How do you start planning a wedding and when is the right time to start?

You have to pick a date as soon as possible and book ceremony and reception locations as soonas you can. Those are often booked up quickly. My fiance and I just started looking around at my church and hotels about a year and a half before our wedding some places were already booked for our day. It's important to have a couple of backup dates in mind just in case. My sister had to change her date 3 times before finding a reception place available on the same day as the church. You need to also have a rough idea of how many people you want to invite so that you can book locations big enough. Also you need to pick people to be in your wedding party and ask them ASAP. After you do that you start with most important things first and go from there. Things like caterer if your reception place doesn't have one, colors and attire, cake, flowers, rings, dj, photograher, limo etc. until everything is done.

Google things like wedding planner or wedding list and you should find a lot of sites with helpful lists of things that should be done and how far in advance they should be decided and booked. Lots of things have early deadlines so start soon!

I think a year to a year and a half is plenty of time to plan a wedding. You don't want to give yourself a short amount of time b/c then you'll be rushed. Besides, a lot of reception halls and churches book a year in advance. Plus, this will give you a good amount a time to pay everything off and plan all the small details. You'll be able to take you time planning everything, and shopping around for the best deals!

Its best to start planning a wedding like 6 months to a year before your wedding date. The best place to start when your planning would be your wedding colors, what kind of wedding you want, who your maid/matron of honor and/or bridesmaids are going to be. Also you should decide how much your willing to spend on your wedding and make a budget.

As soon as you can is my answer. You should at least start getting catalongs and thing to get some ideas, There are so many choices out there it is hard to decide.

You need to start with what YOU & your FIANCE` want. Then you need to get organized & stay organized. There are good bridal sites online with information.

You can also email me with your address here or on my site,
www.weddingvowsandpromises.com I have a checklist (& one for the groom) I give to my brides. Put it in a binder along with your ideas, fabric swatches, color choices, phone numbers; you get the idea. It will be easy to budget your time & money once you know what you want & what you have to do.

When you get engaged and you decide the date. Once you have the date, start working on getting people to come and be part of it. Then the other stuff, like DJ for the dance, caterer for the meal, etc. Don't do it all or even a bunch last minute. Make the last things to do is checking that list twice that you made when you started. :o) Congrats, btw.

We are getting married next May and began plans and preparations about September past. We have our venue reserved, my fiance is an artist so she hand made our invites and response cards, we have a wedding bank account and I think we are pretty well set. Her dress and my suit have been purchased and she is going out with her bridesmaids next weekend to get their dresses. I have talked with my groomsmen and asked them all to purchase grey suits so they all match. Other than that all I can say is you need plenty of time to plan a wedding properly. But this is a guy's opinion and females might be better to respond.

Decide roughly when you would like to get married. It's easier if you don't get stuck on specific date.... looks for Church's, halls, hotels ect... where you have your reception at and what fits your budget. We gave our-self a year because it's sooo expensive to have a wedding, we need enough time to pay for it.
Also go on theknot.com - it's free to join and has great ideas and budget tools, it also tell you want you should be doing in each month. Also pick up a hardback wedding planner. I like Martha Stewards'- amazon.com

It's a balance of finding something you like and can afford. That takes the longest to pick out.

when you are ready to start, you will definitely know