- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
Hi!
I got engaged on August 14, 2010, and we have set our date for June 23rd, 2012, giving us almost a two year engagement. We had a long engagement because of my FI being in grad school. However, I absolutely love having all of this time. I have friends who have had 7 and 9 month engagements. They were so rushed, getting everything together, struggling to find vendors.
For us, we were able to get our first choice for our reception venue and a top choice for a wedding photographer (we had two that were neck and neck, but one had already booked our date). We have more time to pay off things, more time to really research what we want.
If you aren't as selective on things, or if you're really set on October, then I would say go for the earlier time. For me, it worked better to have more time. On a side note, I would have loved an October wedding, but with being a teacher, it makes more sense for me to have it in the summer :-).
Our engagement will be 2.5 years when we get married. I don't have any stresses and know that I don't HAVE to plan if I don't feel like it. If I'm in a mood to do something, I will, if not...eh..I'll get to it later. I don't see how a longer engagement could be stressfull. I'd be more stressed trying to get everything done in 10 months. A longer engagement is also a lot easier on the wallet. We are taking our time paying for things and when we do need to make a payment, it's not a big deal. We also get our top choices of vendors because fewer people book this far out.
@Demarca11:We got engaged in May 2010 and our wedding is August 2011, so it will end up being a 15 month engagement... At first I was super impaitent and I was wishing that we had picked a date that was not so far away, however, I have quickly figured out that we have saved so much money having a longer engagement and I have not been stressed one bit. We were able to have time to research vendors AND lock in 2010 pricing. Since we were so early, we were able to dictate the date to the vendor, not the vendor telling us what dates they have open.
I say get it over with if you can. Im having a 2.5 year engagement and I dont find anything particularly appealing about it. I really dont think you need over a year and a half to plan a wedding unless there are extenuating circumstances.
But that;s just me. There are many many bees here engaged for 1.5-2 years who really enjoy it.
My DH and I were engaged April 2010 and married September 2010 (making it a 5.5 month engagement). I LOVED the length of our engagement!! It was long enough that I had enough time to plan everything, but not too long to where it was drawn out or overly stressful. I was also able to get all the venues, photographers, etc. that we wanted.
We got engaged mid December and have a venue on hold for October 29, 2011! We're planning on putting our deposit down next week when the owner gets back in town. We will have just over 10 months from engagement to wedding day and right now I feel like I'm playing catch up but we just didn't want to do Nov-April and we didn't want to wait until the following spring/summer!
I think quicker is better. We got engaged Oct 9, and married July 9. We didn't always get our first choice vendors, but it's just great to be married!
I think it totally depends on how long you guys have been dating. My FI and I were only dating about a year before we got engaged so a long engagement was perfect for us and allowed us to move in together and really cherish being engaged as an entire step in itself, not something all about planning a wedding. We took a long time to take little weekend trips and explore venues and now we're finally moving into the nitty gritty of planning. That said, I was kind of bummed in the beginning to have the wedding so far away but now I'm really glad it was. If you guys have been dating for a while, then I would say it's not as big of a deal to plan quickly.
That said, it sounds like you have a lot of reasons to get married in May but really only one reason to get married in Oct (that it's closer). In the end, it's only 7 months, which will be nothing when it's all said and done. I would say based on that alone, go for May! Hope that helps!
I had a 15 month engagement and it was too long. I say 10 months would be perfect. There is plenty of time to get things done and not enough time to have time wasted!
Short all the way! :) so exciting and fun! plus we are waiting to live together until we are married so we can't wait a year... or more... yikes! We would go crazy!
Thanks for all the advice! We have been officially dating for 3 yrs (technically 3.5 yrs) and have been living together for a 9 months. I would like to make a decision today, but everyone seems to have great advice for both a short and long engagement. I guess I'll have to flip a coin!
we were in your shoes - but different circumstances. i have a brother in the marine corps and it was really important for me to have him at my wedding. FI and I got engaged in July of this year...my brother leaves late feb/early march for afghanistan so we had to make a decision..plan a wedding (in what was 5 months when we finally picked a date) or wait until he gets back which would be october/november of 2011...neither of us wanted to wait that long so we jumped the gun and started planning. a little over a month to go!
it really is a peronsal choice - i could have def done with some more time to plan but then again i couldnt imagine having to wait another 8-10 months from now.
