Seems like eveyrone is having a long engagment

lasalzil

What is the average length of an engagement? I've been looking at everyone's cute little countdowns and seems like everyone has a long engagement... I was thinking of having a 8-10 month engagement, now after seeing everyones "ticker" I'm not even sure it's doable!! Anyways, I was just curious! If you are having a longer engagment, what is your reasoning behind your estimated time frame?

snwilson0416

Well, when all is said and done I will have had over a two-year engagement. For me, the reason was just that I still have two years of college left and don't want to get married until I graduate. I also like the idea of having lots of time to relax and enjoy the engagement and get everything planned.

golden1215

FI and I will have been engaged for 3 years by the time we get hitched!

staceytaylor0704

I don't like the idea of a long engagement for me and FI. We just got engaged on July 4th, and we are getting married December 18th.
I will go crazy with wedding plans if I  have to think about it any longer than that.

Larentia

My FI and I are waiting about 2 years because I want to finish nursing school. I wouldn't mind it being a bit shorter like a year and a half or less.. I just can't imagine planning a wedding while in nursing school.

future-mrs

Everyone has a different amount of time for certain reasons.  Whatever works for you and your FI and only you 2 will know.

jagore08

Mine was just over a year.  I'm sure we could have planned it in about 4 months but DH and I are not planners so we put everything off.  Having a short engagement is completely do-able.  I think a lot of people have long engagements so they can save some money to pay for the wedding.

nbcarlson

We will have a year and 2 month engagement. The only reason is because we wanted a summer wedding but we got engaged in May and this summer was not a long enough time so we decided on next summer. I believe its just in the timing and when you want to get married.

AdeleDazeem

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_just-engaged-proposals_seems-like-eveyrone-having-long-engagment?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:683Discussion:64522761-2f20-400c-851d-0c34ea18f4baPost:26cf51c2-7dd9-4441-983a-221ce7c7b2da">Re: Seems like eveyrone is having a long engagment</a>:
[QUOTE]Everyone has a different amount of time for certain reasons.  Whatever works for you and your FI and only you 2 will know.
Posted by future-mrs[/QUOTE]

This.  My sister had an ten month engagement.  My fiance and I are having a 26 month engagement.  We each had to do what worked for us.

nickilynn32

We are saving up for our wedding since we are paying for it all.  My fiance has a huge family so we need to plan for majority of them attending.

We willl have been engaged almost 2 years.

HobokensFury

We're having a 2 year engagement because FI just started grad school and teaching.  Our goal is to have the entire wedding paid off on our wedding day.

skyler1108

FI and I are having a 2 year long engagement. I would have liked to have had a one year engagement but since we were date specific we had to wait. our anniversary is in Nov. and we got engaged celebrating our 2 year anniversary so we decided we want to get married in Nov. as well. Since so many of our relationship mile stones happen in Nov and not to mention the weather is nice here in So Cal in Nov. (its not hot!). We got engaged in Nov. 2009 and I wanted to get married in Nov. 2010 but instead we have to wait until Nov. 2011 because my older sister was getting married in summer 2010. Since I am from Ohio and both me and my sister live in So Cal we decided to push our wedding back to make the financial aspect of 2 weddings in So Cal easier for my family back in Ohio.

andy71781

We had an 8 month engagement and it honestly wasn't that bad.  Once we got engaged (actually a couple months before) I was ready to start my life with him!  Don't be overwhelmed - you can do it in 8 (or less) months if you keep on it and stay organized.

alecat9

We are having a six month engagement and I feel I've have had plenty of time to plan. I agree with PP about it being very couple specific. Many of the people on here have good reasons for their long engagements: finiching school, saving up money, etc... For us, it made more sense not to have a long engagement.

megk8oz

We had to save and get our finances in order to pay for the wedding. We got engaged in March 2008, got married 01/01/10.

I did not do things in a "traditional" way though. A few times during planning, we had to push back our date. Every time we did, we both got really upset and felt like "it's never going to happen". We had a venue picked out, but no date set. Aside from that, we just decided against planning a single thing until we were 100% sure we could actually pay for everything.

When we were finally sure, we booked the first available date for 2010 at our venue, because we just didn't want to wait any longer. I was engaged for almost 2 years, but only planned the wedding in 5 months. Tons of people still think we were insane for doing that, but it's what worked for us.

FutureMrsMcDaniel

FI and I will be engaged for a little over 7 months. 
It's just what worked for us.  I still have another year left of school.  But we wanted to get married now.  Schooling isn't the biggest part of my life.  I have work, family, and a life outside of classes.  That's why we are getting married now. 

