Make A Mission Statement
Once your two-week reprieve is over, its time to work out a mission statement. For that, youll need to figure out your values. Remember, nothing in a wedding is required, other than some kind of ceremony and maybe some food. Everything else a dress, the bouquet toss, the cake cutting is optional.
Consider:
- What are your top three priorities? The cake, a mentalist, former President Barack Obama as an officiant?
- What are your core emotional needs? Do you want to include loving messages from your friends? Have a religious ceremony to cement your commitment to each other and God? Have your parents walk you down the aisle? Invite your dog to witness your marriage?
- Do you have a motto? Here are a few examples:
“This will be a great day, but we’ll have better ones”
“As long as we keep fun at the heart of this, everything else is gravy”
“All that matters is that this makes us happy right now
No one cares about flowers. Not even us”
Write it all down. Youll need it later.
How To Plan A Wedding In 6 Months Or Less
Want to plan a wedding in six months? It’s a challenge, but it can be done. Most traditional wedding planning timelines are designed for a couple with a year to get the details ironed out, sometimes thats just not realisticespecially if you get engaged over the holidays and are dreaming of a summer wedding. But can you actually pull off a fabulous wedding in only six months? You bet. You might actually be surprised by how easy the process can be .
Heres exactly how to plan a wedding in six months, with the tasks for each month laid out for you.
How To Plan A Wedding In 3 Months Or Less
Its a common myth portrayed by stressed brides and well meaning mother-in-laws that you need at least a year to plan your wedding. So let us be the first to say it here: you dont! Planning a wedding in three months is entirely possible. Believe us, weve seen it done, and done well.
What we will say is that, as with any large undertaking, theres always a trade-off, with pros and cons to both. Whilst having 12 months to plan a wedding gives you the chance to spread it all out over many months everything from decision making, to costs you could be looking at a year of prolonged indecision. Or, 12 long months of intense focus. Whats more, like many engaged couples, you could find yourselves just three months out from the big day and realise youve done a little too much dreaming and maybe not enough doing, thus leaving you with a full-on few months at the end anyway.
Whereas if youre game enough to take on the challenge of planning a wedding on the fly, sure itll be more intense, stressful, and time consuming for those 12 weeks youll need to be ready for action, have your decision-making brain switched on, and be prepared for costs due mostly up-front or shortly thereafter. But after that youll have the rest of the year to relax in newly wedded bliss!
So whatever your reasons may be for marrying quickly whether a sudden surprise engagement or a determined lets just do it now! mindset pour yourself a glass of bubbles and get ready to start taking notes.
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Three Month Wedding Planning Advice
Realize that if you are planning your wedding quickly, you may not get everything you ever dreamed of. If you just want to get married to your spouse, and do not care about the extra little details, this timeframe is for you.
There is a strict schedule that you will need to follow in order to get all the wedding planning done. There are different priorities for each month leading up to the wedding, and it is important to stay true to them since you will be operating on a much shorter schedule compared to most brides.
Be prepared that you may not be able to get your absolute dream wedding on short notice. Things like wedding dress shopping, booking the perfect venue, your bachelor and bachelorette parties, and even your bridal shower may not be as exactly planned due to time restraints.
If you dont mind not having all the extra added frills of your wedding and you just want to get married, this guide is perfect for you!
Shop For Wedding Attire
It would help if you had to find the wedding dress, bridesmaids dresses, grooms attire, and the groomsmens attire. This might be one of your more indecisive moments, but its essential when youre trying to plan a quick wedding to make a decision and stick with it. For the wedding dress, visit local bridal shops and see if they have sample sales or clearance.
You can even order your bridesmaids dresses, mother of the bride dress, and flower girl dress online to make things quicker and easier. Mens Wearhouse has a super easy online rental checkout for mens suits or tuxes that makes finding and renting mens attire so quick and easy!
That all probably felt like a lot to get accomplished, but the hard stuff is over. The rest should be pretty quick and easy stick with it, youre getting closer to the big day, and its going to be amazing!
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The Week Of The Wedding
The week before your wedding, here are some last minute details to get done before your wedding!
- Give your wedding planner a final timeline
- Do your wedding rehearsal and have your rehearsal dinner
- Get the groomsmens suits
- Pack for the honeymoon
- Put together a day of the wedding survival kit for the bride complete with hairspray, bandaids, or anything that may help a bridal emergency!
The Day Before Your Wedding
- Drop off place cards, table cards, menus, favours, table plan, and décor to reception coordinator
- Provide all wedding professionals with an emergency phone number to call on the day of the wedding
- Ensure the cake is on track to be delivered to reception venue – have someone else look after this one!
- Iron out any ceremony details
- Chill out and have a nice dinner
- Get a good nights rest!
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Focus On What Matters Most
It is completely possible to plan a wedding in 3 months or less! If you maintain realistic expectations, get creative, and recruit some help, you can get it all done! If you start stressing about the details, remember that at the end of the day you will be married! Thats true no matter how large your guest count, what color the napkins, or whether youre at a castle or in your backyard. When its all over, the details youll remember are the look on your partners face when you see each other at the ceremony, the moment you say I do, and the feeling of being absolutely surrounded by love as you celebrate starting your new life together.
48 Fields Farm is a Leesburg VA barn wedding venue for celebrations of all sizes.Our countryside barn and vast fields are peacefully set in the heart of Northern Virginia wine country.
How Long Does A Wedding Typically Take To Plan
The typical wedding takes a while to plan. Brides usually take about a year or more to plan their wedding. This is usually due to the fact that wedding planning is overwhelming. There are lots of details to consider and wedding vendors to book months in advance.
