just wondering….how long were you engaged? did you plan the whole time? or did you take some time off during your planning? and again…What is the minimum amount of time it would take to plan a wedding?
I took 8 months to plan my wedding, because we got engaged at the end of Sept and had the wedding in May. But that was also because I am an accountant and had tax season to go through. There was another girl in my office who planned her wedding in 2 months, but she has been engaged for about 4 years…
The answer: it takes as long as you want it to. If you want a fancy hall, great food, that gorgeous designer dress that will take 4 months to make and deliver, then you need to take that all into consideration. If you are going to go to a bridal dress outlet, bring home your dress that day and have your bridesmaids get something from a store like Macys, adn have the wedding at a friends house with a BBQ after, then I think you could do it in 2months.
Etiquette says you should send out invitations 2 months before so keep that in mind.
Also, i found that the longer it goes on, the more frustrating it is because you have all the little details in your head and you drive yourself crazy trying to remember it all so it will go off perfectly. Best to just get it over with and get on with your marriage I say. The sooner the better!
December 7th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Most of the time is the result of te time it takes to get things in, not that acually planning. So its really up to your venders.
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December 7th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
We’ll be engaged a year when we marry…and no, it doesn’t take nearly that long. I believe you could plan a great wedding in a month (providing you could find vendors who weren’t booked)…
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December 7th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
My beautiful wife and I just exchanged vows two months ago, and had been planning it for approximately 18 months. My son and new daughter in law however did it much quicker. On a Wednesday they decided to marry the following Tuesday thus giving themselves only 1 week which to prepare. Both wedding went off very good and so anything can happen if you are willing to put 100% into preparing for this big, regardless of amount of time.
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51 years life experience
December 7th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
It really depends on what kind of event you want.
If you just want to elope somewhere, or have a simple ceremony with your nearest and dearest present, you could probably plan that within a month, tops.
If you want something a little bigger than that, but not over-the-top, maybe 6 months.
If you want something really big and fancy, probably a year or more.
Don’t forget that religion can also be a factor, if you want to be married by a clergyperson. Some religions want you to be engaged for at least 8-12 months so they can counsel you and help you prepare. Others have no problem marrying you a month or two after you ask them to do so.
From my experience, the "average" seems to be around a year. I know of people who have been engaged for less than a year, and some for two or even three years. Do whatever works for you.
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December 7th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I could plan a wedding in two weeks!
However, I didn’t have to. We were engaged about eight months, and planned and hosted a traditional wedding for 200 guests. Plus, I did it living over four hours away from where the wedding was taking place, in our hometown. Lots of family help is the key!
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December 7th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I had ideas all along of what I wanted to do. I just didn’t write anything down really or start buying stuff or making phone calls until a few weeks before….I wouldn’t recommend it though.
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December 7th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Planning can be done quickly. In popular areas it is the booking of the vendors that is the problem. Most prized vendors in my area are booked up a year or more.
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December 7th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
The month after we got engaged, I found out I was pregnant with our second child. So we put the wedding off til I had her. The after I had her we started planning but then figured we couldn’t come up with the money by this weekend. ( this was back in January). So we were gonna put it off til July 2008. About 2 months ago, we decided we just didn’t want to wait and we started planning for this weekend. It’s only been 2 months yet everything is going to be ready and gorgeous by Saturday. So I would say as long as you are committed to working on it very hard, you don’t need more than a month or two to plan.
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December 7th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
It depends on how large or small the wedding and reception will be. Also take into consideration how many out of state guests you might have.
As a former wedding planner, I would suggest you start as soon as possible so that you can take your time, not get too stressed out, have time to make changes, fix little problems that will come up, etc.
Believe it or not, some of the smallest details that may not seem important now, will later.
Planning your wedding and reception is something you should be able to enjoy with as little stress as possible.
If you are able, allow yourself at least a year.
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Use to be a wedding planner
December 7th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I planned for 1 month exactly, but I could have done it in about a week. we had a very simple wedding, reception at my parents home, everyone invited personally by me, no invites to go out. we were engaged for 5 months before the wedding and planned about 3 different wedding ideas. the other 2 plans would have made us wait at least a year to get married and neither him nor I have any patients at all.
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December 7th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
I started planning my wedding shortly after I got engaged and we were engaged for 11 months before the wedding. I don’t suggest any short then 7 months to plan a wedding just because there are so many venues and vendors to get on the same day.
