Memberhow long would you bees say it takes to plan and organize a wedding? 6 months? 1 year? 2 years? Why? What was the biggest thing that you had to do, and once that was done, was it easy peasey? What was the most difficult or stressful part? What was the easiest part?
MemberIt takes as much time as you have. Seriously. Some brides take 2 years. Others do it in much less. I got engaged at the end of last October. We moved to a new city in January. We did not start planning the wedding until after we moved. We booked the venue in February, caterer and photographer in April or May and I did not get the florist until July. Our wedding was in August.
MemberIt really depends on what kind of wedding you want.
I’m planning a destination wedding, so I knew it would take a little over a year just because all of the people we’re inviting need time to see if they can make it our not. We also didn’t start planning until 5 months after we got engaged.
If you’re palnning a courthouse wedding and a small reception, it could take a lot less time.
I think the biggest thing we had to do was figure out exactly where we were going, and then everything fell into place. There’s always going to be some hick-ups but for the most part that set everything in motion.
So far the easiest things have been the caterer, dj and venue for our open house/reception back in the states. It’s not going to be super formal because we will have already done that stuff in Jamaica, so everything is going to be easy and relaxed at the open house.
I’m not super picky about stuff. I just find it, if I like it I go with it. If you make it too complicated, you’ll stress yourself out.
MemberIt depends on the wedding, the location, the budget, everything really.
You can “plan” a wedding in a few days by taking a trip to the courthouse, but if you’re talking about one with some kind of planned reception with food and drink, at least a few months in advance.
The more stuff you want, the more formal, and the more people, you need more time to plan.
A year is pretty much enough time to plan a majority of weddings. We are planning in 18 months for a few reasons. 1. the best vendors at the best prices book fast and earliest, so we want our choice in vendors, 2. we are booking at 2015 prices for our 2017 wedding, 3. we got our second choice wedding date (a week earlier than our first choice, so not bad). But we are also in NYC.
Biggest thing is deciding venue/ceremony, food, and guest list. basically all of your other planning revolves around those things being done first. Nothing too stressful so far because we are in the early stages. We have our major vendors booked and my dress, but thats it.
MemberIt took me 10 months to plan my wedding. I could have done it in 6.
As long as you have a plan, it shouldn’t take that long!
We booked our venue 2 or 3 weeks after we got engaged, obviously setting a date… I bought my gown the week after that, and the weekend after that we were looking for invitations.
The invitations took a month, during that month, we set a guest list, finalized it and by the time the invitations came in, we were ready to go! Hubs and I assembled all 550 in one afternoon. Movies, Starbucks and unlimited cookies and that was that….
Took a few months off, booked the Dj somewhere in between, and all we had left were the favors, cake, flowers and alcohol. All we had to do is set one afternoon for each. The band we didn’t book, left that to the in laws.
Mind you, we were also at the same time, organizing a rehearsal henna party 2 nights before the wedding, for 200 people + or -.
Key thing to keep you grounded and relaxed, is to always look for stuff within your budget. If you know what to spend for each thing, and you focus on searching for things within that budget, it’ll make it a lot easier to make decisions and move forward.
I don’t necessarily agree that the more people and detail you want, the more time you need. We invited 550 people, had somewhere around 480 show up. It only made a difference in party favors and invitations (on my end. I know the caterers hated us a little…). It added a few more to each one. As far as detail? 1 or 2 extra center pieces. That’s about it…. I don’t think that requires a few more months of planning.
Good luck! It isn’t that bad…. If I was able to pull off this madness my in laws called a wedding, then you will be just fine!
MemberI decided to have a year long engagement, but could have planned my wedding in 2 months if I wanted to. As it was, I purposefully spread it out so that I had things to do each month leading up to the wedding.
It’s such a general question – it has everything to do with what kind of wedding you want, what your budget is, and most importantly, what kind of person you are.
Like one poster said – It’ll take as much time as you have!
MemberOh and the easiest part for me was booking the different vendors. The hardest part was figuring out what “vision” I had for the wedding – what little details I wanted to include that personalized the wedding for my (now) husband and I.
MemberTBH, i think any wedding can be planned in about 6 months. a more difficult time finding vendors that aren’t already booked but it’s doable. I had 1.5 years to plan mine, and guess what- I procrastinated the hell out of those 1.5 years!!!
I pretty much (besides having the venue booked quickly, and dress) did everything in about 5-6 months……. Although I don’t recommend it.
MemberWe got engaged and didn’t select a date until 5 months after the engagement. We were of the mind it was going to be 2 years before we were going to have our wedding anyway, but things changed because another family wedding was cancelled so we bumped it up to only 14 months after the engagement and it left us 9 months to plan. It was way more than enough time. Booking the venue was the biggest choice because that either took care of catering or we were going to have to find someone to cater/bartend and it also took care of tables, chairs, linens, etc. Everything was SO simple after booking our venue.
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