Eight months out from your wedding there's a lot to do! While you're registering for gifts, researching and booking entertainment, and booking photographers, you'll also need to meet with caterers, assuming that your venue does not provide on site catering. Just as you wouldn't hire a DJ or a band without hearing them, you surely wouldn't hire a caterer without tasting the food. This means you have to attend multiple tastings while still maintaining some semblance of a reasonable eating plan. Remember, you're also going to be shopping for a wedding dress this month! When you find a caterer you like, go ahead and hire them this month if possible, or early next month. Just like all the other good wedding services, they tend to get snapped up pretty far in advance. Once again, at this point it's not so much about specifics. You don't have to know your menu (unless you have some particularly exotic cuisine or fusion theme that you're dead set on, then it helps to at least know the flavor profiles you want the chef to be familiar with), but you want to know that the caterer is familiar with the ingredients that you hope to see in in your wedding feast. If you're vegan or have other special dietary requirements, you'll want to make that clear to the caterer and make sure they can work within those strictures early on, as well.
If you're expecting out of town guests, research hotels close to your venue and reserve a block of rooms at a couple of options in different price ranges. Contact the hotels you're interested in, explain to them the reason you're interested in reserving a block of rooms, and inquire as to whether there's a discount for reserving multiple rooms far in advance. Don't be afraid to play the "gosh we're just so excited about getting married and we really want our guests coming from Piddletydink, Iowa to have a wonderful time, on an okay-time budget" card. Ask to speak to a manager, particularly if you're looking to book a large number of rooms. If your wedding is a smaller event or you don't have as many out of town guests coming, look to see if there's a smaller hotel or bed and breakfast option where more personal service might be available. Speaking directly to an owner/innkeeper and telling the sweet story of your engagement might net you a discount with a sole proprietor where the manager of the Hampton Inn would have neither the authority nor the desire to help you out. Smaller B&B locations can also be a great place to host a Bridesmaids' Luncheon or other event, and doubling up the events can net you a discount, as well.
When you launch your wedding website this month, you'll put the information for all the accommodation options there for your guests to choose from. If reserving a block of rooms in advance is not in the cards for you, at least contact local hotels in advance and find out what options are available so that you can have the info available for your out of town guests instead of making them do their own homework. If there are other local events going on in your area that conflict with your wedding date and make rooms hard to come by, make sure to let out of town guests know to reserve rooms early so they won't be left with no place to stay!
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