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December 7th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
My husband and I were engaged for 13 months before we got married (April 2006 to May 2007). We (along with my mom) pretty much started planning in the beginning a little bit but it turned out to hurt more than it helped because I changed my mind about the colors around September and we pretty much had to start all over again. Of course we had a lot of stuff we didnt’ use that I sold to a girl I work with who happened to be using those colors in September. Had she not though, we would have been out a lot of money for stuff that we couldn’t use and didn’t need. I don’t think there’s a minimum time it should take because i’ve seen people around here plan and have beautiful weddings in the last one or two months of their engagement (need we say, procrastinators). I think when it comes to the amount of time it varies with each couple, so mainly just go with the amount of time you’re comfortable with. Just as long as the bride & groom are comfortable with all the details the time shouldn’t matter. The only thing is make sure you book the actual place and any caterers/photographers in advance. That’s one thing I did do last year that saved me a lot of headaches because those people get booked up pretty fast.
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Just me
December 7th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
It depends how much patience you have for planning a wedding. My fiance is stubborn and wants alot of things to be perfect then other times he just wants to go along with the flow.
I got engaged 6/10/07 and our wedding is set for 10/27/07….What helped us with some of our planning is, we found a venue for the wedding/reception for $3k…included: rental, rehearsal, some decorations, tables, chairs, linens, food, wedding cake, grooms cake, iced tea, punch and water. The only thing that we have left to get is a DJ, flowers and tuxes.
Good luck…
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December 7th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
I have been engaged for 2 1/2 years. We have talked about our wedding but have not set anything yet. If you wanted a small simple wedding i think you could have it planned in two weeks. However if you want a BIG wedding i suggest starting months prior to the big day. Good luck!!
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December 7th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
It mostly really depends on how big of a wedding you want. Smaller weddings can be fully planned out in 6 months. However, the most reasonable amount of time it should take to plan any wedding medium-sized and up should be at least a year. Many new and inexperienced brides think weddings are simple affairs that only take a few decorations and some dresses and tuxes. This, however, is certainly not the case. I’m not married myself, but I have been helping plan weddings practically all my life as my great aunt was a wedding caterer/decorator/coordinator and she used to get many of the ladies in our family, including me, to help get everything together. I’ve been to more weddings of people I don’t know than people I do! As for whether planning takes place throughout the engagement, again it depends on the size of the wedding. I know many brides get stressed out over such large and important events (we pulled three gray hairs out of my friend’s head when she was planning her wedding at 21!) and who wouldn’t?! The best thing to do is remember to take breaks every now and then. A week here, a day there. Either way, things WILL work out. Also, a good thing to remember is that something WILL go wrong. It could be as small as some one spilling dip all over the place in the kitchen, or as big as the little ring bearer losing the rings. But something WILL go wrong. Once you come to grips with that truth, everything is peachy keen!
Good luck!
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December 7th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
you can plan a simple wedding in less than a week. It just depends on how complicated you want to make it, and how long of lead time you need to give the guests.
From what I’ve seen from many wedding is an inverse relationship between the amount of time between engagement and wedding and the amount of time it takes before one of the married ones files for divorce.
I figure its because too often when a wedding starts getting realy complex that it increases the tension between the couple and reduces the likelihood that the bride will call it off when she normally would. The weddings sometimes drive the couple to go through with it.
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December 7th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Three words:
Viva Las Vegas.
Marriage capital of the world and no major planning required. If and when I get married, I’m doing it right here in Vegas. Quick, simple, and very little fuss.
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December 7th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
flexibility is the key if you are flexible you could plan it in one weekend and have it the next…
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December 7th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
My engagement will be 4 months long… and I have planned 2 weddings!! My first wedding literally burnt to the ground (best wishes to South Lake Tahoe), and I put together the second in about 4 weeks.
My sister in law pulled up her wedding date and put hers together in about 2 weeks. My mother planned hers in 28 days.
The more simple the wedding… the less time it takes. My wedding date is 08/18, and I’m done planning. Now’s just the time for impatient waiting.
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December 7th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
…whole life to plan….
no need to get married for having good life with your mate.
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December 7th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
You could probably plan a nice wedding in 3 months BUT it might not be everything you always wanted. For instance, many wedding venues are reserved a year in advance so you might not be able to get that particular venue. If you’re willing to be limited in your choices, then 3 months is fine.
I was engaged for 1 year. I planned on and off. I will say having a year was great because I didn’t feel pressured. It was nice doing the planning in a slow, leisurely way.
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December 7th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
The minimum amount would be how long it would take you to get to Las Vegas or some other spot that has no waiting period when you get your marriage license and finding a quickie wedding chapel. That can be easily done in less than a day.
