Getting married during study leave?

Marz66

Hey,
Just wondering if any of you have (or know someone who has) ever gotten married during study leave for professional accounting (ACA) exams. My fiance and I are thinking of getting married in the middle of June next year (2009) and my study leave for the FAE exams is from June to early September. As some of you will know, there is only one attempt at these exams so if you fail you must repeat the full years study and repeat the following September. I think I can afford to take 2 weeks off i.e. one week leading up to wedding and one weeks honeymoon but I was wondering if any of you who have done this think this can be done, especially considering my study will be majorly interrupted and my fiance and I will also be purchasing/looking for a house to rent at this time too. I know people who have gone on holidays during study leave so just checking if its also possible to get married during study leave and also pass the exams! I would try to have all the wedding preps done before June and then if anything goes wrong, ask my fiance to look after it! My fiance will be doing a postgrad from Sept 08 - May 09 and my exams are in early Sept 09 so this is almost the only time we can do it! Do ye think it can be done? Thanks

Featherl

Hi, Firstly, Congrats!

If it was my decision, I would leave wedding til after important exams and after husband to be exams. What about a wedding in October, November, December, January 2009. These are all only a couple of months after both your exams. Ye will have all the study and pressure of exams out of the way and have time to concentrate on planning the wedding and then enjoying the day! You wont have to interupt your study leave.

I have many friends doing these exams and they have always put marriages/children etc.. on hold until after these exams. One girl put off getting engaged until after here accounting finals.They always waited until the right time. Its up to yourself though. Do you think you can handle the planning of a wedding and study for important exams at the same time? People are different, I know I wouldnt be able to do it, but maybe you can...

Best of Luck with what ever you decide.

Marz66

Thanks Feather

My fiance will be in college again in Sept 09 but would be off for Christmas and early January so we could do it then, that just seems so far away!

Christmas 08 then is a bit too soon financially as we are still saving.

There is a possibility of doing it during a week my fiance has off from college but I think it would be very rushed and not very relaxing or peaceful if we worked straight up to and straight after the wedding!

Might have to go with the beginning of study leave and then just study my a** off for the rest of it!

JackieO

I would go for it if I were you. From my experience June is probably when you will do the least study anyway. A friend of mine got married a week after the FAE's ended. It was a right pain for him and his fiance as it has little or no time in the lead up to the wedding. But at least he enjoyed the honeymoon.

If you do it in June, at least it will be out of the way and you can throw yourself whole-heartedly into the exams then once the wedding is over.

Personally, I would prefer not to be doing the two things the same year. I would want to enjoy the lead up to the wedding and not be putting too much pressure on yourself.

But sounds like ye're in a rush! I say go for June. It is possible to do both and pass your exams - just make sure you put in the work during the year and you should be fine.

Also, just thinking there, you would need to ensure the wedding doesn't clash with block release - these are pretty important.

LashingLady

When I first saw your post I thought you would be putting yourself under a load of pressure, but I think as long as it's just June it should be ok.

I think it depends on the type of studier that you are. Are you sitting Prof 3 this year? Did you do Prof 2 last year? If you are a masters student who is just doing FAE's then I would think twice about having the wedding in the middle considering you won't have done exams in two years and might be out of practice.....

If you're the type of studier (like me) who generally crams during study leave then I would say taking June off wouldn't be a problem. BUT you would need to have a date at the end of June start of July that all the messing stops and you get down to business.

I pretty much took the start of June off my I did my FAE's. I went on a week's hols, sat the mocks, organised my notes, and generally chilled out.

The other thing that I would worry about is THE GUILT. This is a major symptom of study leave and can get in the way of getting things done. But if you plan properly and won't be putting yourself under pressure by not having all of July and August then you should be fiine.

Also - what would your firm think about your wedding plan? They might not be very understanding if god forbid you didn't get one of your exams. Might not be an issue but keep it in mind....

heavyheart

Why would you want anything to interfere with either of them ?
Keep your wedding day for another time ,its a special day and you dont want anything hanging over you for it ...
for now concentrate on your exams. Why would you want to squeeze them both in ? Separate the two and concentrate on them individually ....even if it means having to wait for your fiance to finish his exams which might seem far away now but ye have the rest of yer lives ....

Marz66

I know but I am doing tax exams after the accounting exams (next set after Sept 09 is April 2010) Christmas 09 seems a long time away and my fiance is not too keen on the idea cos of dark cold days/dark photographs etc. I dont rly mind as cud be cosy with Christmas trees and mulled wine etc!

Im doing Prof 3 this year, finished college last year and am a bit of a crammer so hopefully I can manage to cram when I come back. Problem is if I failed one of the Prof 3s this year (obviously I will do all I can not to but they're getting closer and closer!), it would put an awful lot of pressure on me not to fail the FAEs next year!

Will have to have a rethink and see what we can do, maybe a loan for Christmas 08 wud be possible, wudnt be any pressure then really.

Thanks for the advice all!

iguana

Marz, we have a work and jobs section with several accountant who regularly post there. If you would like me to move it there to increase your chances of getting an answer from someone who has done these exams, let me know.

foxy06

This thread is making me nervous.....i'm getting married the day after my exams finish! Was planned that way but when I started planning in January it was only going to be a very small affair and now it is huge!

Marz66

We've decided to go ahead and book the wedding for June! I posted in the Jobs section and turns out lots of people take time out of study leave to go on holidays or their firms dont allow very much study leave and they still pass the exams, as long as everything is planned well, it should be fine! I should have said I'm not that fussy a bride so wont care if the flowers are the wrong shade of blue or anything like that!

I know a wedding is so special it should really be held on its own without exams to worry about but I know there isnt really any better time of year for us in the next 3 years! We're thinking of taking a short honeymoon after the wedding and will go on a much longer trip to celebrate our 1 year anniversary a year later, which sounds great cos we'll have more money to spent when the wedding is paid for!

Once the planning and organising is done, I think its fine to also be concentrating on exams close to the wedding! Foxy, at least your exams will be over and starting your married life, you will be free from them! Good luck with the exams and have a great day!!

foxy06

actually just chickened out and decided to put the exams off to the next lot in August and the sense of relief is enormous! Even though I am taking things easy with the wedding and not going too overboard I just can't handle everything at the one time. I am actually looking forward to the next few weeks now instead of dreading them.