What should you actually book first after you get engaged?

In this episode of Now That I’m Engaged, How Do I Get Married?, Kevin and August sit down with New York–based luxury wedding planner Sara Landon, known for designing highly curated, deeply personal celebrations with clarity and calm leadership.

Sara walks couples through one of the most important early planning concepts: the Big Three vendors—venue, photo/video, and entertainment. She explains why prioritizing these vendors early can dramatically reduce stress later, how waiting too long can limit options, and why these decisions shape the entire wedding experience. Drawing from years of hands-on planning, Sara also shares common mistakes couples make, how budgeting impacts decision-making, and why personality fit with your vendors matters just as much as talent.

Whether you’re newly engaged or feeling stuck in decision fatigue, this episode offers practical guidance to help you set priorities, avoid analysis paralysis, and move forward with confidence during engagement season.

Highlights

1. What the Big Three vendors are and why they should be booked first
2. How early booking helps reduce stress and protects availability
3. A budgeting rule of thumb to guide early decisions
4. Why vendor personality and communication matter
5. How to avoid analysis paralysis during engagement season
6. When flexibility becomes necessary, if you wait too long to book

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All right, folks, welcome to another episode of Now That I'm Engaged, How Do I Get Married? We have the one and only Sara Landon with us from Sara Landon Events. Sara, how are doing today?

All right.

Hi, it's so nice to meet you guys. I'm so happy to be here.

Great. We love it. OK, so we're to be talking about choosing the big three. So before we get into that, Sara, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how we got you here today?

Absolutely. Well, you know, I'm a wedding planner, so that's a good start. I'm based in New York City. I've had my company for about 12 years. I like to think I'm a really good time, so it tends to work out really well for me in planning because we are planning celebrations. ⁓ And I'm here because I know a lot about planning and the big three and how to get kicked off once you're engaged.

Hahaha

I love it. And I love that you said you're a good time, because it sounds like you're going to make it fun for them when they're planning their wedding. So all right. I love it. I love it. All right. So couples hear about the big three early in planning. But what does that actually mean, Sara?

think so. I've got a good track record, so we'll roll with that.

He

oh man, the big three. Now every time I do a kickoff, we start with the big three. And that means once you're engaged, the first three things that once they're booked, they cannot do more than one wedding in a day. Now every time someone gets engaged, they get so excited. They're like, oh my God, flowers. And like, love purple. But I have to remind people to like take a seat a little bit. one's picking flowers tomorrow. And let's take it back a step. So for me, I tend to think of the big three as your venue, photo, video, and entertainment.

Mm-hmm.

⁓ Of course, if you come to me with a venue, we can, you know, flex a little bit on like what your third thing is. But I got to put photo video in one category, even if sometimes it is two different companies.

Mm-hmm.

No, yeah, and I think you kind of touched on it a little bit, but just prioritizing. So when you meet with a couple, is this typically what you tell them first? Obviously, we're picking our priorities for planning, but I also just need to let you know these vendors are going to go fast and these are definitely ones that we want to book.

first and upfront.

⁓ yeah,

yeah. Everyone's priorities are a little bit different. You know, just like everything else, no two weddings are the same. So like if I were to try to put every couple into some little planner box where everything was exactly the same, we never deviated, what a fool's errand. Because every celebration is so unique and every couple is so unique and their story is unique and who they are as people. So on our first call, really, I'm like, give me everything. Give me your brain dump of stuff.

Mm-hmm.

Like, how are you feeling? And some people come to me like, well, my mom said this and my best friend did that. My sister, you know, is over here saying this, the other thing. I'm like, okay, we're people who take a lot of feedback, whether we accept it or not. And then some people come to me and they're like, I don't know, I just thought this venue was cool because it has brick in it. Cool, okay, well, we know nothing and that's also cool. We start from anywhere. I have produced over 400 weddings. There's not a lot of things that you can throw at me and I'm surprised by, but.

Wow.

