Weddings
Every January my inbox does the same thing. Quiet through Christmas, then from about the 2nd it fills with couples who got engaged over the holidays and have just realised that the venue they want has eleven Saturdays left in 2027, and four of them are in February.
Engagement season is real. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day are the four biggest proposal days of the year, and they are all within eight weeks of each other. That means every couple who said yes is starting the same search at the same time.
So if you are reading this with a new ring on and a Pinterest board already started, here is the order to do things in. I am a caterer, so I am biased about number three, but the rest is just what I have watched work.
Not the exact date. The season and the year. Are you a summer 2027 couple or an autumn 2028 couple? This decides everything else, and it is the one decision you cannot outsource.
Two honest observations. Summer Saturdays go first and cost most. And if you are flexible on the day of the week, a Thursday or Friday opens up venues and suppliers that are otherwise gone, often for less money. Most people never consider it.
The venue sets the date, the guest count, the budget and the style, so it has to come before almost everything else. Book viewings now. By February the popular ones are running weekend open days with a queue.
One thing to ask at every viewing, whatever else you ask: do we have to use your caterer? Some venues have an in-house team or a fixed list. Some let you bring anyone. It changes your options completely, and it is a strange thing to discover after you have paid a deposit.
This is the one couples leave too late, because it feels like a detail. It is not. The food is what your guests remember, it is one of the two or three biggest costs, and good caterers do one wedding a day and book up in the same order as venues.
For 2027 summer weekends, we are already turning couples away. For 2028 we have space, but the peak dates will be gone by the spring. If you know your season and you have a venue shortlist, talk to caterers now, even before the venue is confirmed. A good one will hold a date for you while you decide. I have written more about how early is early enough.
Same logic. One wedding a day, the good ones go early, and unlike flowers or a cake you cannot fix a bad one afterwards. If you have a photographer you love, book them the same week you book the venue.
Flowers, music, cake, dress, stationery, transport. All of it matters and none of it is urgent in January. Do the four above first, then breathe, then start on these in the spring when you have a date and a venue and a budget that is real rather than guessed.
The couples who have the easiest year are the ones who make three big decisions quickly and then let the rest come slowly. The ones who have the hardest year make forty small decisions in January and then find the venue is gone.
- Cai
Before you book any of the above, have the money conversation. Not a precise one, but a rough one: what is the total, and who is contributing. It is much easier to have that conversation on the 28th of December than in a venue's office with a contract in front of you.
And if you would like a rough idea of what a fire-cooked wedding feast costs before you talk to anyone, I have written it down honestly.
Congratulations, by the way. Enjoy the first bit. Then come and talk to me about the food.
