1. Get The Marriage License

The time-frame in which you get your marriage license depends on what your respective state or county laws dictate. Some states require at least five days before obtaining the license.

2. Taste Your Reception Food

There’s nothing worse than booking a contract with a vendor and finding out you don’t fancy their product or services. That said, there is nothing more important than food at an Indian wedding.

If you already have a restaurant or caterer in mind, visit the restaurant for dinner a few times and familiarize yourself with the menu before booking. After booking, ensure that you have adequate time to taste the food on your menu and still allow changes.

3. Confirm Logistics With Vendors

The last thing you need on your big day is a misunderstanding about who was supposed to be where and when they were supposed to get there. A couple weeks before your wedding, set time aside to confirm the time all your vendors will arrive.

In addition, ensure that you’ve allotted adequate time for everything to be done once they arrive!

4. Your Final Dress Fitting

Once your wedding week begins and all the festivities start, it’ll be difficult to find the time to fix anything that may need to be altered. Not to mention, if you go shopping in the winter for your summer wedding, a lot can change in those six months.

Therefore, it’s important to try all of your outfits on at least two weeks in advance. This way, you can get anything that needs alterations done.

5. Packing Your Bags

It might sound crazy packing bags for a wedding but it’s super efficient. Separate your outfits, jewelry and other accessories by event and pack them into separate bags.

Pack all the bags in a suitcase a week before your festivities begin. This way, when the events arrive, you’re not scrambling around searching for the bindi that goes with a certain outfit, and the bangles that match another.

6. Planning The Honeymoon

While picking a destination and booking your flight ahead of time are common-sense, you may not remember to create a plan of action for after you arrive. Amidst wedding planning, we forget that the honeymoon may require additional reservations.

7. Your Makeup And Hair Trials

Whether or not your hairstylist or makeup artist offers you a trial, you should plan to have one at least three weeks before your wedding. This is important for two reasons:

It gives your stylist an idea of what you want and you can see what your ideas actually look like on you in order to reaffirm or veto some of your original plans.

8. Booking Elite Vendors

If you have someone in mind for photography, videography, catering, makeup and DJ, it’s important to book them in advance. Most vendors get booked as early as a year in advance so setting up a contract in that time frame is wise.

9. Creating A Wedding Timeline

Before your wedding day, either you or a wedding planner should create a timeline of the day. A basic hourly play-by-play usually suffices. The timeline includes when your family should meet for pictures, when the wedding should start, etc.

If the timeline is prepared ahead of time, all individuals involved have a chance to review and comply, making the wedding day less stressful!

10. Finalizing Your Budget

One of the most important factors in planning a wedding with multiple events is agreeing upon a budget. This should be one of the first things you discuss with all parties involved.

One of the best ways to tackle this is to meet with everyone, well before you begin your planning, and discuss what is a reasonable budget.