There is an element to this as you're choosing your big three, where sometimes, because there is so much information out there from Pinterest to Instagram to TikTok to, God, people still use Facebook. Like, yeah, mean, pick your source and your best friend who got married last year, that we fall into a category called paralysis by analysis, where I go, hey guys, we're gonna spend the first month picking out your photographer and they spend a month just Googling on Instagram. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Mm-hmm.

Let's look at like five. So I tell people, come to me on this brained up of telling me everything, I do get a sense of who they are and how they work. So I can work with each couple independently of how their brain is going to work and what really feeds them, because I'm joining a relationship. ⁓ And then I can go, why don't you show me a picture that you like? It doesn't even have to be two people getting married. And if I see it's high fashion or

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

you know, blurred imagery or very classic, I can put them in a world of where I think they're going to be photographically and start to show them photographers and probably narrow this down to like three or five that then fits their budget. The way I look at the big three is I want it to fit your budget, the date and your personality, especially with the band and photo video. Those are the people you're kind of around the most. Your band, you've got a

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

feel like that band rocks. And if you're a DJ, same thing. You need to make sure your DJ really understands your vision, which is why we start early.

I I've had brides, like brides at a wedding that are upset with the photographer. And I had one one time tell me, hey, can you make sure they don't talk to me anymore throughout the, you know, and I'm like, well, okay. And so then I'm having to run interference, but because they didn't do their homework, you know, cause you spend so much time with them on the day of you got to make sure you connect with these folks.

⁓ god. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

of run into like an interesting, do you gatekeep or do you not? Because there's two different kind of worlds where like, if you don't gatekeep, all of a sudden information is flying. You're what? What do you mean? You think your photo is starting 30 minutes for your ceremony. Like, do know what we're doing? Like, you have like three hours of photography happening if you're not paying attention as a planner. ⁓ Meanwhile, gatekeeping too much,

Yeah.

Yeah.

can keep that relationship from fostering and your photographer doesn't know what to accept and your couple isn't happy with the photos, then nobody's happy because you didn't let them get to know each other. So there has to be like a middle ground. And that is why, like, for example, if I know I have, if I have a couple who is, you know, really Brooklyn and like, I know they're kind of introverted or maybe they smoke a lot of weed, like I don't know they're really into.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

No.

Hehehehe

I'm probably gonna match

them with someone that they feel like they can vibe with. Maybe someone who also lives in Brooklyn or at least like it has like a hipster vibe. Sorry to, sorry everyone if I'm like deciding Brooklyn hipster. But yeah, so like matching those personalities can be really helpful because then they can get each other a little bit better.

offending anyone. That's okay.

Yeah, I get it.

Yeah, and

Kevin here is a DJ and I know that they always say and what they tell everyone is, you know, it's not really about like his music style or what music like Kevin likes because Kevin can play any type of music. It's like, do you vibe with Kevin with his personality?

Yeah. Yeah.

Oh man, Kevin,

I really feel for you on that one because so many times, especially when it comes to DJs, and I'm sorry, I started with bands, no disrespect, but the hardest thing is being like, do you like this DJ? Like, well, I don't like that song they played like three minutes into their reel. It was just like a sound cloud of like how they mix music together and they just can't, oh my God.

Yeah? No, no, I-

No, no, no! We love bands too!

You know it's funny, I stopped doing that for that very reason. People,

Mm-hmm.

and I found my bookings went up because people like for that very reason what you just said there, they don't like that song so therefore I don't want to hire that DJ. Meanwhile, I'm there to play whatever song you want, you know, so.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Wow,

tell people, why don't you just, well, how do I know if I'm going to like this person? Why don't you have a conversation and let's see how it goes.

Well, in just my last wedding that I did last weekend, they were Chinese and I played a lot of Chinese songs at the wedding that I, I'm going to be honest with you, they gave me the list and I played it and I had to play them from the list because I don't have a lot of Chinese, you know, but if, you know, someone would think I'm play a lot of Chinese music, would.

Thanks! ⁓

Right?

