Military Brides

Is it worth booking things a year in advance?

I have been reading through the boards about setting a date and making sure there is a military clause but have a different type of question.  I recently got engaged to a Navy SWO.  In that past 4 months his underway schedule has already changed 4 times (and I'm sure more to come, not complaining- I knew what I was getting into when I accepted my ring).  We decided to have a Friday night wedding, so at least we would save some $ and also feel like if we needed to change the date it would be easier to do.  But, I guess I am wondering if its even worth booking a reception location at this point, or just waiting until a closer date, since we want to do it on a Friday anyway.  We are hoping for May, June, or July 2012 and are not too picky about the exact date as long as it is a Friday... I'm just keeping my fingers crossed they don't schedule a 6 month deployment in the spring!  From your experiences, should we go ahead and book a venue now... or wait!?

Re: Is it worth booking things a year in advance?

  • kara811kara811 member
    2500 Comments Third Anniversary
    edited December 2011
    Is your FI on a boat? Usually, the boats have a schedule they follow and know when the next deployment is and when they are in port. Although I am familiar with a lot of changes even with that kind of schedule. The same thing happened to us, so we booked a date when we knew H's ship would be in port for sure. We got lucky because we got married just before the quake hit Japan and his ship's schedule drastically changed. 

    If you are booking, just be sure you do have a military clause in there. Good luck! 
  • calindicalindi member
    5000 Comments Second Anniversary Combo Breaker
    edited December 2011
    It's a gamble either way, just make sure you have good military clauses in there.  If you want advice on how to word it, let me know and I'll send you over our contract wording (my FI is in law school and nit-picked it like crazy, so it's pretty solid).

    Why don't you do some of the things you can do without a date - like the dress, pick the invitation style, the cake, decorations and themes/colors, and put together a list of the vendors you like?  Contact them and get pricing, explain your situation and say that you won't be able to say the date for certain until much closer to the wedding, but that it'll be a Friday night (most vendors don't sell out on Friday nights, so you'd have a good chance) and that you're hoping it'l be in this rough date range.  Put together a list ranking your favorites in each division - catering, florist, photographer, videographer, limo/transportation... and anything else I'm missing or that you want, like a photobooth or something!  Rank like your top favorite 4 or something.  Then when you can pick a date a few months in advance, just start calling them up to see if they're available.  Bing, bang, boom - you should be able to put together a wedding very easily with all the legwork out of the way ahead of time! For what it's worth, we got engaged April 9th, and I'm already done. Every single vendor is booked and I bought my dress. I have custom made a wedding logo and ordered stamps in the logo, I had a flower custom made to go with my dress. I mean, I don't need this whole year until my wedding - we could have easily done it for this summer/fall, though we picked a prime date (Saturday of Labor Day Weekend) so we wouldn't have had as much of a choice of vendors. But with a Friday night, you should be just fine - one of your top 4 in any category should be available!

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  • edited December 2011
    I don't know much about Navy stuff so I'm going to say go with what Kara said. 

    Aslo, Calindi gave great advice on other stuff you could try to get done in the meantime. 

    I don't know how many venues actually do this, but when I initially went to what is now our venue, FI was 800 miles away so when I met with the planner, I let her know that he was in the Marine Corps and yada yada yada. I told her I wasn't able t give her an exact date until I was able to talk to him and I wasn't booking anything until he saw the place. She was super cooperative and allowed us to "hold" the date with no charge until FI was able to come home on leave and see it. Granted our wedding is going to be in January in Connecticut so there weren't too many people fighting me for the middle-of-winter date but still, it was amazing for the venue to be so understanding. 
    She's always wanted to be a princess and he's always wanted to be a hero; as fate would now have it, she is his princess and he is her hero *Semper Fi* Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • AlexzandraGQAlexzandraGQ member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Thank you all!  Great advice. 

    @calindi I think I will go ahead and try to get most of everything done in advance and I love the idea of ranking my favorites so when it gets closer just seeing what's available.  I'll probably send you a private message soon asking for that contract wording, because even if we book it a couple months out I'm still nervous about something changing!!

    @kara, yes he is currently assigned to a ship, but they have been having a lot of issues, they don't even have their finalized schedule for August yet!  He talked to his department head today and

    I'm also thinking about getting a wedding planner, to reduce some of the stress, and maybe they will have worked with military couples before and be familiar with the process!
  • DoubleE2012DoubleE2012 member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    I know at the venue I picked I made sure that is something happened and he was deployed it wouldn't be an issue. They said that they would just save what I had paid and repick a date that was more convenient. I think a lot of places are usually willing to work with you. All of the vendors I've picked have had no issue with having to reschedule if necessary. Go look at vendors and then make sure they understand your predicament. :-) In the mean time have fun dress shopping hahaha
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  • edited December 2011

    I found a company who specializes in military weddings.  The military clause in my contract states that if one of us deployes we can pick another date within one year of our end of deployment.  Not sure where you're planning to have your wedding, but I know they have venues in FL, VA, NJ and NY  here's their number 757-965-2369.  Good Luck!

  • edited December 2011
    If a vendor won't work with you (Dates, prices, or Military Clauses) don't work with them!!
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