A passport renewal costs $130 and takes six to eight weeks door to door. A wedding dress can be ordered and altered in four months. Guess which one couples leave until the end.
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That’s the logic behind this timeline. The things that depend on a government office go first. The things that depend on a vendor go second. The things that depend only on you go last, because you can always stay up late the night before to finish a seating chart, and you cannot stay up late to get a passport.
Twelve months is comfortable. Nine is fine. Six is doable if you skip the dithering. Whatever you have, keep the order and compress the gaps. One note before the calendar: if a resort wedding is in play, Sandals ties its free package to how many nights you book, so the room reservation is step one rather than step three. Check the current Sandals offer and our fine-print breakdown before you fall in love with a date.
The whole year on one screen
| When | The job |
|---|---|
| 12 months | Budget, guest count, shortlist of destinations, legal-or-symbolic decision |
| 11 months | Sign the venue, hire the planner, buy travel insurance |
| 10 months | Save-the-dates out, wedding website live with real prices |
| 9 months | Passports renewed or applied for; photographer booked |
| 8 months | Room block reserved, transport plan set, welcome event chosen |
| 7 months | Attire ordered, wedding party told what to wear |
| 6 months | Legal-marriage document file started |
| 5 months | Ceremony time, floor plan, menu, flowers, hair and makeup |
| 4 months | Invitations mailed |
| 3 months | Vendors confirmed in writing, day-of schedule drafted, paperwork rechecked |
| 2 months | Final fittings, vows, photo list, nothing irreplaceable shipped |
| 1 month | Final count, balances paid, itinerary to guests |
| 2 weeks | Pack the six things you can’t replace |
| Wedding week | Arrive two days early, walk the site, hand off |
12 months out: decide what you can actually support
Set the budget, the target headcount, a shortlist of two or three destinations, and a date range. Don’t book anything off room photos. Price flights from the cities your essential people live in, check the weather for your month (not the annual average), and figure out which airport is really the closest. For the Riviera Maya that’s Cancun; for Jamaica’s north coast it’s Montego Bay, not Kingston, and the difference is a four-hour drive.
Decide now whether you’re getting legally married at the destination or signing at home and holding a symbolic ceremony there. This is not a detail. Jamaica needs you on the island 24 hours before the ceremony and the paperwork is straightforward. Mexico wants blood tests, certified translations, and usually a few days’ residency, and it varies by state. Italy needs a Nulla Osta from your consulate and weeks of lead time. Most couples we know who married in Mexico signed at the county clerk first and nobody at the beach could tell.
At this stage:
- Draft a guest list you could afford at full attendance.
- Ask your must-have people, privately, about conflicts.
- Check both passports. Expiration dates and blank pages.
- Read the destination’s official entry rules, not a blog’s summary of them.
- Get full venue proposals with taxes and service charges shown.
- Look at the rain backup for the ceremony and the dinner, not just one.
- Decide whether you want a planner based in the destination. For anything outside a resort, you do.
Keep the destination wedding checklist open beside this. It catches the operational stuff that isn’t tied to a month.
11 months out: sign the venue, then protect the date
Read the contract before you love the venue. You’re looking for payment dates (typically 25% at signing, the balance 30 to 60 days out), cancellation terms, room-block obligations, outside-vendor rules, event end times, backup-space language, minimum stays, and what happens if the property can’t deliver. Ask which currency governs and whether the rate can move. If the resort requires guests to book through a specific link or travel agent, understand that before you announce it.
Book the planner now. If a particular photographer is a priority, especially one flying in from home, start that conversation this month too; the good ones book spring dates a year out.
Buy travel insurance within two weeks of your first deposit if you want cancel-for-any-reason coverage, because most policies require it. Standard trip insurance and CFAR aren’t the same product. Read the exclusions.
10 months out: tell guests enough to plan
Send save-the-dates as soon as the contract is signed. For a destination wedding, a save-the-date is a travel notice, so it needs more than two names and a palm tree: the island or city, the country, the date, the website, and a line saying the invitation will follow.
Put the practical stuff on the website the same week:
- The right airport and the real transfer time
- Suggested arrival and departure days
- Hotel details and the rate range, even if provisional
- A passport reminder
- Whether children are invited
- Which events you’re hosting
- One person to email with travel questions who is not the bride
Link to official passport and entry pages rather than paraphrasing rules that change. The beach wedding invitations guide covers the paper side as you build it.
9 months out: passports, before it gets expensive
The U.S. State Department currently lists routine processing at 4 to 6 weeks and expedited at 2 to 3, not counting mail time, which can add two weeks on each end. A renewal is $130. A first adult passport is $165. Expediting is $60 more, and if you’re inside two weeks you’re paying for an appointment at a passport agency and possibly a flight to get there.
Those are today’s estimates, not a reason to wait. A name mismatch, a damaged cover, or a missing document adds weeks. Renew now if there’s any doubt, and confirm that the name on every flight booking matches the passport exactly, middle name included.
Many countries want six months of validity past your travel dates. Some don’t. Check the destination’s entry page and your airline’s rules for every traveler in your party instead of repeating the six-month rule as gospel.
Book the photographer this month if you haven’t, plus any band or DJ you care about.
8 months out: lock down the guest experience
Reserve the room block or publish your lodging recommendation. Understand the difference between a courtesy block (usually 10 to 20 rooms, no penalty if they go unsold) and a contracted block, which typically carries an attrition clause: fill 80% of the rooms or pay for the empties. Know which one you signed.