Well, and with that said,

mean, I know this from my DJ friends in the world, when there's international music, have a Russian wedding coming up and one of my DJs was like, I've listened to that song like 16 times just to see like, how can I mix it into 16 different scenarios if it's not working or if it is working and how it can go to the next piece so we don't lose everyone on the dance floor.

Yeah.

Wow.

Well, then it always cracks me up too is sometimes you'll you'll because I go through and kind of preview the music. I'm like, this one doesn't kind of sound like really good. But then someone comes up and goes, can you play that one song? And I played and they lose their mind. I'm like, what do I know about Chinese music? Yeah, that was the jam. So and you learn as you go on some of this stuff. All right. So getting back to the big three. So ⁓ so right now I feel like there are a lot of people that are

Yeah.

Yeah!

No,

like who knew? That was that was the, you know, damn. ⁓ Totally. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So go ahead.

taking too long to book their vendors and maybe it's because they're looking at too many or because it's a last minute wedding, but what happens if a couple waits too long to book one of the big three?

Hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

You know, everyone's sort on their own planning adventure. And I do find that priorities shift couple to couple. I, of course, always try to push for making those decisions fast. But sometimes it's just not people's priority. you know, I had a couple who was like, we actually don't really give a sh*t about our free. I hope I'm on this. I'm sorry. I don't even know. But we don't care. We don't care about your photos like these are your memories.

Yeah

Yeah.

No, I love it.

Like, yeah, it's fine. It was the wildest thing to me. They're like, yeah, whoever we choose, we choose. I was like, all right, well, why don't you tell me what is important? They're like, we are so excited about cake. Wow, okay, well, your wedding's in like 10 months. So sure, let's go taste cake because that was their thing. And that was, they're so important. But in terms of how fast to book and how not fast to book, I mean, there's a lot of things that come into play, like how hot is your date? So.

That's really weird, actually.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

If you're getting married, I'll choose for example, October 10th, oh God, October 10th, 2026 is gonna be a big date. But right now, the date that is like the hottest date of 2026 is October 3rd, 2026. Wow, the amount of inquiries I have received for that is unbelievable. So.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Really? That's like the Mean Girls

Day, right? October 3rd. Yeah. ⁓

It might be. Oh God, I think so. I think I've at it like 400

times. That might be it. There's some sort of like psychological connection to October 3rd. But with that said, as soon as I booked that date, I went, all right, I know this date's gonna be important, so we're gonna push hard for everything. But then have another couple who's booking a Sunday in August. I don't wanna say nobody cares, but like that's not, August is not like a big hot time, I mean it's hot time here, but like,

Yeah.

Hmm.

Yeah.

It's not a big popular time of year and we have had no problem. So I haven't really answered your question about booking, priority wise, I have a big segue, but priority wise, if your priority is not in something, then it doesn't matter. But if you have priorities for the best DJ or the best band or the best photographer, then yeah, you've got to get right out of the gate with those decisions because they can only do one wedding in a day.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah

No,

but I like the segue.

Yeah.

or you have to be okay with your options if you decide to wait.

Yeah, and I've had

couples come back and say like, oh, I'm on option D. I've worked all the way down for my photographer because the other three that I was looking at got booked. I'm like, sometimes I think you got to go with your gut and if it's feeling right. even though, because I've had that happen to me, hey, we met with another person and we just booked them on the spot. And good for you, because you obviously weren't my couple kind of thing. And it just, I love that.

Mm-hmm.

If it's in your gut, it feels right, and you mesh, I think you gotta go.

Absolutely hundred percent. It's our industry is so personality driven because when it gets to the wedding day and God like as a planner We're the ones dealing with in the trenches ahead of time of every family. I'm like 100 fun by the time we get there We're like half the time. I'm just trying to be like we are in it now and I'm like, well, here's everything that's happening These people hate each other. These people love each other. I don't know why these people are here ⁓ but it was like from that you're coming in fresh-faced bushy-tailed like

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No!

