning a wedding in three months is to not be afraid to ask friends and family for help. If someone offers to take charge of something, let them. There is a lot to do and it doesn’t hurt to hand out some responsibility.
Consider people’s skills – If you have a friend who is a dab hand at flower arranging or a member of your family who is a keen baker, speak to them about how they could help.
If you find yourself in a situation where you can’t find suppliers with your chosen date available, these creative folk will certainly come in handy.
Be prepared to make sacrifices
Not having the exact shade of pale pink napkins you wanted won’t be the end of the world in three months time when you have tied the knot, so don’t waste your time and energy sweating the small stuff. With such a short time scale in which to plan your wedding, there will be some things that you will need to let go but it will be easier than you think.
Enjoy it
Planning a wedding in three months is a huge challenge but it can be done. People have planned weddings in a much shorter space of time and it’s really important to not let wedding stress get on top of you. The most important thing will be those nearest and dearest to you in attendance on your very special day. Nothing else will matter.
If you are planning a wedding in Cornwall in six months time and are looking for a Cornish Wedding Photographer for your special day, please feel free to contact me. I would love to hear your wedding day plans.