Wedding Planning Checklist: A 12-Month Timeline for South African Couples

This wedding checklist for South African couples runs from a year out to the week after the wedding. Each block is a list of things to tick off, in roughly the order you’ll need them. If you want the reasoning behind the order, read how to plan a wedding step by step first. This page is the to-do list.

Many checklists online are written for American weddings, so they miss the parts that trip up couples here: the antenuptial contract that has to be signed before the wedding, the Home Affairs status check, marriage officer bookings, school holidays and the December rush on the coast. Those are built in below. If your wedding is less than a year away, don’t panic. Start at the block you’re in and catch up on anything above it.

The South African items most checklists miss

Your wedding checklist: 12 months or more before

• Agree on the budget: the total, who is contributing what, and your top three priorities. Our wedding budget breakdown shows how the money is typically split.
• Set up a budget spreadsheet with a row per supplier: quoted, deposit paid, balance, due date.
• Draft the guest list and settle on a rough number.
• Choose a season, then two or three possible dates. Check them against school holidays, long weekends and the people who must be there. How to choose your wedding date has the 2027 school and public holiday dates.
• Decide whether you want full planning, styling only, on-the-day coordination or none of these, and book a planner now if you want one. See wedding planner vs day-of coordinator.
• Book the venue. For a Saturday between December and February on the Eastern Cape coast, this is the time to do it.
• For a beach ceremony, choose the spot against the tide table, visit it at the time of day you’ll marry, and find out who grants permission and how far ahead to apply. Beach wedding permits in the Eastern Cape explains who to ask.
• Both of you visit Home Affairs to verify your marital status on the National Population Register. Home Affairs asks everyone who intends to marry to do this.
• If either of you is a foreign national, start on the documents now. See getting married in South Africa as a foreigner.
• Decide what kind of ceremony you want: church, civil, another faith, or a simple Home Affairs wedding with a bigger celebration later.
• If you’re having a customary marriage or traditional ceremony as well, agree the order of events with both families.
• For a December wedding, tell guests the date early so they can book holiday accommodation.

9 to 11 months before

• Book the photographer, and the videographer if you want one.
• Book the caterer if the venue doesn’t do its own. Decide on the style (plated, buffet, spit braai or food stations; our guide to wedding menu styles compares them), and ask when tastings happen and when final numbers are due.
• Book the marriage officer or minister. Check that they are designated to solemnise marriages, that they’ll travel to your venue, and that they’re happy with your ceremony time.
• Book the band or DJ.
• Send save-the-dates for a December, long-weekend or destination wedding.
• Start dress shopping if you want a made-to-order dress. Our wedding dress shopping guide explains lead times and fittings.
• Share accommodation options with guests, or hold a block of rooms. See wedding guest accommodation and travel.
• Choose the bridal party and ask them properly, before they hear it from someone else.

6 to 8 months before

• Book décor, flowers and hire items, or a stylist who brings all three. Our wedding hire checklist helps with quantities.
• Book hair and makeup.
• Order the dress, if you haven’t, and pencil in fittings.
• Send save-the-dates for everyone else.
• Talk about your property regime and choose a notary if you want an antenuptial contract. Antenuptial contracts explained covers with and without accrual.
• Apply for beach or public-space permission once the date and spot are fixed. As part of full planning, we apply on the couple’s behalf.
• Plan the ceremony with your officiant: readings, music and who stands where.
• Book transport, if you need it.
• Set up a gift registry, if you want one.
• Check that passports are valid if there’s a honeymoon abroad.

4 to 5 months before

• Order or design the invitations.
• Book the cake and a tasting.
• Choose what the groom and groomsmen will wear, whether hired or bought.
• Buy the rings, leaving time for sizing and engraving.
• Agree the outline of the wet-weather plan for an outdoor wedding and, if it needs a standby tent, book one.
• Draft the outline of the day with the venue and caterer: ceremony time, drinks, dinner and when the music ends.
• For an outdoor wedding, plan guest comfort: shade and water for the ceremony, somewhere to leave shoes on the sand, and blankets or heaters for after sunset.
• Book the hair and makeup trial.

