Complete Wedding Preparation Timeline: What Really Happened

In a gist, here is our actual wedding preparation timeline. Our wedding date is March 4, 2024. We officially started a little less than a year before our wedding date. It’s listed chronologically, from the first accomplishment down to a week before the wedding.

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9 Months Before

These are our accomplishments from March 15, 2023 until June 3, 2023.

6 Months Before

Time period for the items below is from June 5, 2023 until September 3, 2023.

• Did our pre-nup shoot
• Tried some wedding dresses
• Booked our mobile bar
• Secured our lights, sounds and dancefloor
• Sealed the deal with our wedding coordinator
• Booked the bridal HMUA
• Signed the contract with our photographer & videographer

Click here to see more details on the wedding preparation timeline 6 months before the wedding.

3 Months Before

We accomplished the following from September 10, 2023 to November 27, 2023.

• Had our food tasting
• Booked our caterer
• Finalized our grazing table supplier
• Selected the groom’s groomer
• Booked the entourage HMUA
• Ordered our wedding cake
• Booked our wedding stylist/florist
• Ordered groom’s suit (cancelled because quality’s not good)
• Sent our e-invitations
• Done proposing to our bridesmaids and groomsmen

2 Months Before

Below were actualized on December 9, 2023 to January 3, 2024.

• Ordered another set of our Certificate of No Marriage (CENOMAR)
• Booked our coffee drink supplier
• Attended to our Marriage License
• Booked our photobooth supplier
• Purchased the groom’s shoes
• Ordered wedding favors

1 Month Before

We checked the following on our to-do list from January 8, 2024 until February 2, 2024.

• Ordered groom’s suit & accessories
• Bought bride’s shoes
• Ordered the wedding dress
• Bought our lawn games
• Finalized the wedding invitations
• Had our invitations printed
• Attended Catechetical Instruction Seminar, Pre-CANA seminar and Natural Family Planning Seminar
• Started practicing our first dance
• Started with the physical treatments

2 Weeks Before

We completed the tasks listed below from February 7, 2024 until February 19, 2024.

• Completed the gifts to our principal sponsors
• Booked our accommodation
• Ordered groom’s dress shirt
• Booked van transfers
• Had the wedding dress dry-cleaned
• Started giving out our printed invitations

1 Week Before

The final things we did to be finally ready from February 22, 2024 until March 3, 2024.

• Got our marriage banns reply
• Completed our DIYs
• Purchased all the wedding needs
• Picked up the groom’s suit
• Finalize headcount and seatplan
• Wrote our vows
• Sent final instructions to suppliers
• Finalized all payments
• Had our wedding rehearsal
• Handed our marriage banns reply to our ceremony church
• Reviewed our marriage certificate
• Handed all payables to our bestman and wedding coordinator
• Discussed the turnover boxes to our coordinator

Click here to see more details on the final wedding preparations from 3 months before until a week before the wedding.

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While most were done early and just in time, there are still some items we could have done and settled earlier.

1. We should have done the required church seminars earlier. These are the Catechetical, Pre-CANA and Natural Family Planning seminars. They are required documents before our marriage banns are to be sent to our parishes. We were a bit stressed by it because we have no control on its time. To share, our wedding church took the responsibility to ship it straight to our own respective parishes. However, the admin wrote my contact number wrong. We had to track my marriage bann document and get it personally. Our intent to marry was announced for three consecutive Sundays and we had to get the marriage bann replies. We had to hand it over to our ceremony church. Only then will our marriage certificate be prepared.
2. It could have been better if we attended to our dress and suits sooner. This was also the cause of our stress. I wish I was able to try more dresses to widen my perspective. I think I was just lucky that the dress I ordered online suits me beautifully and perfectly. For my husband, he thinks that he could have a more perfect fit if he had his suit done earlier. Our mistake was we opted for the cheaper price for his first suit. It ended so badly. My anxiety rose and I panicked. We went to another tailor that’s been in the industry for a long time immediately the day after. Good thing the lead time’s still within our timeline. However, there were minimal issues that could’ve been fixed if only we had more time. Quality tailors require more than 3 months to do. Also, we weren’t satisfied with the dress shirt that they made so we went to another tailor for it. We ended up spending more rather than saving.
3. We wish we did our DIYs beforehand. My husband and I have underestimated the time it takes to do our DIYs. Also, we should have ordered the things we needed earlier. We started doing our DIYs 2 weeks before the wedding. I think that was late. We slept in late most of the time. It was another cause of our stress.

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Thank you so much for reading this blog post! Let me know in the comments below if you have any thoughts about this post. Here are other wedding blog posts you might like.

• What Made us Ready for the Wedding
• Checked on the List 6 Months Before the Wedding
• Here’s What Happened 9 Months Before the Wedding