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Hello!
I just got engaged on Saturday (eeck! Still so funny to say "I'm engaged!") and my fiance and I have always thought of having a fall wedding. Ideally, we'd like September. I know we COULD knock the planning out the coming 9 months... but would I drive myself insane? Will all the "good" venues be booked?
I just don't know! If fall 2012 doesn't work, we are also considering June 2013.
How long did you have to plan your wedding? Was it enough time, too much, just right?
Any opinions/advice will be greatly appreciated - I'm new to all of this! ;)
Thanks!
First, congrats!!
I think 9 months is enough time IF you can get a venue locked down ASAP and you are organized throughout the entire process.
I had almost a year to plan our wedding but definitely could have done it in 9 months if I needed to.
Good luck!!
I'm planning mine in nine and it is plenty of time. If I'm behind it's because I'm not so organized haha.. but definitely enough time. I had a friend who got married in 4 months and although she called it her "shotgun wedding" it still turned out beautifully. Fall 2012 is plenty of time!
ETA: Congrats!!!
Congrats! I got engaged last December and married this September, so it is totally doable to plan a wedding in nine months. We didn't set a date and book our venue until late March, and we were totally fine (and we got married in the California Bay Area, a very popular place for weddings). Aside from buying my dress around the same time, we didn't get a start on the rest of the planning until mid-May, and we did pretty much everything ourselves (flowers, invites, decorations, music, etc.). Planning a wedding can be as long or as short as you want it to, and I think nine months is plenty of time. My husband and I were still able to spend time enjoying being engaged and gathering ideas before getting all the planning done, and our wedding was amazing. Good luck!
I did mine in 8. I however, have planned weddings in 3 months or less. It depends on what type of wedding you want to have.
I had five months and it worked great. I got my reception venue 2 months before the wedding, but depending on your area it could be more difficult.
I planned a wedding in 6 months and didn't feel like I was pressed for time at all!
A little opposite from what others have said, but we actually decided purposely to have a year and a half engagement. Ideally, we're only going to be engaged one time in our lifetime and we both agreed that we wanted to enjoy it for a while before we jumped into planning. The bonus with that is that we have more time to save up, too.
That's just us though -- 9 months is totally fine for planning your wedding!
Our engagement is 5 months, and I felt like it was too long! Realistically, it was just enough time to get everything done. I don't feel rushed or behind at all.
It is definitely enough time, but you are going to have to start right away and don't let things start to slide, if you keep working steadily you'll be right on track
You can do it! I had 17 months, but didn't need most of it. Start calling/e-Mailing venues ASAP (like tomorrow). Once the venue is reserved, anything else can be done in nine months, easy. It's normally just venue issues. Like, if you're eyeing a really popular one for a Saturday wedding, it might not be available anymore. But, don't hesitate to check!
If you're flexible, you can plan a wedding in a matter of weeks (probably at least 6, but less can be done if you're going small). Nine months is more than plenty.
Hubby and I planned our wedding in 4.5 months. It was more than enough time and in fact we (OK, I) found myself sitting around with nothing weeks before the wedding.
Thank you all for the great feedback! I was just very nervous 9 months would be a push - but it sounds pretty doable! Most couple we know have had loooong engagements, a year plus, usually and we just don't want to wait that long.
We are really hoping for a fall wedding and we didn't want to have to be engaged for 18 months before we were married, which is how it would work if we waited until next fall.
Ok.. first up on my list, call some venues tomorrow to see if it's even a possibility to not have to "settle" on a venue - which we really don't want to do! And worst case, if we're running into a lot of venues we like being unavilable - June 2013 it is!
Thanks again guys, I have a feeling there will be TONS more questions! :)
And thank you too for the congratulations! I must look at my hand 100 times a day and think 1) I can't believe I get to marry him and 2) holy cow my ring is beautiful! Haha! :)
We got engaged August 20th and were married December 2nd and I was finished in plenty of time - 3 months and a week or so? It depends on how flexible you are and how big of a wedding you want. We REALLY wanted a specific venue, but it was booked on every Saturday, so we had a Friday night wedding, and it was just perfect. Just stay organized, make a spreadsheet of your payment dates and deadlines, and also a spreadsheet of your guest list with RSVPs and addresses - you'll be done in plenty of time! Congratulations!!!
@Grizz: Wow - you must be efficient!
Congratulations on your wedding! And thank you for the advice! I am leaning more and more toward fall 2012, as lovely as a summer 2013 wedding would be, fall has always been in my head... and plus, I just want to be MARRIED to me fiance, he's amazing! :)
I really don't think you need tons of time to plan a wedding. 9 months is plenty! It's mostly just getting things booked!
@LJ7360: That's how we were :) We just could. not. wait. to be married! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised about how smoothly it goes when your main goal is just to be married to the love of your life at the end of that day!
I think it definitely depends on the bride and the situation you're in.
I planned mine in almost a year and a half. It was great because I got to really enjoy it and spend and gather things for our wedding over an extended time. Which was nice.
BUT
I am in a wedding this coming weekend (New Year's eve) and she got engaged the week before Thanksgiving. (YES! You read that right) And she and her FI (who is being deployed) are having a BIG wedding, BIG reception. Doing it all! She's been a tad stressed, but managed to get everything booked and squared away.
