The honest answer isn't a number — it's a trigger. Book a planner the moment your guest count, budget range, and rough season are real, because those three decide everything downstream. For most couples that's 9–14 months out; for a destination or peak-season date, closer to 15–18.
Think in terms of what locks first. The scarce resources aren't planners — they're dates at the venue you love and the calendars of the people who make a wedding feel designed rather than assembled. Great venues and design teams book out first for November–February and the big muhurat windows.
A simple test: if you can already answer "roughly how many people, roughly what budget, roughly when," you're not too early — you're exactly on time. If you can't, a good planner will help you pin those down before you sign anything expensive.
We take on a limited number of weddings a year precisely because everything is designed from scratch in-house, not pulled from a catalogue. So for a fully bespoke celebration, earlier is genuinely better — it gives the design room to breathe instead of being rushed into whatever's available.