You have to really feel connected to these couples, for better or worse, for 10 to 12 hours that day. That connection has to be strong. So whether you're waiting later to book somebody or not, especially when it comes to people that you're gonna see in front of your face most of the day, I mean, even hair and makeup, dear Lord, when you wake up in the morning, if you're not a morning person, it's 9 a.m., you're sitting there with a cough and be like, great, I'm here for two hours for hair and makeup.

yeah.

Yeah.

You better like your makeup artist because she's the one holding the pencil close to your eye.

Yeah, no

kidding and some of some of these couples we're dealing with are getting up at four or five in the morning to do their makeup Yeah, yep

my god, yeah.

⁓ often, if I have an Indian wedding where we have

a Hindu ceremony earlier and a Catholic ceremony later, like, yeah, I had a bride start at three o'clock in the morning with her hair and makeup. And fun fact, highly recommend, get yourself a neck pillow like for the airport because then you can sort of sit there and at least close your eyes and reset and it doesn't mess up everything that's going on.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

I love that. Good advice.

my god, that's such a good tip,

I love that. Yeah, but I feel like anyone listening, they're kind of taking this as like the stories you guys are telling, a cautionary tale to start booking that big three early on. ⁓ But for any... No, go ahead!

Thank you. ⁓

Oh, this is a story that I can tell you. Yeah. If you're not good at staying awake,

like, is my biggest advice for someone. If you are on an average day not good at staying awake for 20 hours, don't do that. Don't start your hair and makeup at six o'clock in the morning, expect to go to your after party until four a.m. You're not going to, and it's going to be terrible. Anyway, please, come on.

Yeah.

⁓ Yeah, that's gonna be me for sure.

Yeah Yeah

Ain't gonna happen. ⁓

Well, and it's a lot of couples are planning these marathon weddings and they don't realize that Not everyone is in you know, like they're not going to make it to the end. So No

They're not training for it.

Exactly, Yeah.

No, yeah. So if any couples are just getting engaged because right now we are in a big engagement season and they're feeling overwhelmed, where would you recommend they start with which big three to book first?

you

Yeah, it's amazing season.

I mean, if you don't have a venue, you don't have a date. So your venue is absolutely your number one priority. It's really important when you're venue searching that it's not always apples to apples. If you're looking at a raw space, which is just ceiling, floor, windows, versus a place that has catering included, those are really different numbers. You never wanna be in a place where your food, beverage, and venue is more than 50 % of your budget.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

That's a good baseline is 50 % of your budget, food, beverage, venue. Cause then your staff, all of that's bartenders, all of that's included there. Cause then that leaves you 50 % of your budget for everything else. Of course, if you want to hang orchids from the ceiling, maybe you should reevaluate your budget, but, and how much you have, there's obviously a lot of factors, but you have to start with your venue because you cannot book anybody else if you don't have a venue cause you don't have a date.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And it's so funny how many people will send it inquiries to our company. You hear it from your vendor friends. Yeah, how are you supposed to book anyone if they don't know their own availability?

⁓ my god.

Yeah, mean, people come to me, I mean, obviously as a planner, like there's a lot of people come to me without dates. And so we, you I have a contingency in place like, hey, sure, I know you're looking at October, guess what? I've already booked October 3rd and October 10th, but we can look in October for you. But here's what happens if you book a date, I'm not available. Now I personally, I'm a big team, I have 12 people that work for me. So, and there's always, dear Lord, what if I fell in the East river? Like what happened? So there are always contingencies in place as a planner.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Yeah.

lived through the COVID era. Well, I not all of us like I did, but you know, I went through this. already had my company. I know what happens. I fail safes in place should an emergency situation happen. So when 2021 hit and we got slammed with everything that had been postponed for 2020, there were weekends where we were doing as many as three weddings in one day. And I had three teams in three cities or three towns or three parts of town running different pieces. So I know that we are dialed in and can

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah, huh.

take that on, but that is very rare and it takes a lot of focus and experience to be able to pull off something that big.

Yeah. Yeah, we don't like to talk about COVID.

