Find a lovely engagement ring for your fiancée.
Set a wedding date with your bride. Talk about the size and formality each of you envisions. If you plan to be married in a church or temple, talk with your…
Nine months (or longer) before the wedding
Find a lovely engagement ring for your fiancée.
Set a wedding date with your bride. Talk about the size and formality each of you envisions. If you plan to be married in a church or temple, talk with your clergy to make sure the date you’ve chosen works.
Draw up a guest list from you and your parents.
Six to nine months before the wedding
Ask family and/or friends to be in your wedding.
Decide on your wedding attire and that of your attendants. Your fiancée will be happy to help!
Start planning your honeymoon. Though your bride may want to help, she’s going to be insanely busy. Take some initiative! Buy some travel magazines and read the Sunday travel section in your newspaper. Both are full of information on destinations near and far. Send for brochures. Also, talk with well-traveled friends, family, and colleagues, and get recommendations from travel agents—they can offer terrific, all-inclusive packages at great prices.
Four to six months before the wedding
Select a wedding ring for your bride. Have it engraved and sized if necessary.
Reserve a site for the rehearsal dinner.
Arrange accommodations for attendants, family, and close friends.
Help your bride make wedding-gift registry selections.
Shop for attendants’ gifts. Leave ample time to find things that are personal and meaningful.
Two to three months before the wedding
Firm up your honeymoon plans. Make final decisions and payments.
Apply for passports if needed for the honeymoon.
Four to six weeks before the wedding
Be sure you and your fiancée have all the necessary blood tests, physical exams, birth certificates, and baptismal papers to obtain a marriage license.
Make necessary changes in insurance: medical, household, fire, personal property, and life.
Two to four weeks before the wedding
Apply for marriage license with your bride.
Give the wedding party, close friends, and family (and if possible, any out-of-town guests) information regarding the time and place of the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.
If you’ll move after the wedding, fill out change-of-address cards (available at the post office).
One week before the wedding
Give your rehearsal dinner caterer or restaurant a firm number of attendees.
Double-check your honeymoon plans.
Begin packing for your honeymoon.
Attend your bachelor’s dinner (probably given by your best man and groomsmen).
The day before the wedding
Rehearse your ceremony with the bridal party. Give your ushers the names of reserved seating guests. Have a good time at your rehearsal dinner.
The day of the wedding
Bring your marriage license to be signed.
Give your best man the officiant’s check to handle.
Remember to bring your bride’s wedding ring and try to arrive at the wedding site with your attendants an hour before the ceremony.
Have fun! Congratulations.
