New here (and freakin' out)

tamtam828

Hi ladies. I'm engaged, but I need some people to knock some sense into me and after lurking here, I figure you guys are up for the job...

I'm Tammy. I'm getting married December 4th in Colorado. I'm originally from Michigan, FI is from Las Vegas. We live in Salt Lake City (because we haven't exhausted the map yet!) I've been procrastinating like CRAZY on wedding stuff and I'm starting to hyperventilate. I figure I better get my butt to the boards for inspiration and some support. Lookin' forward to sharing in the wedding bliss with ya!

I'll do the intro thingy in a bit.

:breathe: :breathe:

Button5807

May I recommend going to the Colorado local board?

hetshup

Hi Welcome. Get going lady!! What have you done?

GreenPepperBurger

Try your month board too.

noelle24

My month board scares me, just because of how much everyone has done and how much I do not.  Haha.

Just breathe tam, and start one thing at a time.  Do you have a venue? If not, start there ASAP.  Your dress should be next, as they can take a while to come in.  However, it is possible to find dresses that will come in sooner.  Mine will only take 6 weeks. 

Also, how large of a wedding are you having?  A small family-only wedding is a snap to plan in 5 months.  A 300 person affair, less so.

desertsun

Yup, ditto Noelle, the girls on my month board are way more on top of things than I am. I think a lot of them have had long engagements. also, they're a little too puppies and rainbows for me. My local is dead. Thus, I prefer NEY. 

And I'm always happy to run into a fellow Michigander. I'm an Arizona transplant, and as you can probably tell by my SN, I love it here. But there are def. things I miss about MI, too. What part of the state are you from? I'm from over by Grand Rapids.

Tam, you've got plenty of time. Where are you at in planning? Do you have specific questions? How can we help?

PaigeMcC

Ditto Noelle, my month board overwhlems me...some of these ladies have the whole wedding planned, dresses bought (and IN HAND), etc.  ITS NOT TIL SEPT 2011 CALM DOWN /end rant

OP, chill out and take a look at what you NEED to do.

Venue?
Guest list?
Dress?
Officiant?
 and move on from there.  We're here to help!

tamtam828

Whew. Thanks ladies. Desertsun, I'm from Ann Arbor. Hi fellow MI-er!

I have my dress ordered and a venue set. That's about it. We have a tentative guest list in mind of about 55 people (it's a DW). So maybe I'm not that behind, but I still need to take this bull by the horns!

hetshup

Nah, you're doing fine. Next search officiates. Give us some deets and we can link-bard you.

catemeg

Not behind on the important stuff, but probably time to start working on the details.  I've heard if you try to knock one thing off each week, it makes it easier and more approachable, rather than "Oh my god, I have to plan a whole wedding? Overwhelming!!"

Have you picked colors yet?  Kat has a cute story about going to Home Depot with her FI and picking out swatches - it sounds fun!  Do your venues have chairs/tables?  Do you need a tent?  Those things need to be done pretty far in advance, too, but you've still got time.

Are you headed out to CO anytime soon?  Does your venue serve the food?  You'll need to lock down some vendors, like photographer and videographer and stuff if you're doing that, florist and caterer.

It's all very reasonable, and you've got time!  But start looking at stuff online and figuring out a time to get this nailed down in the next couple of months!

TuffysMommie

Best wishes on your engagement! 

Sounds like you are off to a good start with your planning. If you have more specific questions or needs ideas for something particular, there are other boards on The Knot that will be able to help you.

Happy Planning - I'm sure everything will all come together in time!

Acrosthec

A lot of things on the Knot are pretty bogus, but I've actually found their checklist under "My Knot" on the homepage to be quite helpful.

Since you have reception and dress, my next stop would be other vendors, particularly photographer.  Good ones book months in advance.  Same with food if your venue doesn't provide it.  After that I'd move to florist, DJ, and officiant.  Once all your vendors are picked, the details are a lot less stressful to tackle, or at least they were for me.  Good luck!

jeanacorina

Find an officiant next. If all else fails, you'll have a place, a dress, and someone to marry you! Not so bad, huh? It helped me a lot to remind myself "Even if all else goes down the toilet, we'll still be married one way or another!"

After that (or simultaneously) you should look for a photographer. That's your next important thing. You want pictures to look at 50 years from now!

After that, the caterer, florist, and DJ situations will get much easier. 55 guests is not a lot. You're fine. You can certainly do this!

nefariousmango

It sounds like you're doing fine!  The Knot checklist was very helpful (although I went through and checked off stuff I didn't care about right away so it wouldn't freak me out later)

If you need suggestions I might be able to help, I live in CO and I imagine most of my vendors travel to most of the DW locales in CO... plus two of my other friends just got married in the area and loved most of their vendors!

Good luck!