Need advice

Hi girls again.
Will you please advise me when did you start looking and booking your vendors.
Also I don't have slightest idea which vendor I should book first and I'm getting nervous thinking about everything I have to do.

So what should I do first?
Thanks in advance:

What are your priorities in order?

For us it was:
reception hall/church
my dress (to determine the look/style/etc
of the event)
dj
photo/video
next will be:
florist (after MOH and flower girl dress shopping
for colors)
hotel for night of reception
limo? (maybe mini moon first)
mini-moon with honeymoon initial plans

HTH

My order:

RH (do this first because they might have house vendors and stuff)
Photographer/videographer
DJ
Florist
Invitations

Somewhere in there do a dress!

We aren't doing limos and lots of other things so my list is probably much shorter than others...

You are luckily a winter bride so getting a later start shouldn't matter as much!

Hi!

congrats on your engagement.

My FH and I have had a long engagement, will be 2 years when we get married.

I think some vendors need to be booked at least 9 - 12 months in advance if possible, like DJ and photographer, videographer etc. It helps to book earlier to have more time to pay them and give you peace of mind. You should definitely start looking and booking.

Also, the plus side is you can save money because vendors raise their prices annually and when you sign a contract you lock in at that rate.

the first thinh we booked was our reception hall which was in Nov. 2006

RH 11/06
DJ 2/07
Flowers 2/07
Photographer 2/07
Video 10/07
out of town hotel 10/07
Limo 2/08
Dress ( I waited ) 4/08

I picked my colors and changed my mind about several things for bridesmaids and decor etc, so I am glad we waited for some stuff.

Reception Hall/Venue

Book ASAP!

I was so bummed the places I wanted most were all booked a year in advance.

definitely pick your RH first! If you are getting married in a church, you should book that too! Next I would say (b/c this is how we did it!), photo/video, dj, florist and i was looking for my dress during all of this as well. Then your hair and makeup and limos.

good luck!

We booked our RH first and will be booking the church this week.. after that, we're going to lay low and relax and enjoy the summer around October of 2008 we'll start booking the video, photographer, dj and florist.

I was shocked there were several dates (all of them in 2010 - some of them after April) that I could not have because they were already booked.

We booked our RH first, then:

photographer
DJ
my dress
flowers
OOT hotel
RD
officiant
video

Somewhere in there my BM and mother and FMIL ordered their dresses/shoes etc. and I bought my shoes, did makeup trials and finally had a hair trial I loved on Friday night last week!!!
Good luck!!

Like other people have said already it depends on your priorities.

Reception
church
photographer
dress
dj
I'm currently doing my floral appointments now
Have left to book
Limo and makeup