I got engaged August 20, 2010 and am getting married April 3, 2011. That's 7 and a half months, which is PLENTY long for me. Like you, I used to be an event planner and had 70% of the wedding planned in the first 6 weeks of the engagement. I didn't have any trouble finding vendors, either (I'm getting married on a Sunday in the off-season, though.) The only positive I can think of for a long engagement is saving money. The only stressful part of my engagement is coming up with the money to pay for everything in a somewhat short period of time. Other than that, though, it hasn't been stressful at all.
Also like you, I'm incredibly impatient and would NEVER be able to wait over a year to get married. Just wouldn't happen. I say go short.
I had a 9month long engagement and I'm so glad we did. I read so many girls who kept changing their mind having all kinds of regrets and questions about "Did I make the right choice?" I had very little time for that. It was stressful but if you work fast now you'll be ok. I had all of the biggies booked 3 weeks after we were engaged. Venue, DJ, florist, and photographer. You can do it!
i got engaged at the end of may and our wedding is oct 22, 2011. I had the whole wedding planned (with only my DIY projects left to do) by the end of aug. If we had the money, I would have totally gone for a short engagement. 15 months is way too long for me. However, we needed to be able to get all of our debt paid off and our parents needed to save before the big day which is why we have a long engagement. If you can do short, go short!
Our engagement was about 16 months and IMO it was too long. If you can pull it off sooner, I'd do it.
I vote for October 22 (and not just because I'm partial to the date 
).
10 months is plenty of time to plan a wedding, although I would possibly get all your big vendors (cake, flowers, photographer, caterer, venue....did I miss any?) booked right away instead of the "traditional" timeline (which you can find on theknot, marthastewartweddings, etc).
as for the guest issue, a fellow bride once said: "People you don't expect to show up, will; people you expect to show up, won't; and on the day, it won't matter either way".
If you want an Oct wedding, go for it.
I would do it sooner. I don't have a long engagement and I'm like you, used to planning things. It would bother me to have to wait that long for the event. You can do it!
10 months is plently of time to plan. If I were you, I would go for the shorter engagement.
I have a longer engagement. We got engaged in October 2009 and we are getting married in July 2011. The upside of a longer engagement is that you have first choice on vendors, are a little more relaxed in planning (in my case), and it also gives you time to save the money, and I've been happy with the length of the engagement so far. However, there are times where I wish I had a shorter engagement so FI and I could be married already!
Also, a friend of mine just got married a few weeks ago in mid December, and got engaged in February 2010, so planning a wedding in 10 months is totally doable :)
I got engaged the day after valentines day in 2009 and had a September 2009 wedding planned that fell through (due to financial issues) But now coming into 2011 I'm so glad I had this time to rethink my wedding and get to my my FH's tastes and get his input too.My wedding is now (pray with me lol) scheduled for the summer and I could not be happier. My reception site is better the photographer is better and the whole wedding process will just be that much greater. But hey, its only my opinion
My Fiance and I got engaged May 26, 2011 and are getting married November 12, 2011! Our original plans were to get married October of 2011 but my sister went and planned her wedding that month (hahah isn't she a sweetie?) anyway, so we were thinking of pushing it to May 19, 2011 but then realized there was really no reason to wait! So the planning has begun!
I suggest the short engagement.
We got engaged in September 2010, and getting married July 2011. I think that's PLENTY of time! Unless you live somewhere that the vendors get picked up really quickly, I say the sooner the better :)
We got engaged March 2009 and got married November 2010. If I had it to do over again, we'd have a short engagement, perhaps that summer. For me, I think I would have been happier if we'd done things a bit more simply, and that includes a shorter engagement. I have a close friend that had a short engagement, and their wedding was absolutely beautiful because of it's simplicity (which was necessary because they didn't have a lot of time). I vote short.
