Short notice wedding planning

CurraghBread

Hi, my partner and I a planning on getting married and possibly quite soon. We have not announced our engagement or anything but are considering getting married as early as October 2017. Venues and church are available. We have talked quite a bit about getting married and we're both quite low maintenance and don't want fuss so we think it's doable. Has anyone got any advice as to what may be the unforeseen pitfalls that could arise with planning a wedding at such such short notice. Please and thanks!

lawred2

CurraghBread wrote: »

Hi, my partner and I a planning on getting married and possibly quite soon. We have not announced our engagement or anything but are considering getting married as early as October 2017. Venues and church are available. We have talked quite a bit about getting married and we're both quite low maintenance and don't want fuss so we think it's doable. Has anyone got any advice as to what may be the unforeseen pitfalls that could arise with planning a wedding at such such short notice. Please and thanks!

October is 5 months away.

How is that short notice?

Fire away. You'll be grand. Plenty time to arrange everything and give everyone advance notice.

Baybay

Only thing I can think of is if you have family living abroad: finances, booking time off work etc.

CurraghBread

@Baybay and @lawred2 - that's what we think too. No family abroad. Just wondering if we're being naive in thinking that there's nothing to worry about! Thanks!

mugsymugsy

CurraghBread wrote: »

@Baybay and @lawred2 - that's what we think too. No family abroad. Just wondering if we're being naive in thinking that there's nothing to worry about! Thanks!

Dont forget about sorting / timeline for legal side in terms of notice for intent to marriage and booking marriage course if applicable.

Rodgeb

Book your meeting to give the state notice as early as possible, this needs to be at least 3 months before the wedding and there can be a wait of a few weeks for an appointment.

If you're getting married in a church the same goes for your marriage guidance course. Last summer we had to wait about 3 months before we could get a place on a course with Accord. Its 2 days long so you will want to get it done asap.

solerina

We did it in less time, it's certainly very doable, book your appointment with the local registrar asap, you need to give 3 months notice, although this can be gotten around by going to court !! You have plenty of time OP.

Bacchus

OP, 5 months is technically plenty of time to get organised for a wedding but 1) be prepared for a lot of work, and 2) your choice in vendors is going to be a bit restricted.

First thing, get your paperwork ducks in a row and make sure you have your pre-marriage course sorted. Everything else is window dressing.

Now, when I said above that its technically enough time, this really boils down to what you want. If you're not fussy about having the THE photographer or THE florist or THE makeup artist of your dreams... then yeah, you'll be able to find some vendors still available. On the upside, October is the tail-end of the wedding season so you'll find it easier than someone planning an August wedding in March.

My advice is to quickly decide on what is important to you beyond the venue/church and send out a few enquiries to vendors/suppliers to see if you can get what you want. Things like bands, photographers, makeup and hair are usually the first to book out so start there. Florists, the dress, suits, invites, etc. are less urgent.

LynnGrace

As others have said, make sure that the legalities etc are sorted, first and foremost.

A friend of mine had a family meal in a nice restaurant, no frills of any description. That was what they both wanted, and I do think that is THE most important thing.

To me, it's very doable to sort a wedding in that time.
All the best.

Innocent123

Very doable, one thing to add to the legal lead in though is, depending on "the dress", there may be a lead in time for the shop

miamee

Family member did it in a slightly longer time frame last year, no problem at all and they got married in the summer so potentially even busier than October! So long as you are flexible as regards booking / buying things (some things won't be available), you should be absolutely fine

Neyite

Easy done in that time.

If I were you, I'd book and arrange the lot, then tell the families. That way their opinions are moot and they can't insist on you doing things a certain way or inviting so-and-so.

scarepanda

We've just got engaged, planning for middle of November. He has no interest in wedding planning and I'm not all that fussy about most things! Met my bridesmaid yesterday and i think my lack of urgency is worrying her! It'll all be grand though!

I completely second keeping it to yourself till the main stuff is booked, especially if your doing anything out of the norm for your family. We've two problems so far, 1) the guest list, were keeping it fairly small approx 60ppl, so it means not everyone who expects to be invited will be getting a full invitation cue Huff's and puffs from the parent's and 2) we're not getting married in a church so getting a bit of a cold shoulder off my mother.

Remember first and foremost, it's YOUR day. Plan it and then send invites out and ignore any pressure to invite people you don't want. Personally, I'm only too glad to be left off the list!

LirW

Friends of mine got engaged last year in July and married in December. They planned a full city wedding with 80 guests in that time and it was hands down the most gorgeous wedding I've ever seen. Very intimate and personal. You'll be grand.
Personally I like the idea of just getting it done, I wouldn't wanna plan a wedding for like 18 months or more.

Peregrinus

The wife and I had a five-month gap from decision to execution. Once you have ceremony venue, celebrant, reception venue lined up, you're grand. Everything else is dispensable, and nobody - not even you - is going to remember your wedding on the basis of whether the bridesmaid's dresses were colour-coordinated with the table linen. The key is to keep it simple, identify a short list of details where it matters to you to get things exactly right, and focus on that.

Faith

The one area is that wedding dresses generally need to be ordered in, and they have a 6-9 month lead time. Within your time frame, that's not possible, so the bride will need to focus on sample dresses, pre-owned dresses or non-traditional dresses, most likely.

Addle

Friend's sibling marrying this summer.
Got their first choice in everything they wanted at 15 weeks notice.

Baybay

Faith wrote: »

the bride will need to focus on sample dresses, pre-owned dresses or non-traditional dresses, most likely.

I hired my wedding dress.
It was a number of years ago now, we were on a tight budget & I hate shopping of all kinds. Found a hire shop, chose dress (coincidentally it's first hire), agreed personalisation alterations, all in a couple of hours.
No regrets at all.

An Bhanríon

We got engaged in May and got married at the end of November. It's certainly doable as long as you aren't fussy. Our date, for example, was decided by the availability of the hotels we visited and also that our celebrant was available. Most important I think to organise straight away were ceremony venue, celebrant availability and reception venue. Then the dress as it took me a while to get one as I was on a tight budget. Then getting the paperwork for civil marriage and for the church too (church not an issue for everyone of course). Then entertainment at the reception and music for ceremony. We also sent save the dates out (just é-mails and texts). After that things fixed themselves but it was a bit stressful getting that much done. We didn't have a photographer or videographer so that was one less thing to organise. In fact there are a lot of things we didn't have (cake, wedding car, wedding party) so that made organising easier.

Best of luck with the organising!

Loveinapril

Faith wrote: »

The one area is that wedding dresses generally need to be ordered in, and they have a 6-9 month lead time. Within your time frame, that's not possible, so the bride will need to focus on sample dresses, pre-owned dresses or non-traditional dresses, most likely.

This was the most ridiculous part of having a quick engagement for me. It's a feckin dress- 9 months!!! I ordered mine online and had a lot of alterations done to it in a local shop. I think it arrived 6 weeks before the wedding then had a couple of weeks being altered with me frequently visiting it for extras/ fittings. My sister in law was having meltdowns because I wasn't.

OP, you have plenty of time. We got married last year after a 4 month engagement and had the major things booked before telling people. We have a lot of "but you have to..." people in our lives so it eased a lot of stress for us saying "we have that sorted, thanks".