 I'm glad it's a short engagement.  I would have driven myself crazy with planning.  But you have to do what's right for your situation.

mysticl

It will be almost exactly 6 months from proposal to walking down the aisle.  We planned it around FI work schedule. 

fairy_diva

Our engagement will exactly 9 months from the date we picked out my ring. II knew I was getting my ring & proposal on Christmas day when we picked out my ring and ordered it. I had to wait until 12/31 for it to get here 2 day FedEx.  He actually proposed officially that night on New Years Eve. We set our date around the end of January and then planning started.

missymr

In one of the books I read it said the average engagement is now 16 months long.

We got engaged June 24 and we are getting married July 31, 2011 so a little over 13 months.
We were going to get married in May but couldn't get into the venues we wanted.
We were both very surprised at how far ahead venues were already booked for next year. At the two main places we were deciding between both were booked every Saturday between May and the end of August except for one Saturday each! We actually are getting married on a Sunday in part because it gave us far more options for dates at our chosen venues.

[Deleted User]

The length of your engagement really depends on you and your FI individual situation. Like pp have said, some people are in school, or have to save to pay for it themselves.

We were engaged about 14 mos. Plus there was a move out of state during that time and a bunch of other things in our lives. Having a wedding in 8-10 mos is definitely doable. My IL's (granted that was 33 yrs ago) got engaged and married within about 4 or 5 mos.

abelkins

Our engagement will be just under a year, we got engaged May 24, 2010 and we are getting married May 14, 2011.  This is for a couple of reasons.  First, Fi had to graduate college, his graduation is on the 7th and the 14th was the next weekend.  I still have a year left, but that doesn't matter to us.  We knew we wanted a spring/early summer wedding, so we knew May was the month for us.  But, if you are wanting a short engagement, you can do it.  Friends of mine planned theirs in 2 months, another couple did it in 1 month.  But what is really crazy... some close friends had been engaged a short time and she already had her dress.  They each told their parents at midnight that they wanted to get married the next evening.  They put their wedding together in less than 24 hrs... and it looked incredible.  You would have thought they had months and months... we were all blown away! So if you want to do it quickly, be confident and go for it!

catemeg

My boyfriend knows I want to be engaged for at least a year before we get married.  Due to schooling and military commitments, we already plan on getting married August/September 2012.  He now has my great-grandmother's diamond, and we've looked at rings, and he plans to buy the setting next month.  So anytime from 1-2 years engagement, depending on when he asks.

For us, the venues in my hometown book up over a year in advance, so we're planning on putting down a deposit while we're home for Christmas this year, which will quite probably be our first "wedding planning" step, which will be 20 months in advance.

Belle2Be

We'll be engaged for awhile. I'd be content with a 5 year engagement, but overall it will be a little over 2 years. We've already been engaged for 9 months and we're just now talking about dates and plans.  I don't see what the rush is, personally. We're going to be together *forever* regardless of a piece of paper.

rubyjem00

We intended to only have a 9 month engagement but halfway through the planning process our venue closed so we had to start over. Then there were some family issues which just made it easier to push our date back. All in all, we were engaged for 15 months.

I didn't really want a long engagement and I don't think that I would have had any trouble planning a whole wedding in 9 months. But, in the end, it just worked out better for us to have a longer engagement.

ehathewa

We will have been engaged 13 months - I wish that we could have gotten married sooner, but my brother lives and goes to school in China so we needed to wait for him. 

8-10 months is plenty of time to plan a wedding.

embracejoy

My first engagement was 3 years long.  FH's first was 4 months long.

Our engagement will be just short of 10 months long.  I think it's the perfect amount of time.

kmabjo

We will be ebgaged 1.5 years until we get married.

lauralazer

Our engagement will last almost two years.  We had already planned on buying a house next summer, so we need an extra year to save and plan. 

jnc1113

We got engaged mid-April and our wedding is 11/13.  So...we're having a....7 month engagement?  And we are about done with planning already.  It went very quickly, thank goodness, and I am grateful that I don't have longer to dwell on things.  We are getting exactly the wedding we want, and it has been surprisingly stress-free.  If you want a short engagement, go for it!  Just make sure you make a check list (and, if you're a bit anal like me, a binder with 25 wedding-related tabs) and just work through the list item by item.  It can be done!

flyjawn

our engagement will be just a few months.  we have no reason to wait.

my sister takes the cake for engagements.

she and her SO were trying to adopt and found out they needed to be legally married (they'd been together for 10 years) so he asked her to marry him in the morning and by the evening we were at city hall congratulating them.  

jnc1113

Flayjawn, that is the best engagement ever!