That's a true marathon for sure.

No, I'm fine.

But you know what? At least I know I can do it.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean.

Yeah, I happened

to be the WIPA national president when COVID was going on. ⁓ so we were doing the state of the wedding industry. so the New York president was on there. I was on there. had the Southern California. we were just, you know, our states and even Washington, they, we were so locked down compared. And then you have Utah. They were only like 60, 70 days into the pandemic. We're back doing wedding, you know, like, and it's just like, yeah, we,

Yeah.

You're like, sounds great.

We literally went almost in an entire year in between events. So anyway.

I know, I know, I remember. Well, may that never happen to any of us again or any of you wonderful people listening to this, but know that we got you. Like if sh*t goes down, like we know what to do, we got this, we've done this before. Yeah, we got this. And you know, when it comes to like planners, some people ask me like, what makes you different? And I asked my associate that once, I was like, I don't know, what makes me different? And she was like, you're kind of like the big sister who's done this.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

But in case it does, yeah, we've lived it and we can do it again!

We.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And

I like that. I'm not like the mom. I'm not like the cool mom. I'm like the big sister who's like, we got this. ⁓ Like, let me tell you what's up.

Yes!

Yeah. You were the guinea

I love that. That's a

good one.

pig before and now it's safe to continue. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, as a person who's

never been married, like, who does 400 weddings? I got this.

Mm-hmm.

I love it. All right.

So Sara, what mistakes do you see couples make when they book other vendors before looking at the big three?

It's really budget driven. I find often that they get really excited about something and blow a big budget number in a place that maybe wasn't the best investment for perhaps the budget they're trying to hit overall. So that can happen and it happens quite a bit. Other mistakes that sometimes come into play is how much time or the expectations of that vendor. So for example, Kevin, you're a DJ, so this is something that'll resonate with you.

Mmm.

⁓

Hmm.

They booked the DJ for four hours of reception. That's super great. Well, what about your ceremony? What about your cocktail hour? Well, your ceremony and your cocktail hour and your reception are in three totally different places. So what's our amplification situation? So those pieces got missed because there wasn't a professional in the room who said, well, we also need these things. They're like, no, it's only going to cost us X dollars. I'm like, well, you better double that now because we need three sound systems. ⁓ Or they were not honest about their guest count with the

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

with the company and they're like, oh no, we're to be like a hundred people. All of a sudden you're 250 people. That is a very different amplification than that. And again, same thing, depending on the layout of the space, it's not always a box ballroom where you could put speakers facing out. Sometimes it's a funkier space where you need surround sound. And again, that's a very different expectation.

Yeah

Yeah. And that happens so many times with couples. my favorite is they're having 200 guests and they go, we don't need anything for the ceremony. And I'm like, OK. No one's going to hear you guys, but OK.

Thank

Yes, yes it does.

No one's gonna hear anything.

Or they'll go, my venue has a sound system. Now, if any venues are listening, love you so much. But sometimes your sound systems are not at the same quality as perhaps the professional sound system is coming in from a professional company, whether it's a DJ or a band. So you just need to make sure that those expectations are aligned. Because guess who's going to get that sound system comes from the venue. Guess who's getting blamed? Your DJ. Because your guests don't know that it's not the same sound system.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There are, you gotta have a professional in the room who can also monitor sounds. It's not just a plug and play all the time.

Yeah, I agree.

Yeah, I used

to work for a venue and we had like a in-house, like not in-house, but just speakers. And we at one point were allowing like corporate events to essentially use the speakers. But then we got to a point where we weren't allowing it at all because we just couldn't rely on the Wi-Fi to stay on, you know, for the music to play. I remember there was only one instance where we ⁓

Yes.

where we used the speakers for a ceremony, but it was because the DJ didn't show up. And so we used it and it was very stressful, but the bride didn't know the whole time. it was crazy, but you know, but hopefully a good venue would also, you know, urge you to work with a professional as well.

Yes.

⁓ jeez.

you

Totally.

