Indian Wedding Planning Checklist: What to Do 6 Months, 3 Months and 1 Week Before
Try the free Event Planning ChecklistNo download, works on your phoneAn Indian wedding has a hundred moving parts: venue, caterer, outfits, rituals, guests from three cities and an aunt who needs a room near the lift. The families who stay calm are not the ones with the biggest budget. They are the ones who knew what to do and when.
Start 6 months before
- Fix the budget and a rough guest count. Food is charged per plate, so the guest count decides most of the budget.
- Fix the muhurat with your pandit ji. Popular dates book out first.
- Book the venue, then the caterer after a food tasting, then the photographer and decorator.
3 to 4 months before
- Shop for the bride's and groom's outfits and book makeup and mehendi artists.
- Block hotel rooms for outstation guests.
- Send save-the-dates and finalise the guest list.
- Plan return gifts early: good ones sell out in wedding season.
1 to 2 months before
- Send e-invites on WhatsApp (and printed cards for elders who prefer them).
- Book cars or buses, plan the haldi, mehendi and sangeet programme.
- Confirm every vendor and write down what is paid and what is due.
- Collect RSVPs so the caterer gets a real number, not a guess.
The last 2 weeks
- Final outfit trials, shagun envelopes ready, a shagun register for the day.
- Give one person the list of vendor phone numbers. You should not be answering calls on your own wedding day.
- Share the day-by-day schedule with family.
After the wedding
- Pay the remaining vendors and finish the shagun register while everyone remembers.
- Send thank-you messages within two weeks.
Get every task with its own date, free
Open the free Event Planning Checklist, pick Wedding and enter your date. Every task gets a date counted back from the wedding, overdue tasks turn red, and you can tick them off, print the list or send it to family on WhatsApp.
Make it easier
- Wedding e-invite templates for every function, edited in Canva.
- The Wedding Complete Pack: biodata, e-invites, wedding budget planner and shagun register in one bundle.
WhatsAppFree Monthly Budget Sheet
A printable one-page budget sheet: income, fixed bills, daily spending and savings for the month. Print it or fill it on your phone.
More guides
How Much Does an Indian Wedding Cost in 2026? A Budget by Guests and City
What drives the cost of an Indian wedding, typical 2026 prices by city and style, and a free calculator to estimate your own budget in a minute.
How to Collect RSVPs on WhatsApp (Free Guest List with a Live Head Count)
Stop calling every relative to ask who is coming. Send each family a personal RSVP link on WhatsApp and see the head count update by itself.
How to Keep a Shagun Register at a Wedding (and Give Back Fairly)
Who gave what? A simple way to record every shagun envelope and gift on the day, send thank-yous and plan what to give back at their functions.
