Deployment and choosing a date???

mmmartin1128

Hi All

I just got recently engaged to a Lt. in the United States Marine Corp. We have begun planning and coming up w/ ideas and such, however we were thinking of a fall 2011 wedding, at that time he could be possibly moving to a new duty station and based on where his squadrad is, be deploy. My question is do I just take a chance w/ booking a reception hall or how do I go about planning a wedding if we have no idea of whether or not he will be here on that date. HELP!!!!!

mmmartin1128

p.s. He is currently at Primary for Flight School, to become a pilot, almost onto secondary, then he will be choosing to go Helios or Jets, based on that he could go anywhere

meltoine

The only thing you can do is start planning for when you want, get military clauses in all of your contracts, and be prepared to change it if you need to. GL!!

kyrgyzstan

If he's still in Pensacola, it's IMO unlikely he'll be deployed in the fall of 2011. His school will last a very long time, when you'll likely be in Mississippi, and then he'll be at a training squadron for a decent amount of time as well.

Also, it's Marine Corps with an 's'.

Beachy730

We were dealing with the same thing picking a date.  We were originally planning on a New Years Eve wedding because of how fun it sounded.  But when we found out we would be stationed in Washington State in September (we currently live in NY), we decided to move the wedding up to July 30th since it would be too expensive coming back and forth for showers and the wedding.  This turned about to be a great decision since we just found out he would be deployed about 2 weeks after we move so New Years Eve wouldn't have worked.
In my original planning for NYE I told every place I called that we might have to change it if he would be deployed and every place had said they would transfer our deposit and contract to a new date, but money wouldn't be refunded.  Most places are very good about accomodating military.
My advice for your own peace of mind is to pick a date that  you know for sure he will be here.  I'm not sure how his school works but if he can take a few days leave to go wherever the wedding is, that might be the best idea.  It may be sooner than you were originally planning, but its much less stressful when a deployment isn't looming over your head.  Good luck!

pennylane786

As someone who's husband is currently in flight school as well, I have slightly different advice. With flight school, nothing and I mean NOTHING is ever set in stone. Things take longer than they should most of the time, and I agree that it's unlikely he'll be done and integrated into a squadron in time to deploy next fall. I wouldn't reccomend getting married during flight school (unless you plan on just going to the courthouse)... he needs to be focused on training and not the wedding plans. Plus, he can't really take the time off during training for a full scale wedding. I'd wait until he gets winged, PCS' to his squadron and then plan something if you are looking to have a big wedding. Although, almost everyone I know who has tried getting married around flight school craziness has just had to go to the JP and plan a vow renewal at some later date.

Brittany&Nate

We were in a very similar situation...and until he landed in the States 5 days before the wedding, I still wasn't sure if it was going to happen! We went ahead and booked everything, but were upfront with vendors about the very real possibility of needing flexibility with our date. BE SURE to put that in your contracts!!!!! If vendors aren't willing to work with you, then find someone else...every one of our vendors was more than happy to make things work for us. Good Luck!!!

Roundrockgal79

I'm sort of in this position right now. We got engaged last week and before he deployed to Iraq last year the told him he would come home for a year before deploying to Afghanistan.  We'd really like a spring wedding though so we're trying to plan for March or April of 2011 and just hoping he doesn't leave again in January. Be up front with your vendors and get military clauses included in your contracts to be on the safe side.

Remember to be flexible! Nothing in the military is ever set in stone especially when you are trying to do something that involves "civilian life" and they aren't going to make a special exception for you just because you want to get married.