Too early to make wedding plans?

Kenyatte08

Hello,
My fiance and I are both serving in Iraq right now. He asked me to marry him in December before we left. It is hard to make wedding plans while being deployed but I have set the date for June 16, 2012. I have already started looking online at venues, dresses,invitations etc. One of my friends told me it is way too early to make plans because I don't know what may happen in the next year. I'm trying to convince her that if I want the wedding to be the way I envision it, then I better get started now. Do you ladies agree? Or should I hold off until I return back to the U.S in Nov?

lorifrank2003

I recommend starting now.  The best venues and photographers stay booked over a year in advance.  Here are my favorites 

VENUES

Primrose Cottage

Piedmont Room

Wolf Mountain

Hazelhurst House

DJ

Lethal Rhymes 

PHOTO & VIDEO

Christopher Brock

Rebecca Bunch

Our Labor of Love

MelissaAnne88

Definitely start now. At least with major things like your venue, photographer, etc. They book up fast, so you definitely want to get a head start on things! (for example, my photographer is already completely booked for 2011 and half booked for 2012!)

belletop

I agree on booking the major items early.  Venue, photog, DJ, florist.  You might want to wait a little while to look at dresses just so that you don't change your mind before the wedding. 

kjones84

I agree to start looking early so that you can get ideas, but I would hold off on booking anything. You might find the venue of your dreams doesn't have your date available. That is the first thing I did and then I put everything together around our venue and date.

ritakelly

I would definitely start to research (I wish I had more time to research everything before I made decisions).
It may be difficult to actually to book stuff like that without going to see it first. But maybe if you have a friend or family member that could check it out then you could book it -- there were some places that looked beautiful in pictures but in real life it didn't measure up. Also, when dealing with DJs and photographers you will probably want to meet them face to face so you can get to know their personality a little.
You could go ahead and have a short list of places you are actually considering so whenever you get back you can make decisions more easily. Also, you could try to use your leave time to schedule appointments -- and if you go ahead and book those early then you will be able to make the most out of the time you have.

My_Matt

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_georgia-atlanta_early-wedding-plans?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:58Discussion:1ddab884-afd2-417d-8c30-a628fda79867Post:92847a5a-a131-4a0f-8986-83bcac4b3078">Re: Too early to make wedding plans?</a>:
[QUOTE]I would definitely start to research (I wish I had more time to research everything before I made decisions). It may be difficult to actually to book stuff like that without going to see it first. But maybe if you have a friend or family member that could check it out then you could book it -- there were some places that looked beautiful in pictures but in real life it didn't measure up. Also, when dealing with DJs and photographers you will probably want to meet them face to face so you can get to know their personality a little. You could go ahead and have a short list of places you are actually considering so whenever you get back you can make decisions more easily. Also, you could try to use your leave time to schedule appointments -- and if you go ahead and book those early then you will be able to make the most out of the time you have.
Posted by ritakelly[/QUOTE]

Ditto this!

myn2011

Never too early to start. Time goes by faster than you think!

jnrbunch

I most definitely agree with the previous posters! Especially since you are getting married on a Saturday. I have already had to turn clients away for 2012 dates because I am booked. I even have bookings into 2013! You can never be too prepared Best of luck to you!

~ Rebecca Bunch

em01092

I agree with PPs about planning early. It is never too early to make a budget, have ideas, call around, etc. 

My only concern is that you are military...I'm not familiar with protocols or how you go about requesting off for your wedding/honeymoon, but a friend is engaged to a soldier and she is fretting about plans getting thrown off. 

I would just make sure that you can get that time off before you make it 100% official (STDs, invites, etc). Obviously emergencies can happen and you may be called out for some obscure, unexpected incident, so I would definitely look into wedding insurance. They will cover costs of rescheduling should you or your FI be called for service. Check out travelers, I think they offer it for less than $200, depending on the cost of your wedding. 

Good luck and thank you for all that you do!

HYDROPHILE

Do research and the like NOW.  We were engaged December 2009, and our wedding isn't until this August.  We started looking in January/February 2010 as we are getting married in the North Georgia mountains, and venues book quickly. 

I'm glad we booked when we did.  We have all of our ducks in the row, and now it's just a matter of paying balances as they come due (my fiancé and I are paying for our wedding ourselves.)  I have had a couple of my vendors tell me that another bride recently contacted them about a wedding on the same date, but they told her that they were already booked. 

Have you selected who your MoH will be?  Perhaps she can go physically look at places and send photos so you can get a general idea, and then you can go visit the locations in November.  They may (or may not) be booked on your wedding date though so make sure you have a LIST of places to visit.

Congrats, and thank you both for serving our country

Kenyatte08

Hello ladies!

Thank you so much for the advice. I've already contacted a wedding planner and her and my MOH have been out looking at venues and taking photos. I made another post about venues as well. Some of the venues are REALLLLLLY expensive I'm only on a 11,000 budget for a place. So hopefully I can find the right one. I take leave in July, so I have already set up appointments to look at them for myself

About the DJ -my cousin is a DJ so he will be playing all the music for my ceremony and reception.

I have not looked at photographers, bakery, or anything like that, but maybe I should.

Thank you ladies for your assistance!