And you know, that's another thing when you ask about sort of mistakes and things people make sometimes. Booking a venue and say, it has an event manager, so I'm fine. Well, that event manager is there to make sure the lights are on, your band knows where to plug in and not blow the power, and ⁓ that if a guest trips and falls, that they have it on video. So.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You

Yeah.

Your

event manager is not there to hold your hand or make sure you're on time for your ceremony or any number of other things aside from the venue. The best way to put it is if beef is burning in the kitchen, where do you think that event manager's attention is going to be? It's not on you. It's in the kitchen.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, it's funny you say that

we probably could do a whole podcast episode on that right there. No, because I think.

Well, yeah, and I think it all

just comes back to asking questions, too, because I think it's different for for every venue, too.

Yes.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Yeah. So do you, do couples ever regret not prioritizing the big three?

We have, we have in the past had a few regrets. ⁓ Sometimes it's video, like, well, I don't know if I want video, so I'll just wait. And we do photo and go, okay, well, let's put video on the back burner. And then they realize later they do want the big production or maybe they just want to cover the basics and have the raw footage, ⁓ but there's not a lot of options out there. And for better or worse, sometimes, especially if you're cost conscious, the least expensive vendors

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Mmm.

and go first. And so you could back-burner it, but then you may not have the least expensive option open to you. like, I don't really want to invest in this like in a heavy way. I'm like, you kind of add options on that one because everyone who's least expensive is booked. So kind of if you want to wait, it's kind of like booking a hotel or an airplane flight. Like once more of them get booked, that would probably go up a little bit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah.

Yeah!

Well, it's funny that it happened to me the other day and I was so mad. I'm like, why didn't I hit book on that? I was so mad at myself. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, idiot.

my God, same with a flight. was like, what was I doing?

Well, and I

know you mentioned like when we asked the question about like when couples book other vendors other than the big three firsts, comes to budgeting. So how do you think couples should approach budgeting when it comes to vendors like who can only take, you know, one wedding a day?

Sure, sure. So, I mean, there's a lot of factors that go into your just sort of overall budget. I kind of already mentioned like the roughly half for your beverage, et cetera, but the rest of it kind of comes into your priorities. So like if you're live or die by photo, I mean, there are photographers in my world, know, I'm kind of New York City's and I weddings over the world. I put, I'm going to reference New York City for this moment. There are photographers as low as like,

Yeah.

$10,000 for the day, I also know photographers who are $55,000 for the day. So if you are live or die by that $55,000 photographer or even a $35,000 photographer, that is a very different investment than a $10,000 photographer. And if you rip that cord and you book that $55,000, well,

you might be in the world where maybe you're doing a DJ instead of a band where again a DJ could be $5,000 a band is $35,000. So that's kind of ⁓ that's I think I answered that like I think it's kind of where you are.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

No, yeah.

It's just setting the priorities first. And I feel like that's kind of the

that's kind of just the main answer for everything, honestly, is like you have to set those priorities first or else you're not going to be able to steer the planning at all.

Yeah!

Sure.

Absolutely. you know what? Sometimes people come to me and this is, you know, I love surprises where we have a whole budget sheet. Nowhere on that budget sheet was lounge furniture. And then I get the, well, how do we have room in this for lounge furniture? Lounge furniture? Where have you been? Like, no, like we're not like what? Like we made all these decisions. This budget is like right there. We've got $3,000 left, which is, oh God, we're not getting lounge furniture. We really wanted lounge furniture.

Girl!

That's ten.

Not enough for lounge furniture.

you needed to say that. If you have things that you really want, even if you're just in your head of like, ⁓ I want this, you have to say something or budget for it or at least hold a line. And then if it's not all working, make yourself a nice to have list of like, if I end up, let's say 10 people get sick and they're not coming, or all of sudden they have another wedding to attend and I end up with all this money back, what is my nice to have?

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

that I want to pull from that list and replace.

Yeah, I love it. Are there?

