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Wedding Countdown

Pick your date and see exactly how long is left - days, hours, minutes, seconds - plus which day of the week you are marrying on and what you should be doing at this point in the planning. No sign-up, and nothing is saved.

Pick a date to start the countdown.

What should be done by when

Wedding timelines vary enormously with budget, season, and how much you are doing yourselves. This is the version that holds for most twelve-month engagements, and the countdown above surfaces whichever stage you are currently in.

  • 12 months. Venue and date first, because everything else is scheduled around them. Then the photographer - the good ones in any market are booked a year ahead, and for peak Saturdays, longer.
  • 9 months. Remaining vendors: catering, music, florist, officiant. Save-the-dates go out once you have engagement photos, which themselves take two to four weeks to come back, so book that session earlier than feels necessary.
  • 6 months. Attire ordered - dresses commonly need four to six months plus alterations. Guest list finalised as actual names and addresses rather than a number.
  • 4 months. Invitations ordered, menu confirmed, cake tasted.
  • 2 months. Invitations posted, with an online wedding RSVP form for replies - it collects meal choices and plus-ones in one place and saves you transcribing reply cards into a spreadsheet later. Check your state's marriage licence rules now too: several have waiting periods between applying and the ceremony, and some licences expire if unused.
  • 1 month. Final headcount to the caterer, seating chart done, day-of timeline sent to every vendor in writing.
  • 2 weeks. Set up your guest photo album and print the QR cards. This is the right time - early enough to test, late enough that the link is fresh.
  • 1 week. Delegate. Give someone else the vendor contact list so you are not answering your phone on the morning.

The day of the week matters more than people expect

The countdown tells you which weekday your date falls on, and it is worth knowing early because it affects cost and attendance more than almost any other single choice.

Saturday is the default and the most expensive - venues and vendors price their peak rate against it, and it books out furthest ahead. Friday and Sunday commonly cost meaningfully less for the same venue, at the price of some guests needing to take a day off. Weekday weddings can be dramatically cheaper and suit small guest lists, but expect a real drop in attendance from anyone travelling.

If your date is fixed by sentiment, none of this applies and you should ignore it. If it is flexible, checking what weekday a few candidate dates land on before you commit is ten minutes that can move the budget noticeably.

The last two weeks, specifically

This is the stretch that goes wrong, because everything left is small and nobody owns it. The fix is to write down who owns what, rather than assuming.

  • Confirm arrival times with every vendor in writing. Verbal confirmations from four months ago are not confirmations.
  • Put the QR cards where they need to be on the day, in a labelled box, given to a named person. Not “someone will sort it”.
  • Test the photo album link on a phone that is signed out of everything, on cellular data. This catches the two problems that otherwise appear at the reception.
  • Write a one-page timeline and send it to the wedding party, both sets of parents, and every vendor. One page, not a spreadsheet.
  • Decide who is answering the phone on the morning, and make sure it is not either of you.

What happens after the countdown hits zero

The waiting does not actually stop on the day, which surprises people. Rough expectations for what comes back when:

  • Guest photos - the same night, if you set up a shared album. This is the only thing you will have to look at in the first few weeks.
  • Photographer sneak peeks - a handful of edited images within a few days.
  • The full photo gallery - typically four to eight weeks, longer in peak season.
  • The video - eight to sixteen weeks, and sometimes considerably more.
  • An album - add another four to eight weeks after you approve the design, and see the album maker comparison if you are printing it yourselves.

That gap between the wedding and the gallery is the entire reason guest photo albums exist. It is a long time to have nothing to look at.

FAQ

Common questions

Enter your date in the countdown above and it will show days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining, along with the weekday your wedding falls on and the planning milestone that matches how far out you are.

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