Almost all the stress in a destination wedding comes from doing things in the wrong order. This is the right one.
Twelve months out
Decide the region and the month. Not the date, not the venue: the region and the month. Everything else hangs off these two. How to choose the region.
Decide the ceremony route. Legal in Türkiye or symbolic. This determines whether you have a document process with a deadline attached. Legal or symbolic.
Send the save-the-date. With the airport name in it, not the venue name. Guests price flights before anything else.
Ten to twelve months out
Choose and hold the venue. A deposit secures the date. Above fifty guests we recommend a visit; if you cannot travel, a live video walk-through at your ceremony hour. The eleven questions.
Get the planner assigned by name. You should know who is running your wedding from this point, and they should be the person who priced it.
Agree the guest number you are planning to. It will change. Having a working number lets everything else be quoted.
Eight months out
Send the guest page. Flights, visas, the room block link, and an honest indication of what four nights will cost. The exact content.
Open the room block. Seventy percent of expected rooms, not a hundred. How blocks work.
Book photography. The good ones go first and they are the supplier you least want to compromise on.
Six months out
Close the room block. This is a real deadline. Unclaimed rooms go back to the hotel and your late bookers pay the public rate.
Start the documents, if you are marrying legally. Six months is comfortable for the UK and Ireland, tight for Germany. What the process involves.
Confirm the ceremony time against the actual sunset and shade line for your date. This is a five-minute check that changes photographs.
Four to five months out
Menu tasting. In person if you can travel. It is the visit couples remember. Otherwise menus with photographs and a call.
Floral and styling design. After the venue is confirmed, never before, because the venue determines how much you need.
Music booked, with the curfew confirmed in writing. Why it matters.
Three months out
Final supplier approvals. Every supplier named, contracted and approved by you. Nothing should be provisional after this point.
Transport plan drafted against actual flight arrival times as guests confirm.
Documents posted, if you are on the legal route. Tracked mail.
Six weeks out
Send the practical guest page. Transfer times, dress code with a temperature attached, wet-weather plan, and the planner's phone number rather than yours.
Balance payment. Standard across the industry and it is ours. How payment works.
First draft of the run sheet.
Two weeks out
Final run sheet in your hands. Hour by hour, every supplier, every arrival, every fallback and every phone number. You approve it. Nothing on it is a surprise.
Final guest numbers to the venue. This is the last point at which the catering number can move.
The week of
Arrive at least three days before, four if you are marrying legally. Health appointment, document lodging, hair trial, and a day to do nothing.
Do not schedule anything on your guests' arrival day. They will land hot, tired and late. A welcome dinner on arrival night is the single most common regret we hear.
The day
You do nothing operational. The planner is on site from the first delivery to the last song. Your only job is to be there, which sounds glib and is the entire point of hiring anyone. What we do and what stays yours.
If you have less than twelve months
It compresses. Six months is comfortable for most weddings. Three is possible for a small one. Eight to ten weeks works for an elopement.
What does not compress is the document process on the legal route and your guests' flight prices. Those are the two constraints that a short timeline actually costs you.