If you are organized and use a wedding planning timeline, the impossible is definitely possible! You can plan a wedding within any desired time period that you choose.
Keep in mind that you may not get everything that you want. Typically brides book their wedding venue far in advance, so your options may be limited in your short time period.
Things such as shopping for your wedding dress should come as your first priority if you are trying to rush the wedding planning process. Typically wedding boutiques consider anything ordered less than 6 months before your wedding to be a rush order.
Since this wedding planning guide is for 3 months, you may find that you have to compromise on things that would normally take a while to plan out such as your wedding dress.
Also Check: How To Find Cheap Wedding Dresses
How To Plan A Wedding In 3 Months
by McKenzi Taylor | Oct 20, 2021 | Checklists
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our full disclaimer to learn more.
Ideally, every couple will have at least 6 months to plan a wedding of their dreams.
However, the ideal isnt always the reality.
A spouse might be in the military and expecting to ship out in just a few months, a job relocation can throw a wrench in your plans or maybe youre just so eager to be wed you simply cant wait any longer.
Learning how to plan a wedding in 3 months shows you it can be done, and you can still have the perfect wedding youve always wanted.
Look At Wedding Venues
Once you know your vision, how many guests you would like to invite, and what your budget is, you can start to look at wedding venues. For each of my daughters weddings, we had about 100 people and rented a beautiful lodge in one of our countys parks. We were very lucky to get them on the date we wanted since they get booked out quite early. Looking for a venue should be one of your top priorities in order to get your date reserved.
Here are some questions to consider asking when inquiring about a venue for your wedding.
- What does this facility accommodate?
- What is the seating capacity?
- How many tables and chairs are included?
- What is the fire code limit?
- Does the facility have heating/cooling?
- What decorations are included?
- Are we allowed to bring our own decorations?
- What are the rules about hanging decor?
- What forms of payment do they accept?
- How much deposit is required and when?
- What is the cancellation fee?
- Do they provide in-house catering?
- Do they have a liquor license/bar service included?
- Is there a kitchen area available?
- Is this a public or private location?
- Is a coat check/area provided?
- Is a kids area available if needed?
- Is a sound system available?
- Is it wheel-chair accessible?
- Where are the bathrooms located?
- Are there dressing rooms available?
- Do you have a dance area and room for a DJ or band?
- Is it possible to rehearse at the venue?
- What is the total fee?
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Month To Go: The Last Minute Stuff
Were getting so close and most of the hard work should be done. All you need to do now is make sure that everything is on course. These things need to be done in the third month of your engagement.
Write your wedding vows. If youre planning to wordsmith your own vows, now is a great time to work on them since most of the stressful plans are done. Take a few minutes to research ideas online and write out a list of things you love about your future spouse. Put into words your feelings and affections for him/her. You can choose to write your vows together as a couple or write them separately. If you decide to write them separately, youll want to have your officiant read them ahead of time to make sure they flow well together and come out being similar in length. They can offer suggestions to the content of the vows as well.
Get a final head-count and make a seating chart. Youll need to let your venue and caterer know what your final head-count is about two weeks prior to the wedding. You should have all your RSVPs in by this time. If not, hunt down anyone who hasnt RSPVd and ask them to let you know as soon as possible so that you can make final arrangements. If they dont reply, assume theyre not coming and move on. If youre planning on having assigned seating, you can now start working on the seating chart for your reception .
Y On At Your Bachelorette Party
A few days before your wedding, you should plan a party with all your girls. This doesnt have to be limited to your bridesmaids. If you have other girlfriends who were not asked to be at your wedding party, this would be an excellent opportunity to include them in something to help ease any hurt feelings.
Your wedding day is here! All the quick decisions and rushed planning probably just about put you over the edge, but as youre walking down the aisle to the man of your dreams, itll all be worth it!
Recommended Reading: What Goes First Engagement Or Wedding Ring
Ways To Plan A Wedding In A Month
NEW YORK — Wedding couples sometimes love a challenge, hate logistics or hear the shotgun cocking in the distance, but short-timers with a month to prepare can still have a great wedding
Couples with three months or less until their ceremony spend little more than 11 hours a week planning the event, according to
TheKnot.com
and WeddingChannel.com’s Real Weddings survey. But they’ll have to do much more if they’re hoping to squeeze all that planning into a month or less. Also, while retailers including
Bed, Bath & Beyond
make a month seem like a lifetime by letting couples register online and tinker with their wish lists 24/7, elements such as venues, dresses, flowers and photographers aren’t nearly as flexible.
That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, just tricky.
“I have a cousin who’s doing her whole wedding in San Diego in a month,” says Donne Kerestic, chief executive of 1-800Registry. “We were able to get half of her vendors done in a week.”
It also takes a bit of luck. Sharon Naylor, author of 35 wedding advice books including
Your Wedding, Your Way
, says other couples’ cancellations can help late-game wedding planners get not only their venue, but possibly a discount as well. A wedding planner, meanwhile, may cost couples upward of $1,600, according to the Real Weddings survey, but Naylor notes that they can turn events around in as little as two weeks and can break down a couple’s to-do list “like a human spreadsheet.”
Be flexible
Delta
Know when to delegate
Select The Other Essential Vendors
Guided by your simple wedding planning checklist, plus your wedding vision, now’s the time you can make those essential and additional vendor choices. Find the dress, look into wedding party attire, and secure a tailor. Find your ideal DJ and caterer. Plus, book a florist who can find suggest lush alternatives when peonies aren’t in season.We suggest maximizing your weekends, because the more you mark off your wedding planning checklist now, the less you’ll scramble closer to your wedding date.
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