We just got engaged on Dec 14th and We have kinda decided on May 19, 2012. But I really don't want to wait that long! If you can do it sooner I say go for it!
short short short! :)
people are gonna have weddings in your same month no matter what. I bet by the time May 2012 gets a little closer, there will be others in your circle of friends or family who announce their engagements and set the date for May.
(plus, 10 months isn't really all that short. . .i really think you will find that you have enough time to get everything done.)
I had and 11 month engagement and thought it was perfect. I was still in school for part of it, so I mainly planned the wedding in about 7 months.
I really enjoyed the fact that I was fully into wedding planning and the engagment.
Some people have 4 year engagements! I don't think 2012 is that far away! But it just depends on your situation. So do whatevers best for you!
Short! I had a 10 month engagement and that was more than enough time to plan (I had multiple months in the middle where zero wedding planning occured and still we had more than enough time). We got our first choice vendors for everything (church, reception/caterer, cake, florist, DJ, photographer) too despite it being a Saturday, summertime wedding. I think I'd go crazy with a 1 year and 7 month engagement.
It seems like you want to have the shorter engagement, so do that. For the record, I do not think that an engagement of almost a year is short! If you are very picky about vendors, then maybe 10 months could be pushing it, but if you're not it should be plenty enough time. I was engaged for 16 months and I still did not book some big vendors (like the photographer and officiant) until 8 months out.
Short! We got engaged November 6th and we're getting married July 30th. We have been together for five years now (living together 2.5) so that definitely factored into the shorter engagement. I wasn't able to get the chapel I wanted because all the long-engagement girls had already booked it :( But I was able to find something just as nice so it worked out. I say do it sooner if you don't have to save up for anything.
I would go for the shorter one. We are having a 2.5 year engagement (it's already been a year so far) and trust me, I wish we were getting married sooner. We're only waiting so long because we want to wait until I graduate nursing school and we would like to save up more money for the wedding. I'm starting to get impatient!
Thanks everyone for the advice! We finally decided on our wedding date..May 19, 2012. It is a while away but we are able to have more friends and family attend, get first choice in vendors, and both search for new jobs. I can always house-hunt during our wedding-planning downtime!
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| MissBoPeep | 56 |
| hisgoosiegirl | 39 |
| ndreighton | 38 |
| akp0702 | 37 |
| Mrs.KMM | 36 |
| beargoose | 34 |
| BetterSherm | 31 |
| Gemstone | 29 |
| Beckster329 | 28 |
| stardustintheeyes | 27 |
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| NVACat | 3 |
| KatNYC2011 | 2 |
| MsMonkey | 2 |
| Sasha2011 | 1 |
| SouthernGirl | 1 |
| aprose | 1 |
| bookworm88 | 1 |
| KatyElle | 1 |
| Spoonie | 1 |
| MilksMom | 1 |
My fiance and I are having a hard time deciding on a wedding date. We got engaged mid-november and are planning to either have an Oct 22nd, 2011 wedding or a May 19, 2012 wedding. October would be less of a wait but there are a lot of other weddings going on at that time and vendors are booking up quickly. Also a few of our guests have to attend one or two other weddings that month on top of having to attending ours. It is almost January so we only have 10 months left to plan for an Oct wedding.We don't want to get married November-April since we have a lot of out-of-town guests and don't want bad travel weather. That jumps us to May 2012. This may be more convenient for some of our guests, but it is a very long engagement (1 year and 7 months to be exact). I am an impatient person and used to event plan, so I can be an efficient wedding planner, but at the same time don't want to rush things too quickly and chance having a few people not attend. I hear having a long engagement is stressful. What have soon-to-be brides and recently married brides view on this subject: have a speedy and efficient engagement/wedding or a very long enagagement/wedding? Thoughts and experiences welcome!