Wedding planning checklist: a month-by-month timeline

Last updated: 28 October 2026 · By Quicksloth

Just engaged? Here is everything to do, in order, from the first conversation about money to the thank-you cards: 70 tasks in eight phases, each with the week it's usually done and a one-line tip.

Short version: set the budget and the rough guest count first, then book the venue; the date and the place decide almost everything else. Photographer, caterer and music come next, in the months 10 to 11 before the wedding. Invitations go out about four months before, RSVPs are due four to five weeks before, the final guest count goes to the caterer about three weeks before, and most vendor balances fall due in the last month.

The timings are a typical plan for a wedding about a year away, not a rule. Your venue, your vendors' contracts and where you marry can change them.

Why so many couples start in winter

The holidays are proposal season. According to The Knot's article "The most popular day to get engaged" (updated 11 May 2020, read 20 October 2026), December is the most popular month to get engaged, with 19 percent of all proposals, and nearly 40 percent of engagements happen between November and February. That matches The Knot Worldwide's press release of 19 November 2018 (read 20 October 2026), which put nearly 40% of engagements between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day, citing its 2017 Jewelry & Engagement Study. A jeweler's blog post of December 2025 attributes a higher share, about 47%, to The Knot's 2025 Real Weddings Study; we couldn't find that figure on The Knot's own pages, so take it as reported, not checked.

Either way, a lot of couples open their first wedding spreadsheet in January. If that's you, the first page of this timeline is the one that matters this month.

How to read the timeline

Each task has a weeks before number: the week before the wedding when it's usually done. The due date is simply:

due date = wedding date − 7 × weeks before

For a wedding on Saturday 2 October 2027, "Visit and book the venue" (48 weeks) is due on 31 October 2026, "Send save-the-dates" (36 weeks) on 23 January 2027, "Send the final guest count to the caterer and venue" (3 weeks) on 11 September 2027, and "Send thank-you cards" (2 weeks after) on 16 October 2027.

The phases are labels for groups of tasks, not hard limits: the "12+ months before" phase runs from week 52 down to week 42 (about ten months before), because booking the big vendors takes a few weeks after the venue is settled.

The timeline, phase by phase

All 70 tasks, in the order they come up. "Optional" marks the ones many couples skip.

12+ months before (14 tasks)

9–12 months before (7 tasks)

6–9 months before (9 tasks)

4–6 months before (8 tasks)

2–4 months before (8 tasks)

1–2 months before (7 tasks)

The last weeks (10 tasks)

After the wedding (7 tasks)

Engaged for less than a year?

Many engagements are shorter than the 52 weeks this timeline starts from. Say you get engaged on 25 December 2026 and pick Saturday 2 October 2027: that's 40 weeks. On the day you start, all 14 tasks of the first phase (weeks 52 to 42, due between 3 October and 12 December 2026) are already "late", and the two 40-week tasks are due the next day.

That's fine; it just changes the order of work for the first few weeks:

• Do the late tasks first, biggest week number first. Budget and guest count, then the venue and date, then the photographer, caterer and music. These are the ones that sell out.
• Skip what you don't need instead of carrying it around: a wedding website, a planner, a videographer. A task you decided against is done, not late.
• Don't move everything at once. From the second phase on, the timeline usually still fits; only the first one or two months are crowded.
• Six months or less? A full 70-task plan is more than a small wedding needs. Our Micro Wedding Planner has a shorter six-month checklist of 36 tasks for up to 50 guests.

Get the dates for your own wedding

This checklist is the Checklist tab of our Simple Wedding Planner, for Excel and Google Sheets. Type your wedding date once and all 70 due dates fill in. Overdue tasks turn red and done tasks turn green; change "Weeks before" to move a task, set it to Skip if it doesn't fit your wedding, or add your own tasks in the empty rows below. The Start Here tab counts the tasks done and overdue, next to your budget and your RSVPs. In the example that comes filled in with the file (a wedding on 24 July 2027), 13 of the 14 first-phase tasks are done or skipped; the optional wedding website is left open on purpose, so you can see an overdue row in red. The planner is set to Skip with a note ("Mia (sister) runs the day") and the venue has its booking note. The example's dates are fixed, so later tasks that are due before the day you open it show in red. It's available in our Etsy shop.

Working on the money side too? Wedding budget breakdown: a worked example with deposits and due dates follows one $25,000 budget from suggested amounts to the balances due in the last four weeks.

Sources

• The Knot, The most popular day to get engaged, by Sarah Hanlon, updated 11 May 2020, read 20 October 2026: December 19 percent of proposals; nearly 40 percent between November and February ("our data from an internal study").
• The Knot Worldwide, Nearly 40% of engagements take place Thanksgiving through Valentine's, press release of 19 November 2018, read 20 October 2026: stats from The Knot 2017 Jewelry & Engagement Study.
• Laura Diamonds blog, Welcome to engagement season, 18 December 2025, read 20 October 2026: about 47% between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day, attributed to The Knot's 2025 Real Weddings Study (not linked there).

The tasks, timings and tips are our own, from the Checklist tab of our wedding planner. We used AI tools to help write the planner and this page; every date above was checked with a separate calculation.