So I think it depends on how much you want to do and how quickly.
:)
Thats plenty of time!! I am doing 4 months and I think thats even enough! Just start looking at venues asap and book that first. The rest will fall into place. COngrats!
I think 9 months is doable but I personally found it difficult to find Fall dates that were still open at the venues I liked. Sept/Oct are really popular months, and since my FI is a hunter and avid football fan, I didn't want to venture in November - so we ended up setting a date in May 2013.
@Mrs.tobe: Wow - talk about QUICK!
I'm on the fence, because while I REALLY want to just be married to him and I LOVE fall - I want to be able to enjoy it all and not turn into a crazy woman.. which is why waiting until June 2013 is appealing as well.
We are calling some venues tomorrow to just check on their availability for 2012 - we shall see!
I actually told him that I was going to make some calls tomorrow to check on some venues and he said "Do you want me to call them?" (he's off of work) - be still my heart!! I hope he's this "hands on" the whole time! :)
You can also consider Friday and Sunday weddings if your venues are already booked. Also, get on their cancel lists for when weekends that were booked become available.
We planned in less than three months, but did it off season and were flexible in having a lot of possible options. I loved not stressing as much since in three months you just have to let some things go.
It depends on what kind of wedding are you planing to have, for my beach wedding, i started things up like 6 months ago and i think it's enough!
Most people I know say 8-9 months, but it does depend on the time you'll have to dedicate to your wedding! I am giving myself at least a year plus a couple of months since we are planning a wedding 1.5 hours away and I work a lot! If you want a fall wedding, start searching now and you will be able to get a better idea if a wedding is doable for you in nine months -- some places are all inclusive and some places require you to bring in everything!
Edit: I joined WeddingWire and TheKnot, both places gave me customized checklists based on the length of my engagement. You can look into any wedding websites and see if the timeline is doable for you.
Congrats! I think nine months will be enough (but as others have said... get your venue NOW). Ideally, I think a year is best just because you can be completely relaxed about things. It depends on your location as well!
I think it totally depends on the amount of people and the amount of detail that you want. I got engaged christmas of 10 and we were planning on a Oct '12 wedding when we found out that my brother was more than likely going to be deployed than so we moved it up a year and literally had 3 1/2 months to plan an out of town destination wedding.
In the end I realized the more time that I would have had to plan would have included more unnecessary DIY projects.
This is going to sound crazy.
Where I come from, you have to start planning 2 years in advance if you want to get any of the good stuff! Church, reception venue, music, caterers, wedding organiser...they all get booked early, so if you snooze you lose. I'm getting married in July 2013 - we booked the venue last summer, and the chapel last May! But I'm thrilled because we got to book exactly what we wanted :D
Chapel:
Reception venue:
@LJ7360: Really, I got engaged too on Christmas eve, and we are thinking about a Sept 2012 date too - like you I am wondering if this can be done (hoping so!!) it all depends on how big you would like it to be I guess?
:)
@LJ7360: first off, CONGRATS! second, are you me? haha this is the exact situation my FI are in! Except we got engaged Sunday, and want an oct/nov wedding!
I think you have plenty of time, especially if you don't have the wedding on a Saturday night. Vendors' schedules will be much more open. Keep in mind that September is a popular wedding month.
My FI and I got engaged in mid-December and just booked a venue for September 2012, so I'm doing exactly what you're considering. I don't know if you're willing to do a holiday weekend, but what worked for me was having on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend - even though all the Saturdays in September were booked, that Sunday was still open.
I asked this same question recently, and I've decided it's doable and worth not waiting on a long engagement.
I did it in 11 months, and my sister did it in 10 months. I think 9 is quite doable. I had plenty of down time during my planning, so you might just have a little less. Whether your local venues are booked probably just depends on luck and your location. I think even as few as 7 months should be doable for some people, if you get your dress and venue right away.
I think 9 months is plenty. You might get some last minute deals too!!
My mum planned hers in four, she may not have got the perfect venue (she took what she could) but she was more determined to be married than to have the big wedding.
Congrats on your engagement! I was engaged for 7 months exactly but by the time we picked a date we had just over 5 months to plan and it was simple. i think 9 months is the perfect amount of time. Def try and book your venue first - things start falling into place after that.
Some popular venues and vendors get booked up to a year in advance! So, depending on where you get married and what you want, you might have to start planning 9-12 months out. Obviously, some couples have done it in less time than that. IIf you have a shorter engagement, you just have to book and plan things within a shorter period; plus, you might end up with fewer options.
I will have been engaged for 3 months 1 week and 4 days by the time we get married (19 days). It has not been a big deal to me at all BUT I don't have a very specific wedding in mind and so am able to make decisions quickly without agonizing over the details. Also in Oregon winter weddings aren't very common so pretty much every venue was open and ours isn't a super popular wedding venue anyway, so it was fine.
Good luck! I'm very happy for you.
Thanks for the advice everyone - we have heard back from a few vendors we're looking at and there IS availability in September - so it COULD happen! Fiance and I need to sit down and discuss if we want a longer engagement and get married in June 2013 or if we're going to take the plunge and start planning for Sept 2012.
Thanks again for all of the advice. :)
I planned mine is just under 6 months so nine months should be a good amount of time. I wasn't stressed or anything either.
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