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 · Checklists
The Wedding Planning Checklist, Month by Month
Every task in the right order, from the first budget conversation a year or more out to the thank-you notes the week after. Print it, share it, and cross things off.
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 · Engagement
How to Buy a Diamond Engagement Ring: The 4Cs and Beyond
Cut, color, clarity and carat still decide what a diamond looks like. What has changed is everything around them: lab-grown stones, new grading reports and better questions about where a diamond comes from.
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 · Ideas
Wedding Themes: Ideas and How to Carry Them Off
Sixteen classic wedding themes, rethought for today: the palette, flowers, food and music for each, the one detail worth keeping, and the clichés to leave behind.
Planning · Wedding Party
Bridesmaid, Groomsman and Wedding Party Duties
What the maid of honor, best man, bridesmaids, groomsmen, ushers and children in the wedding party actually do, from the engagement to the last dance, and what the couple owes them in return.
Planning · Checklists
The Wedding-Day Emergency Kit: A Complete Checklist
A popped button, a sudden headache, a dead phone holding the vows. Everything worth packing for the wedding day, grouped by what goes wrong, and who should be carrying it.
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.