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I've noticed this, too. Ours is fairly normal, I think -- 10 months -- but I know a lot of people doing more casual, small weddings, at restaurants and the like, that don't require booking far out. Maybe that's why?
We are having a short engagement (7 months) for a few reasons
1) we have been together for many years and there is no need to wait
2) I wanted to get married on our anniversay and I wasn't waiting until 2013 to do it
3) I don't think you need a full year (or more) to plan a wedding.
Ours was 9 months. Honestly I wouldn't have dragged it out any longer. By the end, I was so tired of thinking/talking about it and planning it.
I know about a dozen girls who got engaged within the last few months and most are having an engagment of about 1-1.5 years. I only know one girl who got engaged recently who wants to have a 6 month engagment.
Not sure if it's a trend really, but maybe these girls are getting engaged in the fall/winter and want a spring/summer wedding without waiting over a year?
We were engaged for about a year. I wish it was shorter, but we got engaged in May and I wanted a summer wedding and didn't think it was feasible to plan that fast (especially since I wanted a destination wedding). We could have easily planned it in 4-6 months though, but 2-3 would have been pushing it.
I had a 7 month engagment - It would have been longer but we had to plan around my brothers deployment. it was either 7 months or 14 months - we didnt want to wait a year to get married.
I dont know if its a "thing" to have a short engagement but it like Rascal Flatts says "why wait?"
Yes. I've noticed the "courting" and weddings have been quick since the economy has been crappy. I have to say, some folks that I've talked, say they also made the process fast so you eliminate unnecessary spending. It makes you focus on what is important and how you really want to focus your ceremony on the couple not items for pleasure.
I think people are now together longer and living together in a way they weren't. Most people I know have a 12-18 month engagement but SO and I have discussed that when we get engaged it will be with a view to getting married as soon as. I know of one couple who were together only a few weeks when they got engaged and then spent 2 years planning their wedding, that seems a bit odd to me.
@Mrs. Fireworks: Your spring/summer wedding thing makes sense.
My FI and I have a long engagement (22 months, due to him being in grad school in another state). We've even said that ours would never have been this long if he would have been in town for school. We just went to a wedding reception where the bride and groom hadn't known each other a year prior to their wedding date (in their church, it's very common for dating a short amount of time and having a quick engagement). Most of my friends have fallen into the eight months to a year and a half time frame. One of my friends was engaged for two years, just like my FI and I. I think it all depends on the area you live in and your "must haves" for a wedding.
Well my FI proposed to me Dec. 24th and he would like to have been married yesterday hehe... I wouldn't mind this Summer, but my brother is getting married so we're waiting til 2013.
I know a lot of people who set a date 18 months to 2 years in advance then all the sudden I see on FB that they bagged the wedding and went to the courthouse after a few months of being engaged.
Our's will be 16 months. We did this for two reasons. First, we want to pay for the majority of wedding costs ourselves, so this gives us plenty of time to spare. Second, because I didn't want to rush it! We're (hopefully) only going to be engaged and planning a wedding one time in our lifetime, so we didn't see the point in getting it over too quickly!
I don't think it is becoming a trend or more popular to have a short engagement - but I do think it is becoming more popular to have the wedding you want. There isn't a "standard form" for weddings anymore so couples are choosing what's right for them. FI and I are having a long engagment. FI's cousin just got engaged at the beginning of this month and they are planning a wedding for Feb. I think you might just notice the shorter engagements because of your own wedding planning.
All of our friends have had 7-14 month engagements. Ours is 10. I wish it was shorter, but then we wouldnt be able to have a bachelor/bachelorette party and the bridal shower because of short notice on out of town close friends. I feel like 10 months is wayyy too long. We got engaged at the end of October. By the end of November, I finished about 75% of planning based on the knot.com checklist. We considered a 7 month proposal, but every single weekend in May is already booked for friends' weddings who had 10 month proposals.
We are having an 8 month engagement. I can't imagine it being any longer, all of our planning is already finished!
I don't understand super long engagements. We are engaged because we want to be married. I would have done a much shorter (e.g. 3-4 month) engagement if we weren't already booked for a ton of other weddings in that timeframe. I did not have difficulty booking venue/photographer/musicians 8 months prior to our date.
Ours is 10 months and we would have preferred closer to 6 months. We've known each other 7 years, don't want a big wedding, and are both the kind of people that once we make a decision, we just want to move ahead and get things done. I think short engagements are less in vogue than what Crabbabs said - people are tossing out traditional stuff that doesn't necessarily work for them. An engagement a year or three long works well for young couples, people still in school, people who want large or destination weddings (so the guests can save up vacation time and money), etc. It works less well for couples that have been together a long time, want to start a family soon, etc. Our engagement is the shortest either of us has personally known, with most of our friends still doing an engagement of at least a year, but no one said anything about the length of ours.
