Engaged! But don't even know where to start!

Chocoholic84

Got engaged this weekend!
We don't wanna stay engaged too long so planning for summer 2011..anyone think this is too soon...I'm not sure as I don't know the first thing about planning a wedding!!
I think the first thing we need to do is a pre-marriage course is that right? How do I go about this?

ThePiedPiper

Chocoholic84 wrote: »

Got engaged this weekend!
We don't wanna stay engaged too long so planning for summer 2011..anyone think this is too soon...I'm not sure as I don't know the first thing about planning a wedding!!
I think the first thing we need to do is a pre-marriage course is that right? How do I go about this?

First thing to do would be to decide on date, venue, budget and go from there.

As you mention a pre-marriage course, I take it you're planning on a church wedding. In that case, go speak to your local priest and see are there dates available in your church in the year.

Decide on the numbers as this will have a major effect on the venue you choose. Some places will not cater for parties of less than 100, some cannot cater for parties of over 50, so you need to know a rough idea of how many guests you're going to have, and if you're going down the traditional route of a wedding dinner, band, etc.

When you do decide on a date, let your family and friends know the date as it is getting close and to make sure that they can make arrangements to be at your wedding.

If you get things moving in the next few weeks, you have more than enough time. Nobody needs 2 years to plan a wedding.

Lastly, congratulations on your engagement. Enjoy all the planning and excitement ahead of you.

bills

Congrats!!

I am more or less in the same position as you.We are planning summer 2011 & are just at booking stage for church & venue. I feel like I will be very busy & maybe rushing it a bit for summer but we want a small intimate relaxed affair so am going to try & not get too stressed. I think your first step is deciding what type of wedding i.e. abroad, traditional big church wedding, civil ceremony etc. Then decide budget or maybe look at that first & then move from there. Good luck with the planning.
Also www.gettingmarried.ie is helpful

Scruff101

We got engaged in Sept and getting married next Sept. I think you have loads of time just get the main bits done:

Church (if church wedding)
Priest
Hotel
Band & DJ
Photographer if having one
Video if having one
Cars if using them
Decide on bridal party
Dress for bride (as these can take months to come into shop once ordered)

soletrain

hello and congrats, i got married in sept and one piece of advise i would offer is to ask for a discount on everything, dont just accept the first quote you receive for all of the big spends, we got a lot more form the hotel simply by asking for it, a great idea we had was to have a band at the drinks reception, it was a great day and the band set up outside and the atmospeher was cracking " galway girl" and songs like that got the party in full flow eaarly( the hotel provided that included n the price as they knew we really wanted it but was outside our budget) also dont pay for things like candellabras, linen covers for the chairs, this should be included, (but some places used to charge an arm and a leg for that)
*An idea we had was to set up a wedding website and a lot of people thought it was a good idea, u can have pics of engagement party, and update people on how to get to location,bridesmaidsm,groomsmen, honeymoon pics after wedding, stag and hen pics.. google wedding channel and register for free.
*last advise keep the speeches short and sweet, humor and a few romantcic words__dont over toast as i did too many and after each one the crowd thought i was finished akward__:D

good luck