I like that. I think that's why I liked

the brain dump that you said earlier, because if you're just like, this is what I envisioned, bing bop boom, maybe lounge furniture, you know, would have popped up and...

Yeah, or like,

totally. ⁓ Something that I feel like it's very common for people to overlook it is, well, I want like a really cool after party. Okay, tell me more about that. What does that mean to you? What does that look like? Is that we're taking everyone to the club or you just want a disco ball? Like, where are we on this club scene? ⁓ Because those are very different priorities.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I love

it. All right, so how does booking the big three actually reduce stress later in the planning process?

Thank

dear Lord, just get that, like checking boxes. It's like every time you could check a box, ⁓ thank God that's done. Depending on your timeline. you know, it's here especially, and just me in general, like I work a lot with the Orthodox community as well. And sometimes those timelines can be very short. From the moment they meet, matchmakers sometimes included, to the moment they get engaged can be six months or shorter, can be like three to four months. So, you know, it's...

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

bam, bam, bam, but we're talking about Mondays and Sundays, Thursdays for the most part. So it's not as stressful, and the reach is not always as big for traveling guests, so that works out our favor. But you kind of have to take your timeline and work backwards from there on your priorities and booking your most stressful, stressful things right out. So if it's going to bring you stress,

Mmm.

get it out of the way, if you can. Obviously, you don't know everyone who's coming the day that you book your wedding. But ⁓ it can reduce stress by just, it's one less thing that you have to do. Now, once you book your photographer, your photographer's not gonna talk to you every day. They're not your planner. They are not involved in this until right before your wedding. But they will want like, who are the important people in your family? Who are, you know, what time are we starting photography?

Right.

and what are your expectations from your photos. So get that done. Have a good idea of what your vision is, and don't be afraid to tell your vendors. Don't gatekeep that, because the more you tell us, the more we can help you, and the less you're going to be less likely for you to be unhappy with the results.

Yeah. Yeah, like you're not seeing the clear vision.

I love it.

Sure, exactly.

Yeah.

Especially with photography, like if you have in your head that you want a picture walking down that staircase looking backwards, you better tell somebody. Because if we don't know, that's not happening.

And you better have the venue.

Yeah.

Better have the venue with the staircase too. All right, we're getting close to the end, if a couple could take one planning tip away from this conversation, what should it be?

Yeah, that too. All the above.

Well, yeah, no staircase, no staircase,

no picture.

⁓

⁓ Focus on your big three. Focus on your big three. I know it's like the theme of this whole call, but that really is so, so important. Don't prioritize decor. Prioritize really important vendors. And those important vendors are your venue, photo, video, entertainment. And then right after, if you really want to like pull in like fourth one, let's call it hair and makeup, but you know, really focus on

Okay.

Mm, love it.

venue, photo, video, entertainment, because they cannot book more than one wedding in a day. If those are your priorities and you want these options, get them done. It's not like you have to really focus on it. Just be like, great, love that photographer, cool, talk to you in six months and we'll figure out the rest of it. But like you're locked in for the date, Save it for the band. Yeah, don't worry about what song you're doing tomorrow, but book your band.

Yeah.

Yeah.

love it. All right, Sara, thank you for all the great advice, but where can couples learn more about you and your approach to wedding planning?

Sure, mean, I guess you could find me on Instagram and on my website. Shoot me an email, shoot me a text, smoke signal, carrier pigeon, like pick your poison. i mean, my Instagram is saralandonevents, just S-A-R-A. There's no H in there, don't forget that. S-A-R-A, L-A-N-D-O-N, E-V-E-N-T-S, how do you spell events.

love it.

And folks, we'll have all of Sara's information in the show notes, and we will be sure it'll be in there as well so you can get all her information. ⁓ Be sure to check that. So Sara, you've been a wealth of knowledge. We really appreciate you being here today.

Absolutely a pleasure. I'm a good time,

and a good time.

Yes. All

right. Folks, that's it. Thank you for listening to another episode of Now That I'm Engaged How do I Get Married. We'll see you next time. Bye, guys.