Planning a wedding in a short amount of time

Question

has anyone planned a wedding in a very short time? We decided to get married and our date is oct. 18th 2008. we have reasons for making it so quick. let me know any tips you have! Thanks!

Answer 1

We got married on New Years Eve, after getting engaged in September.  The church, the hotel, the band, & the cake bakery all turned down our initial inquiries.  A week later we went back to them with slightly altered and simpler arrangements, which included details to make their jobs easier, and everyone agreed to accomodate us.  

We kept the formal dinner guest list relatively small, but invited more friends to the less formal reception & dance.  When we explained the circumstances to the friends, they were all very understanding.  One of our employers, a restaurant, even gave us a wedding gift of assorted champagnes - plenty for everyone.

Everybody said they had a great time, even those who had not gone out on New Years Eve for ages.  Although we divorced amicably after 10 years, people still talk about how we managed to put together a holiday wedding in only four months.

Keep everything as simple as possible.  Be flexible with your arrangments.  Get family and friends involved, if they can help.  A friend did our photography.  Another friends mom did my bouquets with silk flowers - a hobby of hers.  My bridesmaids and I found our dresses on the sales racks, for about 1/3 the tag price.  Almost like stealing them.  The guys got a deal on their formal wear, since the store was having a holiday special.

Have alternate ideas ready to save time, and or money.  Don't worry over small details, they seem to work themselves out.  Prepare  for you and your well wishers to have an good and memorable time.

Good luck, and best wishes.

Answer 2

Get a nice dress and suit, invite family and good friends and stay out of

debt.

I had a simple but wonderful wedding and my marriage is terrific.

See, we did not start with debts.

Ingrid

Answer 3

i would start looking for a dress asap! then i would start meeting with vendors if that what you want to do, you could make your own food. try to book a reception hall and ceremony site or at least call to see whats still available, then try to set up a time to look at the places and try to make a decision.  flowers, tuxes and invites a very important too.

i would check out craft stores and see what you could do yourself but don't over work yourself because you won't be able to enjoy the planning party of it. also ask your family if they would help out.

hope this helps

Answer 4

Hi and congratulations!

YES, it can be done!  My daughter and I helped a friend of hers plan her wedding and we did the whole thing in one weekend!  

~ Obviously, the first thing to do is to secure a venue for the ceremony and reception.

~ Once that is done, then go down the list of everything else.....dress, tux/suit, bridesmaid's dresses, invites, cake, flowers, etc.

Will you even be sending out invitations?  If so, they are usually sent 8 weeks prior, so you would need to do that within a few weeks.  You could even send them 6 weeks prior if you want.  The "norm" is 6-8 weeks before.  BUT, you will need to know the venues and time, obviously, first.

Anyway....it CAN be done!!  Just get on the phone on Monday morning and see what is available.  IF you are having this at your home or an outdoor location (such as a park)....even better!  IF at an outside location (park), just check with the city about any kind of permits, etc.

For your dress.....don't worry!  You CAN buy a dress "off the rack" in all bridal stores.  

I have 2 all-time favorite weddings and they were BOTH planned and executed in 2 weeks!  One was a "minister" issue....he was going on vacation for 3 months and they wanted him.  The other one was that they wanted to adopt...so they needed to be married!  Both of these were my all-time favorite weddings.  They had everything you need:

~ a beautiful bride (in a gown)

~ a handsome and happy groom

~ flowers

~ photographer

~ family and friends

~ food and drinks

~ cake!!

That's it!  That is all you need.  In any case, YES, it can be done.  Don't fret.  Good luck and I hope you have a beautiful day!

Answer 5

Started planning in June and wedding is 8/23/08

My advice: have dependable attendents to help you. Mine havent done a thing to help- invite, favors, etc. Made things VERY frustrating.

Answer 6

You can do it!!!!  I planned mine in 4 months (and really, I didn't start making decisions until 3 months before!) and got married earlier this year.

Some people make this more stressful than I think it should be.  Here are some tips.

