You're newly engaged and now it's time to piece together your wedding team! As the nation's leader in special events, we know a thing or two about planning a wedding. One of the most important steps in the planning process is booking your wedding vendors. Timing is key with this process, so let's walk through the best time to book your wedding vendors . . .
You're probably aware that May through October is wedding season in most of the USA. What you may not know is, for wedding professionals, January through March is known as 'Engagement Season'. Believe it or not, the phone starts ringing on December 26th and it doesn’t start to slow down until a few weeks after Valentine’s Day. Don’t believe me? Wedgewood Weddings has nearly 50 wedding venues throughout the United States and we typically get 75% more visitors to our website in January than we do in the previous December.
Pro Tip: Book Your Wedding Vendors Before December 26th
Why does this happen? Obviously, a lot of couples get engaged over the holidays, but there are plenty more. Surprisingly, a lot of the people we meet in January and February have been engaged for several months but waited until after the New Year to start planning.
I have my theories as to why couples that get engaged over the summer and fall wait until January to start the planning process . . .
First of all, it’s hard to invest your initial down payments for a wedding venue or vendors right in the middle of the holiday shopping season. Second, I think that if you’re engaged but haven’t started planning, there is a good chance you’ll spend the holiday season listening to your friends and family hassle you about setting your wedding date. You may be motivated to start wedding planning just to quiet them. Finally, I think a lot of people have simply been procrastinating. For every eager beaver bride who has been ready to start planning since she was eight years old, we meet at least three brides with hectic schedules and tight budgets who feel a little overwhelmed by the whole process.
I totally sympathize with these brides. Wedding planning is a lot of work and getting started can be intimidating. But something happens psychologically at the turn of a new year. That calendar says, “2020” and procrastinating brides and grooms panic (“we wanted to get married in 2020 and now it is 2020″). They pick up the phone the first week of January and join the masses, scheduling their initial consultation.
If you are one of those people, engaged but haven’t started planning, I urge you to start now. Come January you will be fighting the crowds for available dates. It’s hard to get a deal from a vendor when they’ve got a line of potential clients out the door. It might not seem fair, but it is the reality. Mind you, most nobody books a wedding between Thanksgiving and Christmas because they're busy enjoying the holidays. If you want to be the one with the leverage, call your potential wedding vendors ASAP—hopefully before December 25.
One last thing to keep in mind: not only are you looking to book your favorite vendors, but you're often looking to book certain vendors together. The more vendors that you're sold on booking, the more that will narrow down your ease of choosing a date. Pssst—That's all the more reason to work with a team that has a curated list of preferred vendors like Wedgewood Weddings. 😉