How long did it take for you to plan your wedding?

[isasir]

For an elaborate wedding, hellz no. If you want to do something similar to what my friend did, then it's possible.

Well, the wedding itself was simply just getting the paperwork done at City Hall. However, the reception was planned in 2 weeks, for about 50 people. Don't ask - but me and some friends actually planned the wedding for her. A friend of mine was the photographer, a friend's friend did the DJ'ing, I bought party favors, someone else booked a catering hall and about 50 people were invited. Catering was taken care of, as well as the cake, alcohol (I got that of course...) and most other important stuff. It turned out to work real well, and the budget was about $1800. If you do a small wedding ceremony in someone's backyard, and then a reception similar to what I just typed, then yeah, you could easily do it in 3 months.

 

[Geekbabe]

I'm debating doing the JP deal locally with friends or with going to Vegas and having Elvis officiate at my wedding. Cheezy is fun 🙂

 

[TuffGuy]

Why the rush?

You only get married once in your lifetime (hopefully), and it's not something that you want to do a rush job on or skimp on.
Schedule it for later, save a little more money, book a nicer venue and accomodations, etc.
You're short on cash anyway, and when you combine that with a rushed schedule, it can't end well.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Staley8
realistically you need 9months to a year. But if you are asking how long it took me personally to plan my wedding. I'd say about 5 days to 1 week. My wife on the other hand took a year.

Sounds about right.

Just go to Vegas

 

[imported_Tomato]

Originally posted by: MisfitsFiend

No church, no hall, no plans and you expect 3 months? L. M. F. A. O.

Well, I have to agree with that, HOWEVER, if you are having something small, (ie no professional photographer, videographer, etc) it is possible. If you are getting married in a church, you might need to take classes, if not, that's not a problem. If you are looking for a restaurant to fit 30 people or so, wear dresses/tuxes off the rack, have simple flowers you will be ok. heck, there are shows on tv that plan a wedding in 5 days...if you are serious about Dec, get to looking for a reception place (unless it's at someone's house) and look at invitatios - it takes a while to have them done. Godd luck! and sorry for the incoherency of the post... 🙂

Heh... actually, it was quite helpful. 🙂 Thanks MisfitsFiend! It's definitely going to be small, no pro's there (photographer, videographer, etc.). What kind of church would we need to take classes for?

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

If you get married and have reception on a non-weekend day (Fri,Sat,Sun) that will open up some possibilities. I'm not sure if taking classes varies by type of church, we were married in a Methodist Church and took some classes. They were no big deal, just sort of seeing how well we knew each other, had similar goals, that sort of thing.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Originally posted by: Tomato
What kind of church would we need to take classes for?

for a roman catholic church wedding you have to go to a type of seminar where they make sure you know what you are getting into. we went to a saturday one that took the whole day.

there's a specific name for it that i can't recall right now.

 

[oboeguy]

If you're going to bother with anything other than a minimal wedding, you will probably need a TON more time than 3 months. Sure, fewer people get married in Dec so you have that going for you, but if you want The Big Wedding(TM) with 100+ guests, DJ/band, pro photographer and videographer, plan on a year. At least. Around NYC I hear that 18 months is average! We planned 95% of it in a year (we signed for the reception like a year before to the day and that was pure luck -- and got us started with everything else). If you're going for a Catholic ceremony (are you?) then you will have to take pre-Cana classes six months before. Don't forget, honeymoon takes planning too. 🙂

 

[Crucial]

We planned our in about 3 months. We got married on Valentine's Day. You have to first find a reception hall and find out if your church has an opening on that day. Then you have to find out if your church requires pre-marital classes. Our's did but we had already completed them. We also had to have about 3 meeting with the pastor that was marrying us. He understood the rush and worked with us on that. If you can get those things straightened out you will be good to go if you aren't having exotic flowers or super expensive cakes or photos done. Our wedding cost about $5000 including the rings. It was a great time and I don't regret a thing.

 

[Klixxer]

One week, it took 2 years to plan the divorce.

 

[Modeps]

Little over a year and 2 months to plan ours.

 

[JDub02]

Originally posted by: Geekbabe
I'm debating doing the JP deal locally with friends or with going to Vegas and having Elvis officiate at my wedding. Cheezy is fun 🙂

no way! i suggested Elvis to my g/f ... she laughed until she found out I was serious ... then it wasn't funny any more. 😕

 

[dquan97]

Planning time depends on the complexity of the wedding and how many people are invited. Mine took 1.5yrs because we like to take our time to look for deals on different things and we invited over 350ppl. Total budget: $10K.

 

[shiner]

Plan? What is this plan you speak of?

