The 18-month wedding timeline
Specialist · Weddings · 15 min
Every milestone from engagement to thank-you cards, GTA booking lead times, and how to compress to six months.
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Specialist · Weddings
Specialist track: The 18-month wedding timeline; Cultural weddings: South Asian, Chinese, Jewish, Italian, Caribbean, Filipino, Persian; Wedding budgets and the splitter; Ceremony logistics and the marriage licence.
Specialist · Weddings is part of the free Event Planner Academy. It has 6 lessons, about 1.5 hours of study in total, and every lesson comes with a narrated video, a printable worksheet and a short quiz.
How to work through it
- Watch the narrated video at the top of each lesson, then read the lesson itself. The video covers the key points; the page has the tables, examples and checklists.
- Complete the worksheet for your own event, or for the running Harbour Gala example.
- Take the quiz and mark the lesson complete. Your progress is saved in this browser.
- Finish all twelve core modules and pass the final exam to print your free certificate.
Cultural weddings: South Asian, Chinese, Jewish, Italian, Caribbean, Filipino, Persian
Specialist · Weddings · 15 min
Ceremony elements, multi-day structures, venue requirements, entertainment traditions and etiquette for the GTA's largest wedding communities.
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Wedding budgets and the splitter
Specialist · Weddings · 15 min
Toronto averages by category, where couples overspend, and how to present a budget to two families.
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Ceremony logistics and the marriage licence
Specialist · Weddings · 15 min
Ontario licence rules, officiants, ceremony order, processional and recessional, rain plans.
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The wedding-day run of show
Specialist · Weddings · 15 min
A real 14-hour run of show from hair and makeup to last dance, with vendor cues.
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Micro-weddings, elopements and destination (Niagara, Muskoka)
Specialist · Weddings · 15 min
Formats, venues, budgets and the logistics of moving guests out of the city.
Read moreWho this track is for
The weddings track is for planners who want to specialise in weddings, venue coordinators who handle wedding bookings, and couples who are planning their own wedding and want a structured approach. It is designed for the GTA, where many weddings combine more than one cultural tradition, guest lists are often large, and the busiest venues book well over a year ahead. It assumes some familiarity with budgeting, vendor contracts and run-of-show writing from the core modules, though a motivated couple can start here and refer back as needed.
What you will be able to do
- Build a realistic planning timeline from the engagement to the thank-you cards, and compress it when the date is close.
- Plan respectfully for ceremonies and multi-day celebrations from the GTA's main wedding traditions.
- Present a budget that two families can agree on, with clear categories and a contingency.
- Handle the marriage licence, the officiant and the ceremony order without last-minute surprises.
- Write a full wedding-day run of show with vendor cues and a rain plan.
- Advise on smaller formats and on moving a wedding to Niagara, Muskoka or another destination.
How the lessons build
The track starts with time, because in weddings the calendar drives everything else. The cultural lesson follows early so that traditions shape the plan from the start rather than being added later. Budgets come next, then the ceremony and its legal requirements, then the day itself. The final lesson covers formats that break the usual pattern. Together they take about two hours of study, plus the time you spend on the worksheets.
Where it connects
The track relies on the venues module for site visits and contracts and the vendors module for building the team. Learners who want to specialise further often pair it with the entertainment booking track, since cocktail-hour and late-night entertainment are a growing part of GTA weddings. For practical planning outside the Academy, the wedding planning hub and the wedding budget splitter put the same ideas into tools.