My engagement was about eighteen months and yes, I did work on the wedding the whole time…but then again, I was making the lace for my gown and it took a long time to make eleven yards by hand. I was doing a lot of other things for the wedding by myself and by hand, too, so I needed the time.
Most people seem to take somewhere between six months and a year to plan a wedding, but as you can see, it can take a great deal longer or nearly no time at all depending on what you want the day to be like, how much money you have lying around to work with, whether you choose to hire professionals to do things or make goodies for yourself, whether you’ve chosen a particularly popular venue that books up a year in advance or someplace you have access to anytime you like…lots of factors.
In my case, it was the gown that took so long. Even with eighteen months to work, the gown got delivered to me at the rehearsal dinner. If I hadn’t wanted a custom gown with handmade lace, I could easily have put the whole wedding together in a matter of a couple months without a lot of panic. But my plans – other than the gown, obviously – were quite simple. If the rest of the wedding had been elaborate, or if I’d had some other time-consuming project involved (like my friends who grew their own flowers), then it still would have taken a while.
Know what you want. That’s the key. If you know what you want, you can set the timeframe around a reasonable amount of time to accomplish what you would like for your wedding day. There are always ways to make something take a longer or shorter time as your needs dictate.
Oh, and every bride should do her best to schedule things with at least a couple small windows where she can just breathe and not worry about the wedding. Once the lace had gone to the dressmaker, all I had left to do were little fiddly bits, and that was really great. It meant I could do things that had nothing to do with the wedding at all. I think the combination of having done everything myself and leaving myself plenty of time to do it all is probably the reason I was so relaxed on my wedding day.
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Three times a bridesmaid, once a bride
December 7th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
We will be engaged 2 years when we finally tie the knot! I didnt start planning till june 07 for my april 08 wedding but i know people who planned weddings in 5 months!
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December 7th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Minimum amount of time: one year
Maximum amount of time: 1.5 years
Nothing more, nothing less.
I think a 1-1.5 years is good b/c it allows time. Time is good because you’ll be able to take your time and enjoy the planning. Instead of rushing to plan a wedding in 4-6 months and sending every weekend doing it. You can spend one weekend a month doing wedding related crap, and the rest of the weekends having a life.
Plus, I like to shop around and weight my options. I think with time, I can look at what different vendors have to offer me and terms of pricing and options. Instead of saying, "well, I need to pick one of these 3 florists, but I don’t know who" I can say, "well, let’s see what else is out there"
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December 8th, 2009 at 12:12 am
I took 8 months to plan my wedding, because we got engaged at the end of Sept and had the wedding in May. But that was also because I am an accountant and had tax season to go through. There was another girl in my office who planned her wedding in 2 months, but she has been engaged for about 4 years…
The answer: it takes as long as you want it to. If you want a fancy hall, great food, that gorgeous designer dress that will take 4 months to make and deliver, then you need to take that all into consideration. If you are going to go to a bridal dress outlet, bring home your dress that day and have your bridesmaids get something from a store like Macys, adn have the wedding at a friends house with a BBQ after, then I think you could do it in 2months.
Etiquette says you should send out invitations 2 months before so keep that in mind.
Also, i found that the longer it goes on, the more frustrating it is because you have all the little details in your head and you drive yourself crazy trying to remember it all so it will go off perfectly. Best to just get it over with and get on with your marriage I say. The sooner the better!
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December 8th, 2009 at 1:01 am
I got engaged last November and got married in May. It was pretty fast. But my best friend and I planned her wedding in about 60-90 days. It just depends on how detailed and formal you want it to be.
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December 8th, 2009 at 1:19 am
I was engaged on June 17th, 2007 (Father’s Day and our 7 month anniversary) and my wedding is September 2nd, 2007. So I’ve given myself 11 weeks exactly and it’s tough! Mostly because of the unexpected standards and pressures that have been brought on by parental units and contributing people of our wedding. Mine is a simple, low key affair. So, it’s do-able in two/three months, but it will consume your world!!
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Going through it right now!
December 8th, 2009 at 1:24 am
We will be engaged for 8 months when we get married in November. We had everything finalized in 3 months. If you’re organized and good with money, 3 months is all it takes.
Since we’re so far ahead we took a month and a half break from planning, but now we’re working on invitations and finding flower girl dresses. We don’t have a lot to do until the actual day, and we have plenty of time, so it’s been an easy process.
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December 8th, 2009 at 1:30 am
Well it only took us four months to plan our wedding and everything just fell right into place. There really was no engagement we just did it.
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