Item 1 is that you need to find your location so you can get the invites printed (I sent mine 2 months before without a problem, so you have a little time).  Item 2 - decide on your colors.  If you want to do fall colors for Autumn, that could be beautiful.  Or, you could be different and choose whatever you want!  Then you have a little time for things like the dresses.  I went to David's Bridal because they have just about every dress in a size you can actually fit into - smaller boutiques usually don't- and tried on a dress in every style.  You may luck out and be able to buy one in stock!  Just try and plan something little to do each day and you'll be fine.

Here are some things I did (or suggest) that keep costs down if you're looking for that.

I contacted local venues and asked if they had any dates that they would be willing to discount. I told them I could do it in 3 months. They were willing to discount a Friday night sit down dinner (around here, buffets are actually more expensive!) for a date that they didn't ahve booked (but you could do a Sunday brunch too!). Many would rather sell it at a lower cost than not at all and honestly, in 4 months (that's how much time we had) they probably wouldn't have gotten another wedding booked on that date because most people plan far in advance.

We lucked out in that the place we went had a on-site florist and gave certain things for free, but here are some options if you have to make your own centerpieces. Get a glass bowl at a craft store like AC Moore, put some colored stones in the bottom and float a few candles and flowers in it. This is BEAUTIFUL and adds to the romantic atmosphere (and is pretty cheap!). I ended up going with their florist, but you can order flowers online at costco.com, bjswholesale.com, etc. They're basic sets, but you could use them. Or, go to a local florist and tell them you're on a tight budgtet and see what they can do. I'd suggest focusing on getting what you really want and pictured in your bouquet and the rest of the flowers is where you cut back. Your bouquet will be in all of the pictures and what you see and remember most. Make it what you really want. I also cut way back on flowers at the ceremony site. I only had a draped fabric and a few flowers in the corners of the fabric at the site. That was it. I figured we weren't there all that long and wanted to spend the money elsewhere. It looked great and really, we weren't there long, so I'm REALLY glad I didn't spend more on it! I skipped the favors. I foudn anything I liked was kinda pricey and people don't use them anyhow. You could just have nothing, or just make a small donation to a charity and ask if they have any cards to put on the tables at the reception. I made a donation to the ASPCA (we're animal lovers, so it was really appropriate) and they sent me cards to put at the table free of charge. Our guests LOVED it and all commented they'd never seen that before and it was a great way to not waste the money. You can use this "last minute deal" schpeel with your DJ and photographer too. Honestly though, after we spent WAY too much on our photographer, we ended up hating our pictures! If I had it to do again, I would buy a decent digital camera (like $300-$400) and ask someone I trust to just snap as many photos as they can. Or, ask all of your guests to bring their cameras because you're not getting a photographer. Most would love to help out and I bet you'd get way better (and more!) pictures. I really wish I had done this - I can't stress it enough! Oh, I made my invites myself. It wasn't the most important thing to me, so I saved money there and they came otu awesome (I got comments of how nice they were). I got boxes of invites at WalMart and printed them on my laser printer. I dressed it up by printing a Monogram at the top and then getting a jolee's flower sticker (nicer than it sounds, check them out) from AC Moore and put them between the monogram I printed and the wording of the invite. This also allowed me to make them all a little different! I got 5 different colored flowers.

Lastly, if you have a specific place in mind that you really want to go to, I say try it. If they offer you a discount because it's last minute or whatever, you could possibly afford it (I did and was SO thrilled because I really thought we couldn't ever have it there). Most places are also willing to offer up ways you could cut the budget. Don't worry about chair covers (no one notices that anyhow!), Keep your linens simple if they're offered cheaper, things like that.

Oh, as if I haven't babbled enough! We did a tab bar that we set at what we could afford ($1,000) and had the plan that after that, the bar would charge if someone wanted alcohol. It ended up being enough, but keep in mind that 1/2 of our guests didn't drink. But it's MUCH cheaper than an open bar (which is OUTRAGEOUS!).

Congrats & GOOD LUCK!!!!!

Answer 7

my brother got engaged then married 2 months after...  it's not hard to plan in a short period of time... well in my opinion any way...  my wedding is november 29 and i just started actuall planing in May...  you just have to pace yourself to make sure everything you want gets planned and done....  Good luck and congrats

Answer 8

How many people are you inviting?  If you have under 50, there are plenty of venues including restaurants.  There are always caterers available.