Wedding planning checklist for Poland: 12 months step by step, paperwork included

Every wedding planner app has a checklist, and they all look alike: venue, photographer, dress, invitations. The difference is in the dates. A list that says "order the cake 6 months before" helps less than one that says "by 12 December", and a list without the paperwork at the registry office and the parish leaves out exactly what can't be caught up in the last week. Below we've put the tasks from the Polish guides and apps together with the deadlines from the rules, in one list counted back from the wedding date. The same list is in the Złote Wesele app, free, for ticking off together. Our sources are in Polish; the terms you'll meet at the offices are glossed as they come.

What sets the dates

Most tasks have customary deadlines: that much notice is usually enough to get a good photographer or to finish the alterations in time. Three things have deadlines set by the rules, and those are where to start.

The rest of the tasks fall into nine stages. With less than a year to go, nothing is lost: start at the first stage and work through, skipping what doesn't apply to you. The deadlines in the table above hold without exception.

More than a year before

The stage of the decisions everything else depends on.

• Set the budget and who chips in. Work out what you can spend yourselves and whether the parents want to help. The venue's bill is usually the biggest part, so it pays to know it early.
• Draft the guest list. Not names yet, numbers: how many adults, teens and children. Every venue's price depends on them, and so does whether it holds you at all.
• Pick the date: the month and the day of the week. Summer Saturdays at good venues go 1.5⁠–⁠2 years ahead. Before paying the deposit, check the day is free at the registry office or the parish, and tell guests who travel.
• Ask your witnesses. Two adults with an ID, for a civil and a church wedding alike.
• Collect venue offers and work out the real cost. Ask every venue for an offer on the same terms: date, guests, hours, alcohol. How to do it step by step is in our guide How to compare wedding venue offers.
• Visit two or three venues and ask your questions. See the hall by night, the parking and where the band stands. The questions are in the same guide.
• Book the date with the parish (concordat wedding) or check the date at the registry office (civil wedding). The declaration is filed only six months before the day, but ask about free Saturdays now: some offices take provisional bookings.
• Arrange an outdoor ceremony with the USC or the parish. A civil ceremony outside the office costs 1 000 zł more and takes a request; the registrar may refuse a place that lacks a "ceremonial form". A Catholic wedding outside a church needs the bishop's consent.
• Choose the venue, check the contract and pay the deposit. A zadatek is lost if you withdraw, a zaliczka comes back. The difference is in our guide Zadatek or zaliczka: the wedding venue deposit.

9⁠–⁠12 months before

The venue is set, so now the vendors whose dates go fastest, and the formalities that take longest.

• Settle the style and colours. One decision the decorator, the florist and the stationery printer all come back to.
• Book the photographer and videographer. Ask about packages, hours, a meal and when the photos come. A contract with a deposit.
• Book the band or the DJ. How late they play, what happens in the breaks, whether they run the oczepiny games at midnight, and who pays the ZAiKS music licence.
• Sign up for the marriage preparation course (concordat wedding). A cycle of talks, usually ten weekly ones or a weekend course, plus three meetings at the family counselling centre. Places run out, and the parish asks for the certificate at the protocol.
• Choose the wedding dress. Making or ordering one takes 4⁠–⁠6 months, then come the fittings and alterations.
• Book the florist or the decorator. Bouquet, boutonnieres, the ceremony, the hall and the car. Ask the venue what's included: chair covers, candelabra, lighting.
• Choose the suit. Made to measure takes 2⁠–⁠3 months, off the rack a week.
• Book the hair stylist and the make-up artist for the morning, with a trial 1⁠–⁠2 months before.
• Sort out rooms for guests who travel. Rooms at the venue or hotels nearby. Decide who pays and say so in the invitations.
• Write out the budget and the payment schedule. Deposit, half before the wedding, the rest after. Add the band, the photographer, outfits and rings.

