Twelve months sounds like a lot. For a destination wedding it is just enough.
This is the calendar that works, told from the end back to the beginning.
“A wedding abroad isn't organised with more time: it is organised in a different order. First the place, then the date, and only then everything else.”
Twelve months before: choose the country and visit, or at least video-call, two or three venues. The date comes from the place, not the other way round.
Ten months: book a local planner. It is the piece that holds everything else together when you are eight thousand kilometres away.
Eight months: photography and video. If we travel from Spain, the travel days need to be blocked, not just the wedding day.
Six months: save the date. Guests at a destination wedding need to buy flights with room to spare.
Three months: final schedule for the day, with the ceremony time already discussed with the light in hand.
One week: arrival. Never the day before.