Planning · The Cover Story
How to Plan a Wedding, From Yes to Honeymoon
The complete order of operations — what to decide first, what to book when, and the handful of choices that make every other one easier.
The section
Planning
Where to start, what to book first, and how to keep the whole thing in proportion — the timeline, the budget, the guest list and the people.
Planning · Budget
What a Wedding Costs in 2026
Planning · Small Weddings
Micro-Weddings, Elopements and Courthouse Weddings
More in Planning
Planning · Budget
Friday, Sunday and Off-Season Weddings: What You Really Save
The day of the week moves the price more than almost anything else. Real venue rates, what changes for your guests, the truth about holiday weekends and the best quiet months, region by region.
Planning
Choosing Your Wedding Party
How many, whom, how to ask them — and how to make sure the people you love most still like you by the end of it.
Planning · Sustainability
How to Plan a Sustainable Wedding That Still Feels Generous
Lower-waste flowers, food that feeds someone the next day, rentals over purchases and a dress with a history. A practical guide that asks for good sense, not sacrifice.
Planning · Money
Prenuptial Agreements, Plainly Explained
What a prenup can and can’t do, why each of you needs your own lawyer, when to sign, what it costs, and how to raise the subject without spoiling dinner.
Planning
Choosing the Date: What Each Season Gives You
The month you marry decides what you pay, what’s in bloom, what the light does and who can come. How to choose with your eyes open.
Planning · Technology
Using AI to Plan Your Wedding, Sensibly
Where AI assistants genuinely save time, from budgets and timelines to seating puzzles and vendor quotes, and where they need a firm human hand: facts, privacy and the words you say at the altar.
Planning · People
The Guest List and the Seating Plan
How to cut a list without starting a feud, when to send what, and the method that makes seating take an evening instead of two weeks.
Planning · Money
The Wedding Budget, Honestly
Where the money actually goes, which numbers move when you push them, and the four decisions that set everything else.
From the archive
The whole archive →Advice and essays first published on Today’s Weddings between 1999 and 2019, kept as they were written.