Your Wedding Is in 6 Months, and You Haven’t Booked Any Vendors. Now What?

Six months to your wedding, and everyone has questions.

Your mum wants to know if you’ve booked the caterer. Your friends are asking about aso-ebi. Someone has already added you to a WhatsApp group called “Wedding Planning Committee”, and your partner just sent you another Instagram video of a wedding venue that probably costs half your budget.

Meanwhile, you’ve not booked a single vendor.

Welcome to wedding planning in Nigeria, where everybody has an opinion, every decision seems urgent, and the money somehow starts disappearing as soon as it enters your account.

But here’s the good news: six months is enough time to plan a beautiful wedding if you start making the right decisions now.

You don’t need to have everything figured out today. You need a plan, a realistic budget and the right people to bring your vision to life.

Here’s a practical six-month wedding planning checklist to help you get started.

Six Months Before: Start with the Wedding You Can Afford

Before calling photographers or saving decoration ideas on Pinterest, sit down with your partner and talk about money.

Not the wedding budget you wish you had. The one you can actually afford.

In Nigeria, wedding expenses can easily grow beyond expectations. One minute, you’re budgeting for 150 guests. The next, both families have added another 200 people. So, before anything else, agree on your budget, estimated guest count, wedding date and the kind of celebration you want.

Then divide your budget into major categories: venue, food, photography, decoration, outfits, makeup, entertainment and miscellaneous expenses.

Keep something aside for unexpected costs, too. Because if Nigerian weddings have taught us anything, it’s that there’s always one expense nobody saw coming.

Five Months Before: Start Booking Vendors

This is when you should start booking your most important wedding vendors: Photographer and videographer, Caterer, Makeup artist and hairstylist, MC, DJ or live band, Wedding planner or coordinator

But here’s where things can get frustrating. You find a photographer you love on Instagram, send a DM and discover they’re unavailable. Someone recommends a decorator, but you can’t find examples of their work. Another vendor sends a quotation without explaining what’s included.

Instead of going through endless recommendations and Instagram searches, you can explore wedding and event vendors on SkillConnect, review their portfolios, compare services and find professionals around your location.

Four to Three Months Before: Stop Saving Inspiration and Start Making Decisions

At this point, your Pinterest board is probably looking amazing. It’s time to turn those saved pictures into actual arrangements. Finalise your outfits, decide on your menu, work on invitations and communicate your expectations to vendors.

More importantly, get everything in writing.

If your photographer promises two photographers and a wedding album, document it. If your decorator agrees to handle the stage, tables and entrance, confirm what the quotation covers.

Know who you’re paying, what you’re paying for and what happens if things don’t go according to plan.

This is one reason SkillConnect offers a booking process with protected payments. For bookings made through the app, clients fund the agreed amount upfront, and payment is released according to the terms both parties accept. It gives couples and vendors a clearer arrangement than relying entirely on informal promises.

Two Months Before: Make Sure Everybody Is on the Same Page

You’ve booked your vendors. Great. But have you confirmed what time they’re arriving?

Create a simple wedding-day schedule and share the relevant information with your vendors. Also, assign someone to coordinate everything. It could be your wedding planner, a coordinator or another responsible person. The last thing you want is to be answering calls about missing chairs while getting dressed for your ceremony.

One Month Before: Confirm, Don’t Assume

It’s time to confirm what you’ve already arranged. Reconfirm arrival times, venue access, outstanding payments, contact details and deliverables.

If you’re still searching for a makeup artist, photographer or another last-minute vendor, you can check available professionals through SkillConnect rather than starting another long round of referrals.

And when everything is confirmed, try to enjoy the remaining weeks.

The Wedding Is One Day. Don’t Spend Six Months Forgetting Why You’re Getting Married.

Here’s something couples sometimes forget in the middle of wedding preparations: the wedding is a celebration of your relationship, not a competition. Nobody is giving you an award for having the most expensive decorator or the biggest guest list. What matters is creating meaningful memories with the people you love.

So, make a plan. Spend wisely. Ask the right questions. And choose vendors who understand what you’re trying to create.

If you’re beginning your wedding planning journey, explore wedding and event professionals on SkillConnect and start putting the right team together.