 

[Geekbabe]

Originally posted by: JDub02

Originally posted by: Geekbabe
I'm debating doing the JP deal locally with friends or with going to Vegas and having Elvis officiate at my wedding. Cheezy is fun 🙂

no way! i suggested Elvis to my g/f ... she laughed until she found out I was serious ... then it wasn't funny any more. 😕

Lol, I think it would be a rocking good time but then I'm a strange gal who thinks farting is funny🙂

 

[Aquaman]

Originally posted by: freesia39
which wedding will this one be? the one in martinique or the one here?

if it's here in the US, i'd rule it out since well, it'll be december. not only are a lot of places having company christmas parties but people have also been planning their weddings for ages have been shooting for a december wedding also. avoid christmas.

it will depend on the size though. if you're having a small wedding, you might be able to get away with it. if it's on the large size, i don't think most places will consider it unless you book at least six months to a year in advance. same goes for professional photographers, caterers, etc.

I concur 🙂 I've help plan 3 weddings for my friends......... my advice if you want a wedding in 3 months........ get on it now and hit it hard.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Aquaman]

Oh yeah......... why the rush? Can't you wait till next year? You will have more time to plan and more money and people can plan to come to your wedding.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[paulDunne]

would say a year. but hey, things can happen in 3 months aswell. And plus, if you do get married in december, you can file yr taxes as married filing jointly. Huge break. You may not care about it, but good to keep in mind.

 

[shiner]

Originally posted by: Aquaman

Originally posted by: freesia39
which wedding will this one be? the one in martinique or the one here?

if it's here in the US, i'd rule it out since well, it'll be december. not only are a lot of places having company christmas parties but people have also been planning their weddings for ages have been shooting for a december wedding also. avoid christmas.

it will depend on the size though. if you're having a small wedding, you might be able to get away with it. if it's on the large size, i don't think most places will consider it unless you book at least six months to a year in advance. same goes for professional photographers, caterers, etc.

I concur 🙂 .................... get on it now and hit it hard.

Cheers,
Aquaman

That sounds more like honeymoon advice....

 

[djheater]

A couple of months after the baby was born we went out for breakfast and it was REALLY close to the courthouse.

🙂

 

[dullard]

I personally took nearly 1 year. But that was since we wanted to wait until I graduated with my BS degree. 3 months is perfectly doable. Probably less than 3% of your guests have made holiday plans yet. People generally send out invites with ~6 weeks notice, so you are double that already.

But you will have to make compromises. If you want one particular specific church and/or hall, it may be booked. If instead you are willing to take any comfortable place, you'll have tons of options.

3 month weddings are very common and can be done quite well (early pregnancy for example).

You really only have to make a few choices - then you are set:
[*]Where will it be, and are these places available? Often food choice is already made then since many halls have set caterers. Shouldn't take you more than 3 days to do this. One huge advantage is to think of non-Saturday weddings. This solves many booking issues. And it solves problems you might not think of: for example it eliminates that awkward 2 hour gap between the wedding and the reception hall opening that occurs with Catholic weddings.
[*]Who to invite, who will do certain tasks? This can be done in 1 afternoon, especially if you already have a list of Christmas cards.
[*]What colors, what flowers, what type of decorations, etc. Honestly it doesn't matter. Take 5 minutes, pick something and have fun with it. So what if your great aunt 3 times removed hates purple...
[*]Tux / Gown. This can take time, especially if the woman wants some specialty catalog gown. But she can also go to the local store, find something great in-stock and be done in a couple of afternoons (requires multiple fittings).
[*]Songs / DJ. If you want, find any DJ as they are all fun and let him/her choose the songs. Or if you want, listen to romantic CDs for an evening. Really this isn't much.
You are done. A wedding can be planned in a week (think of the TLC show that does just that). You don't need 6, 9, 12, 1231541235 months to make those few choices.

 

[trmiv]

Yes, it's enough. My wife planned a wedding in three months, and for $5000, and it went off fine. It was a lot of stress, but she did it.

 

[Lola]

it defiantly can be done and you can usually find "unusual places" for it to be done that will be avaibale in that short amount of time.

For us, we (mostly I) have been planning is since january. i thought that was too much time, but halls (nice ones), dj's, cake people, are all booking into 2006 already.

But, i dont understand why you want to rush? like someone else said, why would you want this to be so fast?
personally, i love planning my wedding. I am going to relish this time as i am strongly hoping and believing it will be the only one (of mine) that i will be able to plan. I am coming from the mind set that i will never have an oppertunity to do this again!

 

[vi edit]

Ummmm...

10 minutes? Basically invovled walking from our room across the resort to the wedding planner, pick out our songs, our location on the resort we wanted to get married at, and what sort of cake and dinner meal we wanted.

The wedding/moon deal at Sandal's rules.

 

[DT4K]

Planning time for my wedding: couple days
Invited guests: Just the bride and I
Total cost: about $100 for the wedding and about $500 for the honeymoon including airfare
Location: Silver Bell Chapel - Las Vegas, NV