Happy Saturday! Hopefully today is bright and cheery and you have some wonderful plans for the weekend, but before you shoot off have a read of this lovely article from Katy at Make My Day. Katy planned her own wedding in 6 months and has some wonderful advice full of humour for us today. Thanks so much Katy, take it away….

· The most important thing is the venue. Booking your wedding with less than 6 months to go before the big day really limits your venues and dates, but surprisingly we found most places had availability for Summer 2010.  If you want a specific date then you really need to book early to avoid disappointment. We thought May or September sounded like nice months, plus we didn’t think we would get a Saturday in July or August, but due to various reasons (including the recession), there were cancellations for Summer 2010 on a Saturday – so don’t always believe the hype that venues are always booked up well in advance. Also – do you really want to get married on a Saturday? We ended up getting married on a Friday as we wanted that specific  weekend and the Saturday was not available. If you are flexible with dates, finding a venue won’t be a problem. Venue Booked: 5 months to go!

· Are you having a church or do you need to sort out the registrar? The next most obvious thing to go hand in hand with booking the venue is booking the church/registrar. Naturally, not being one to rush into things (!) it took us 7 weeks between booking the church and venue. Church Booked: 4 months to go!

· Bridal gown and bridesmaid dresses are vital to get ordered as soon as possible. Despite being the fussiest person on the planet, I found my perfect dress in 6 days. My bridesmaids had one try-on session and found the dress they wanted to wear. With such late notice, we didn’t have much time to faff about, we had to make a decision and stick to it. – Dresses ordered: 4 months to go!

· Shoes – If you have awkward feet like mine, buy them as soon as possible so you don’t have to worry about them.

· Invitations are a must at this stage: If you are getting someone to make them, try and book them as early as possible to secure the date. By this stage (3 months to go), you may not find the supplier you want, but just ask anyway. People rarely refuse work and they may have had cancellations or may be so excited by your wedding they will find a way to squeeze them in. If you are making them yourselves, now is the time to make and send them. Post daytime invitations 12 weeks before and evening 6 weeks before. Invitations made and posted: 12 weeks to go!

· Secure your date with a florist – You don’t need to have designed the flowers at all, just secure the date and pay your deposit. Florist booked = 12 weeks to go.

· Photographer – We booked our fabulous photographer just 8 weeks before the wedding. I had spent the best part of 3 months researching photographic styles and people local to us and finally decided on one who was absolutely fabulous. Photographer Booked: 8 weeks to go.

· Hen Party/Stag Do – As long as it is local, cheap and fun, you can book it as late as 2 weeks before the date of the hen party. My hen party was 5 weeks before the wedding, so I booked the hen party just 7 weeks before the wedding. If you want it further afield, at such late notice I think you’d have trouble getting people to go and people would find it difficult to have that amount of money at short notice. 7 weeks to go!

· Music – Friend: “ Got everything sorted for the wedding now? You must be excited!!”  Me: “Yeah, just need a DJ now!” Oops, major oversight! We booked a fabulous DJ with just 5 weeks to go!

· Final balances of venues etc. need to be paid usually 4 weeks in advance of the wedding, but will vary between venues. 4 weeks to go!

· Hair trials – With 4 weeks to go, my hairdresser let me down, cue a mad panic to find a new one. I found several places willing to do it with just 4 weeks notice, it is never too later! Don’t be shy to speak up about what YOU want, not what they want!  4 weeks to go!

· Engagement Shoot – OK we cheated, we’d been engaged almost 16 months by the time we had this done, but it was such fun, I thoroughly recommend it! 3 weeks to go!

· Speak to florist and car people – Finalise what you need in terms of flowers and also the route you want your cars to take. 3 weeks to go!

· Makeup – After the engagement shoot, I decided my own makeup skills weren’t good enough for the wedding day so called in a professional makeup artist with just 2 weeks to go! She thought I was booking it for 2011!

· Chair covers –I’d ummed and ahhed over getting them, but with 2 weeks to go, I  booked a chair cover company. She also thought I was booking for 2011 and thought I was mad to leave it so late! (By the way best few hundred quid I spent on the wedding, makes ALL the difference to ANY room!) – 2 weeks to go!

· Make table plan and order of services –Don’t do the table plan too soon otherwise you’ll have last minute guest changes ruining your gorgeous designs! 10 days to go!

· Centrepieces – Depending on if you are DIYing or booking others, you could sort this out as late as about 10 days before if you were really struggling for time.