2 to 3 months before

3 months before

• Send invitations, with an RSVP date set by the caterer’s final-numbers deadline. Our guide on when to send wedding invitations explains the timing.
• Sign the antenuptial contract before the notary. It must be signed before the wedding, and the Deeds Registries Act requires it to be registered within three months of signing, which the notary normally handles.
• Give your marriage officer whatever they’ve asked for: copies of IDs, witness details and, if either of you has been married before, the divorce decree or death certificate.
• Plan the ceremony order of service and start writing vows, if you’re writing your own.
• Start dress fittings.
• Have the hair and makeup trial, ideally with the same hairstyle you’d wear in wind.

2 months before

• Chase the guests who haven’t replied by the RSVP date.
• Choose an MC and agree the order and length of the speeches.
• Give the DJ or band your must-play and do-not-play lists.
• If you’ve booked on-the-day coordination, hand over your file. We take it over about six weeks before the wedding.
• Confirm every supplier and list every remaining payment and its due date.
• Buy anything you’re providing yourselves, such as favours, a guest book or welcome baskets.
• Write a short note for guests with directions, parking, beach access, the dress code, what shoes to wear and roughly when the sun goes down, and send it with the final reminders.

What to do in the last month before your wedding

4 weeks before

• Send final numbers and dietary requirements to the caterer.
• Finish the seating plan.
• Finalise the running order, from the first delivery to the last vehicle out, and send it to every supplier. Our sample wedding day timelines help.
• Agree the wet-weather plan in writing, including the exact time by which the call will be made. See our outdoor wedding rain plan.
• Pay the balances that are due.
• Have the final fitting and break in your shoes, on grass or sand if that’s where you’ll stand.
• Make sure both witnesses know they need to bring their IDs.

The final week

• For a beach wedding, watch the wind and tide forecasts every day.
• Confirm arrival times with every supplier.
• Make the wet-weather call by the agreed cut-off, and tell guests on WhatsApp if the plan changes.
• Put one person in charge of the rings, one of the documents and one of collecting gifts and cards at the end of the night.
• Put any cash payments or tips for suppliers in labelled envelopes and give them to one trusted person.

The day before

• Run through the ceremony with the officiant and bridal party, on site if you can.
• Deliver anything you’re providing to the venue.
• Pack one box: rings, both IDs, any divorce decree or death certificate, vows, speeches and an emergency kit.
• Eat a proper dinner and go to bed at a sensible hour.

On the wedding day

• Eat breakfast, and lunch too.
• Give your phone to someone you trust.
• Let the planner or coordinator deal with problems. That’s what they’re for.
• After the ceremony, sign the marriage register with your marriage officer and two witnesses.
• Take ten minutes alone together before the reception.
• Move towards the blankets when the sun goes down. On the coast it gets cold quickly.

What to do after the wedding

• Return hired items on the hire company’s terms, and check beforehand who is doing it.
• Check with your marriage officer that the signed marriage register has gone to Home Affairs, since that’s what gets your marriage registered.
• Get your marriage certificate once the marriage is registered. If you’ll need it for visas, emigration or registering the marriage abroad, get the unabridged marriage certificate.
• If either of you is changing surname, start with Home Affairs, then update the passport, banks, SARS, your employer, medical aid, insurance, driving licence and vehicle registration. Since a 2025 Constitutional Court ruling, either spouse can take the other’s surname. See changing your surname after marriage.
• Ask your notary to confirm that the antenuptial contract has been registered.
• Update your will and the beneficiaries on policies and retirement funds.
• Send the thank-you messages.

Short on time, or planning from far away?

A twelve-month plan is comfortable, not compulsory. With six months, follow our six-month wedding plan and make the big bookings in the first two weeks. With three months or less, the twelve-week sprint works best for smaller weddings, off-season dates or weekdays.

If you’re planning a coastal wedding from Gauteng, the Western Cape or overseas, the checklist stays the same, but plan your trips around it:

• First visit, 9 to 12 months out: see the venue or beach at the time of day you’ll marry, and meet the key suppliers.
• Second visit, 2 to 3 months out: tastings, the hair and makeup trial, and a walk-through with whoever is running the day.
• Everything in between: WhatsApp, email and video calls, with photographs of anything you’re approving.
• Arrive at least two days before the wedding, so a delayed flight doesn’t become a crisis.

If you’re marrying anywhere between Gqeberha and Plettenberg Bay and want someone to take this list off your hands, see how Tarika handles full planning, styling and on-the-day coordination. Or send us your date and we’ll tell you within a working day whether it’s open.