6⁠–⁠9 months before

• Choose and order the rings. Engraving and sizing take 4⁠–⁠8 weeks.
• Close the guest list. Families as one invitation, children and plus-ones included.
• Order the invitations. Design and print take 3⁠–⁠6 weeks. Order a few spares, and the place cards, table numbers and menus in the same style while you're at it.
• Book the wedding car. Vintage cars take one booking a day.
• Order the cake and the pastries. Check the venue's offer: is the cake included, and what does serving one from outside cost?
• Pick the extras: a kids' entertainer, a photo booth, a bartender show, sparklers, a sweet table. Check what the venue allows.
• An engagement shoot with the photographer. You get to know them before the day, and the photos work on the invitations.
• Plan the honeymoon. Check your passports: after a name change a passport lapses 120 days later, so a trip right after the wedding goes on the old name, with the tickets to match.
• Choose the menu at the tasting. Venues usually invite you after the deposit.

4⁠–⁠6 months before

The paperwork stage. The deadlines on this list are the most important ones in the whole guide.

• Get the registry office's certificate for the concordat wedding. At most 6 months before the wedding, at any registry office, with your IDs; stamp duty 84 zł. The certificate is valid 6 months and must be valid on the day. The parish takes it for the protocol.
• Sign the pre-marriage protocol at the parish. 3⁠–⁠6 months before, by appointment. Bring recent baptism certificates (parishes count them valid 3 or 6 months), confirmation certificates, IDs, the course and counselling certificates (they can follow) and the registry office's certificate. You'll get the requests for the banns and the confession cards.
• Book your own room for the night after. Check the offer: a suite for the couple is often included.
• Book a coach for the guests if the venue is far from the church or the hotels. A bed for the driver too.
• Choose the first-dance song, and a dance course if you like: 5⁠–⁠8 lessons.
• Pick the accessories: shoes, veil, jewellery, tie. Wear the shoes in at home before you dance the night in them.
• Book your leave from work: the day before the wedding, a few days after, the honeymoon.
• Arrange the day after (poprawiny) with the venue: where, from what time, the menu and the price per person.
• Hand out the invitations. 3⁠–⁠4 months before the wedding, earlier for guests who travel. Ask for a reply by a set date.
• Decide: the venue's alcohol or your own with corkage. Price both ways: when corkage pays off is in our guide Corkage fees at Polish weddings, and how much to buy in How much alcohol for a wedding.
• Set the hen and stag nights. Best 3⁠–⁠6 weeks before the wedding, not the last weekend.

2⁠–⁠4 months before

• File the declaration of no impediment at the registry office (civil wedding). At most 6 months and at least a month before the wedding, at the office you'll marry in, with your IDs; stamp duty 84 zł. You confirm the date and your names after the wedding then.
• Take the banns requests to your parishes (concordat wedding). The banns are read on two consecutive Sundays in each of your parishes. Collect the certificate and take it to the parish you marry in.
• Settle the music and the flowers with the parish. Organist, violin or a singer: ask whom the parish allows.
• Book the honeymoon. Tickets in the name on the document you'll travel with.
• Set the playlist and the do-not-play list. The entrance, the first dance, the thanks to the parents, the oczepiny.
• Have the hair and make-up trial, with the veil or hair accessories.
• Order the guest favours and the thank-yous for the parents. Separate gifts for the parents, grandparents and witnesses.
• A weather plan B for an outdoor ceremony: tent, umbrellas, water, heating or shade, power and sound.
• First dress fitting and alterations. Take the shoes and the lingerie.
• Collect the guests' RSVPs. Reply-by 4⁠–⁠6 weeks before the wedding; ring the rest.
• Settle how the ceremony at the registry office goes (civil wedding): music, who walks in first, the rings.
• Check the instalments and their dates. Venues usually want half two weeks before and the rest after; bands and photographers often on the day.

1⁠–⁠2 months before

• Order the place cards, table numbers and menus, in the invitations' style. Print the place cards only after the RSVPs.
• Write out the day plan. From getting ready to the oczepiny, timed from the ceremony. The venue, the band and the photographer all work from it.
• Make the seating plan. Families together, diets and allergies by the names. The venue asks for it a week before.
• Decide where you get ready and where the parents' blessing is. At the parents' or a hotel; the photographer starts there.