I planned our wedding in 5 months... probably the 5 craziest months of my life. We were together for nearly 3 years and DH said that he saw engagement as equivalent to wanting walk down the aisle with me that exact day and not "making the relationship more serious" or "showing that we are more committed." I'm glad we had a short engagement, it led to less uninvited opinons from friends and family!
@gloriac1982: I hadn't thought of the short wedding as a means to cut unnecessary spending. Great thought!
Personally, I don't want a long engagement. I figure I'll set the date 5-7 months out or so and just style my wedding to the season =)
I almost wish I had a shorter engagement now that we had to call off the big wedding. We've been engaged a year now and are not getting married until October. Maybe sooner.
I don't know if it's a thing, but we did have a short engagement-5 months. It would have been longer if we didnt have to work around the Navy's schedule.
Our engagement will be 20 months :( But we decided to wait for the venue we wanted (in the city things book at least a year out if you want a Saturday) and FSIL was getting married this past fall, so we had to wait until after that. On the flip side, a friend just got engaged and is marrying this summer- she doesn't want to wait! I do think with 6 months or less it's a question of timing for your guests- if they already have 3 weddings set around your date, yours might be the first they skip.
Engaged July 31, will ne married Jan 15th. Moved it closer due to a family illness (which as since cleared :) ).
We have a 9 month engagement - got engaged end of August and getting married mid-May. It was going to be early April but we found out SIL is pregnant and due 4 days before we were thinking. Too close for comfort.
Most couples I know are right around a year. One of my friends is doing about a year and 3/4 - her explaination is she's in the wedding business (so am I!!) and her venue was booked until then.
I would have liked to get married eariler (Christmas) but we're paying for most of it ourselves and the extra few months are a good thing!
We were engaged for 5 months and it was perfect for us. Too be honest, I wouldnt of wanted to drag it out longer. We already have our own home and have lived together for over a year. Our wedding date fell nicely in place for us and there was nothing i would of changed if we had a longer engagement. We had no problems booking our vendors. I think it depends where you are in life. In your 20's i could see a longer engagement to save for a house and wedding. While in your 30's couples are a little more established. Maybe engagements are shorter as couples arent getting married so young.
I don't know if they're in vogue, but the mister and I are planning on having a short engagement (probably 6-8 months). We've been together for almost 7 years and have been waiting for this moment for a while...why drag it out? He's ideal timeframe was actually 3 months but thankfully he extended it. Even that would have been a bit too short for me!
Like another poster said, I don't quite understand having a long engagement. I mean, I do get the technical aspects, i.e. wanting to save money, waiting for someone to graduate, etc, but I'd rather just wait a little longer for the engagement (I had started saving money the moment we decided we wanted to marry each other...about a year into our relationship).
Now that we're nearing the end of a 16-month engagement, I'm wishing we had picked a sooner date, because I'm tired of all of the planning, and I just want to be married, damn it! But that being said, I'm also glad that we pushed it back a little further, because it means that we've been able to save a lot more for the wedding, and we don't have to sacrifice anything.
This makes me feel kind of like the odd one out, if short engagements really ARE in style...the absolute earliest we would/could do our wedding the way we would want would be Dec. 2014 because of school, if not even later. We just picked out a ring, so we will probably be engaged within the next 3-6 months, but even so we're still looking at 2.5 years. We are just sick of being boyfriend and girlfriend (after 8 years, who wouldn't be?) and want to take and enjoy the next step.
I don't know, I could see if you are in a rush to get married for some reason, a short engagement might be ideal. I personally am looking forward to reveling in the feeling of being engaged for a while before even THINKING of planning a wedding.
It's interesting to see all your perspectives! We had a 10 month engagement, and we probably could have done it in 6 months, but we wouldn't have gotten all the vendors we wanted since we got married on a popular date. I think if you are flexible about your vendors or about your date, it's a lot easier to get married sooner.
I think @Crabbabs has the right idea - the trend is to depart from the traditional wedding conventions, and that includes the traditional 1 year timeline, I think. I also think @Melanie422 has a great point about spring/summer weddings - that's definitely what I've seen! I pressured my DH for a summer engagement so we could have set a date for the following summer :)
@pharmy: I agree with you about enjoying being engaged! Wedding planning was stressful but I loved being a bride. I think engagement is a really special time a couple should enjoy - you have the rest of your lives to be married!
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I've been married for over a year and a half now (wow!) but I've noticed that in the past six months, everyone that I know that's gotten engaged has had an engagement of 8 months or less. Some have been as short as 3 or 4 months! These are not "shotgun weddings" or anything like that. I even have noticed a couple celebrities getting married quickly recently.
So are short engagements "in vogue" now, or what?