Plan transport from the airport and between properties. You don’t have to pay for airport transfers, but guests need accurate options and prices. You do need to cover transport between the main hotel and any hosted event that’s hard to reach.
Pick the welcome event you can actually host. One drinks-and-appetizers gathering is plenty. Don’t announce a sunset cruise while hoping the budget works out.
7 months out: order clothes for the real climate
Order attire with production and alterations in mind; most bridal gowns take four to six months to arrive before fittings even start. For heat and humidity, care about fabric weight, lining, structure, and how the outfit feels after an hour, not after a spin in the shop.
Decide how every important garment travels. Carry it on. Most narrow-body planes have no closet, so the bag goes in the overhead. Ask the venue who steams and with what.
Tell the wedding party what to wear now, so they have time to order and tailor. Our guide to choosing a beach wedding dress gets into fabric, silhouette, sand, and wind.
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6 months out: start the legal-document file
Get the current requirements from the registrar’s office or a wedding professional who does legal ceremonies there every week. Venue marketing copy is not a source.
Depending on the country and your history, the file may include:
- Birth certificates, sometimes certified copies issued within the last year
- Passports
- Divorce decrees or death certificates from prior marriages
- Name-change records
- Certified translations
- Apostilles, which in most U.S. states take a week or three and cost $5 to $20 per document, plus courier time
- Witness names and passport numbers
- An application filed before you arrive
That list is deliberately not universal. Confirm which originals travel with you, which copies can be uploaded, how recent documents must be, and whether names must match to the letter. If the whole process feels absurd for a 15-minute ceremony, sign at home. Your guests will not be able to tell the difference and neither will your photos.
5 months out: design the day
Set the ceremony time based on sunset, tide, heat, and your photographer’s light, which usually means starting 60 to 90 minutes before sunset. Sketch the floor plan and the sound plan. Decide whether you need an arch, an aisle, reserved seats, a microphone, fans, shade, or a mat over the sand.
Build the menu and bar. Ask how the venue handles allergies and when it needs final selections. Choose flowers that grow within a few hundred miles of the venue; imported blooms and shipped props are where budgets and shipments go to die.
Book hair and makeup, and ask for a trial. Ask the artist how the schedule changes for humidity, for four people instead of one, and for a 10 a.m. ceremony.
4 months out: mail the invitations
Four months is early for a hometown wedding and right for this one. Guests already have the headline from the save-the-date; the invitation confirms hosted events, dress code, the website, and how to RSVP.
Set the RSVP deadline eight weeks out, which is usually a month before the venue’s final-count date. That month is for chasing the 15% of people who never reply. Don’t make the two dates the same.
Don’t backfill a declined seat with someone who wasn’t on a real second list. A destination invitation that arrives 10 weeks before the wedding announces exactly what it is.
3 months out: turn plans into confirmations
Look at who has booked. Nudge anyone essential who hasn’t, and leave the other adults alone; they have the information. Confirm transfers, event transport, photography, flowers, music, officiant, and beauty services in writing, with arrival times.
Draft a day-of schedule covering vendor arrival, setup, getting ready, portraits, guest transport, the ceremony, family photos, cocktails, dinner, speeches, and the ride home.
Reread the marriage paperwork. Confirm the submission and arrival steps with whoever owns them at the destination. Make copies and keep them somewhere other than with the originals.
2 months out: finish anything that has to travel
Final fittings. Break the shoes in on carpet. Buy travel sizes of products you already use. Pack only the decor that earns its bag fee.
Don’t ship legal documents, rings, wedding clothes, or anything sentimental. If you ship ordinary decor, allow for customs, name who receives and stores it, and decide what happens to it afterward.
Write the vows. Give the officiant a pronunciation guide. Keep the photo list short and specific.
1 month out: close the gaps
Submit the final count by the contract deadline. Confirm meals, seating, transfers, and the rain plan. Send guests the final itinerary with local times and a day-of contact who isn’t either of you.
Pay balances through the method in the contract. Have a second card and some cash in a separate place. Check the official travel advisory and entry rules one more time, and download reservations and vendor contacts for offline access.
2 weeks out: pack the six things first
- Passports and the legal documents
- Rings
- Wedding clothes and shoes
- Prescription medication, original packaging
- Vendor contacts and confirmations
- Payment methods
Those go in the carry-on or personal item, subject to airline and security rules. Photograph every document too, but don’t assume a registrar will accept a phone screen.
Check the forecast for packing purposes only. The real weather decision happens at the time you agreed with the venue, not at 3 a.m. in a hotel bed.
Wedding week: arrive early and let go
Land at least two days before the ceremony. Confirm the legal appointment, meet the coordinator, walk the ceremony route, look at the backup room, and test the mic where you’ll stand.
Steam clothes early enough to fix a problem. Put rings, documents, vows, and accessories in labeled envelopes. Hand tip envelopes to one trusted person.
Send one short update to guests through the channel you already set up. Do not start a new group chat.
Then eat, drink water, and stop managing. The timeline did its job.
If you have six months instead of twelve
Do months 12 through 9 in the first two weeks: budget, list, legal decision, venue contract, passports, save-the-dates. Get the photographer the same week as the venue. Send invitations at three months with a six-week RSVP. Buy attire off the rack or from a designer with quick-ship stock, and sign the legal paperwork at home rather than racing a foreign registrar. Everything else on the list compresses without breaking. The two things that don’t compress are passports and the marriage license, which is why they’re at the top.