The last month

• Go to the pre-wedding confessions (concordat wedding): the first after the protocol, the second a day or two before the wedding.
• The last parish visit: the banns, course and counselling certificates, the witnesses' details, the readings, the music, who carries the rings.
• Give the venue the final headcount. Usually 7⁠–⁠14 days before, split into adults, teens and children, with diets and allergies. You pay for the number you give even if someone doesn't come: check the deadline in the contract.
• Confirm every vendor and their times. A call to each, the day plan by e-mail, the witnesses' numbers.
• Prepare the thank-yous and the speeches. The vows at the registry office and in church are set words; your own go into the thanks to the parents or a toast.
• Order the food and set the times for the day after, once the headcount is known.
• Last fitting and collecting the outfits. Check you can sit and dance in them.

The last week and the day

• Prepare the payment envelopes, with the name and the amount, for everyone paid on the day. Hand them to the witnesses.
• Pack the emergency kit: plasters, painkillers, safety pins, thread, spare tights, tissues, a charger, snacks.
• Deliver the decorations, alcohol, place cards and favours to the venue, with the seating plan and the day plan. Agree who collects what's left afterwards.
• Manicure, haircut, the small treatments. Nothing new in the last week.
• The day before: pack and rest. Rings, IDs, envelopes, phone charged, the day plan with the witnesses. Then dinner for two and sleep.
• On the day: breakfast and water; IDs, rings and witnesses a quarter of an hour before the ceremony (in church the signatures are in the sacristy, at the USC in the ceremony room); phones with the witnesses, and one named person gathering the gifts and the cards.

After the wedding

• Collect what's left at the venue: alcohol, cake, decorations. Unopened bottles go back to the shop.
• Collect the marriage certificate. After a civil wedding the registry office issues it at once or the next working day. After a concordat one the priest sends the papers to the USC within 5 days, and the office posts the certificate, usually within two weeks. The first copy is free.
• Check the venue's final bill. Plates charged for the guests who came, prices as in the contract, service on the right items, the deposit taken off.
• Pay the vendors the rest.
• A new name: replace your ID card, passport and driving licence. The ID card and the passport lapse 120 days after the name changes in the PESEL register: apply for the ID at once (free) and for the passport within 30 days (140 zł). Driving licence and car registration within 30 days; then the bank, your employer, your insurer.
• Thank the guests and the vendors. A card or a message with a photo, a review for the venue, the band and the photographer.

Frequently asked questions

When should we start planning a wedding in Poland?

A year before is a sensible minimum, because that's the notice venues and photographers need for summer Saturdays. For popular dates couples book the venue up to two years ahead. With less time, start with the venue, the registry office or the parish, and the photographer, and work through the rest in order.

When do we go to the registry office before the wedding?

For a civil wedding you file the declaration of no impediment at most 6 months and at least a month before the day, at the registry office you'll marry in. For a concordat wedding you collect, at any registry office, a certificate valid 6 months, which must be valid on the wedding day. In both cases the stamp duty is 84 zł.

How long is the marriage preparation course, and when do we sign up?

Usually ten weekly meetings or a course over two weekends, plus three meetings at the family counselling centre at least two weeks apart. Sign up 9⁠–⁠12 months before the wedding: places run out, and the certificate is needed for the pre-marriage protocol.

When do we send wedding invitations in Poland?

3⁠–⁠4 months before the wedding, earlier for guests who travel. Ask for a reply by a set date, 4⁠–⁠6 weeks before the day, because about two weeks before the venue wants the final headcount.

What has to be done after the wedding?

Collect the marriage certificate, check and pay the venue's final bill, pay the vendors the rest, and, if a name changes, replace the ID card, passport and driving licence. The ID card and the passport lapse 120 days after the name changes in the PESEL register.

Sources

In Polish unless noted.

• Gov.pl: Get married in a civil ceremony (English) and Weź ślub cywilny
• Gov.pl: Get married in a religious ceremony (English) and Weź ślub wyznaniowy
• Gov.pl: Dowód osobisty: informacje and Paszport: informacje o dokumencie (120 days after a change of data)
• Archdiocese of Katowice: 8 kroków do sakramentu małżeństwa (course, counselling, protocol, banns, confession)
• Diocese of Legnica: Nauki przedślubne (the documents for the protocol)
• Wesele z klasą: Organizacja wesela krok po kroku and Zapowiedzi przedślubne
• Ślub i Papier: Lista 147 rzeczy do zrobienia przed ślubem
• Notatnik Weselny: Harmonogram przygotowań do ślubu
• The Knot: The Ultimate Wedding Planning Checklist (English)