Wedding Checklist

12 Months Before

• Buy a wedding planner or organizer.
• Talk with your fiance and all parents about the big picture: budget, overall style, size, possible dates, sites, and participants.
• Decide on the ceremony and reception sites, and reserve both. Wedding venues in major cities can book up a year in advance.
• Start shopping for your dress.
• Have a good idea of the wedding's time and place, in order to search for something appropriate.
• Choose your attendants.
• Mail save-the-date cards, if you're marrying over a holiday weekend or in a location to which many guests will have to travel.
• Send your engagement announcement to the newspaper.

10 months before

• Start scouting for a caterer, baker, florist, musicians, photographer, and videographer.
• Visit your clergymember with your fiancé, if you're having a religious ceremony. (Some faiths require you to attend premarital courses.) Then meet to discuss the details two months before the wedding.

8 months before

• Book your caterer, baker, florist, musicians, photographer, and videographer.
• Choose and order your dress.
• Register for presents. Check your registry periodically, and, if necessary, add to it as items are purchased.
• Begin the guest list. Typically, half the list is allotted to the bride and her family and half to the groom and his family.

6 months before

• Research the honeymoon, but wait to visit a travel agent until you have a general idea of the type of trip you want.
• Plan the details with all the wedding professionals. Decide on the menu with your caterer, the bouquets with your florist, etc.
• Book a calligrapher, limos for the wedding party, and a portrait photographer. (Your wedding photographer may not do portraits.)
• Order wedding stationery--invitations, response cards, maps, programs, and thank-you notes. Proofread them upon delivery.

4 months before

• Book your honeymoon.
• Apply for passports if you'll need them.
• Finalize the guest list. Give complete names, with addresses and zip codes, to the calligrapher so she can start on the envelopes.
• Make an appointment for your first dress fitting.
• Order the wedding rings.
• Schedule the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.
• Visit the formalwear shop in the town where you'll be marrying-if the groom and ushers will be renting their outfits-to select and reserve their morning suits, strollers, or tuxedos. Book a hotel room for your wedding night.

2 months before

• Visit your officiant to go over vows, readings, music.
• Shop for lingerie and honeymoon clothes.
• Have your portrait taken.
• If you are getting your makeup professionally done for the wedding, this is a good time for a trial run.
• Check to see if the state where you're marrying requires blood tests; if so, make an appointment with your doctor.
• Mail your invitations. To ensure you're using the right postage, take one complete invitation to the post office to be weighed.
• Choose gifts for your attendants.
• Arrange to transport your belongings, if either of you is moving. Send change-of-address information to the post office.
• Get name-change forms from the department of motor vehicles, Social Security office, credit-card issuers, etc., if you're taking your fiancé's name.

6 weeks before

• Have the final dress fitting.
• Pick up the rings.
• Make an appointment with your hairstylist to do a practice run with your headpiece; book her for the wedding.
• Get programs printed. Send your announcement to the newspapers.

2 weeks before

• Get the marriage license.
• Submit lists of must-take shots to the photographer and videographer, and your playlist to musicians.
• Arrange the seating plan. Write out table and place cards.
• Confirm honeymoon reservations.
• Break in your shoes. Scuff the soles to avoid slipping.
• Write toasts for the rehearsal dinner and reception.

1 week before

• Pack for the honeymoon; get your going-away clothes ready.
• Check about using your ATM card at your honeymoon site. If traveling abroad, purchase a small amount of the local currency.
• Give the final guest count to your caterer.
• Keep up with thank-you notes.
• Remind all attendants of the rehearsal details.
• Throw the bridesmaids' party, at which you'll distribute gifts.
• Pick up your dress a few days before the wedding.
• Give copies of ceremony readings to those doing them.

1 day before

• Treat yourself and your mom to a manicure.
• Hold the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.
• Go to bed early and try to get a good night's sleep.

Day of the Wedding

• Eat breakfast-nerves don't mix with an empty stomach.
• Splurge on a massage. (Raid your "emergency" fund.)
• Make sure to have fun, remember, and enjoy your wedding!