Wedding Dress!!

If any of you are married or are planning a wedding I'd LOVE advice on how soon before the wedding you had certain things finalized, like the dress, the hall booked and caterer booked. I need all the help I can get,lol.The other day I went to a wedding dress shop with my two best friends and I fell absolutely in love with one dress that I tried on. It was a beautiful satin dess that looked like a dream.  My wedding is a little over a year away, So I'm not sure if I should buy it. I mean what if I find another dress I love more. But at the same time it was like this dress was made for me.  Even my friends were shocked how gorgeous I looked in it.  There were also two other dress that looked amazing on me and quite frankly I wanted all three,lol!! I must say I love wedding planning now that I've started.  I even found two potential wedding reception halls and one caterer. Im just going to take my time and try and enjoy every minute of wedding planning. The only thing that is difficult is the whole bar thing. I wanted to have a cash bar, but now I'm hearing from people  that I need to have an open bar and that its rude to have a cash bar. But i've heared that could cost over 4,000 dollars!!.  The thing is no one in my family drinks, but my fiance's family does, so he wants and open bar. However, my parents didnt even want a bar to begin with cause they dont believe in drinking, so it took me weeks to convince them to have a bar at all, and I'm not sure they would want to pay for an open bar.  Not really sure how this will all work out, but I'm hoping it does. Other than that everything is going well. I also wanted to thank all those who responded to my last journal, it really helped me feel better knowing  I had all of your support.