how long does it usually take?

Mine took all of 30minutes.

What is your theme? Winter Wonderland? Showers of Love? Balloon Affair?? Romance Land?? What???

Let's say you use romance land... what goes with that? Candles, roses, kisses.... pick a theme then start flowing that way.

Start off knowing ball park what you can spend for the whole wedding. I chose a location that had ceremony and reception in the same place it saved money and my guests didn't have to drive to another location. I spent a week (I didn't have to work that week) hiring all the people to make it special from minister, catering, cake, flowers, photography and videographer. Ahead of time I looked on-line to find companies and took references from the ceremony/reception location of people they work with all the time that do a good job. I used their recommended florist, caterer, and cake but chose a different photographer, minister and videographer. I interviewed their photographer and didn't like her or her work so I got a recommendation from somebody else and it worked out, the photographer recommended the videographer I ended up hiring. Make sure you get at least 2 names of each company and really check out their work. Make sure you like the person you're dealing with because you are giving them a lot of money for their services. I took a week to hire most people but spent the next few months tying up all the loose ends like meeting with the people to decide exactly what I want and exactly how much it'll cost. Good luck.

theknot.com
bravowedding.com
myportlandwedding.com

As long as you want it to take. I've seen people plan for a year and I've seen brides toss their weddings together in a week. Both were equally as nice, it just depends on how much time you have to spend planning and how decisive you can be.

We did ours in about 8 months.