New to the board, and just engaged!

ashleecrabb

Hi ladies! I am so glad that I found this board. My fiance and I got engaged on St. Patty's Day (our favorite holiday) and I am already starting to plan our September 2013 wedding. I've read a ton of the threads and I must admit, it's making me feel even more overwhelmed, but also encouraged and excited! I'm planning on having the ceremony on the beach, and I've narrowed the reception venues down to two places. I plan on going to OBX the first weekend of May to check them out and hopefully put a deposit down! Like most of you, I'm a bride on a budget. Any suggestions that y'all have on DIY stuff that can save me money PLEASE send my way!
Also, the grooms father is planning on being the officiant for the wedding. Has anyone else been through this process and knows the details on what he needs to do to become "official"??? I live in VA and it's totally different up here. Any suggestions are welcome, thank you!!!

littlemsmagic138

Congrats, Ashlee!
One of the best things my FI and I did for our upcoming June wedding was plan a chunk when we went to choose our venue last June, did a little more planning on our vacation in August, planned some from afar, and then we went to the OBX wedding association bridal expo in January. The expo was great to plan some of our remaining vendors, but I feel like I would have had a bridal meltdown if I was at the expo before having done any planning! Since we're in Richmond and relatively close, we went on our final planning trip two weeks ago over our spring break. It was EXTREMELY nice to break up the planning into pieces so we weren't overwhelmed.

As for your groom's father being the officiant, NC allows any ordained person to marry you and they don't have to get special permission or anything.

As for DIY things, my advice is to make sure you price things out before you start going craft-happy. There are definitely some things that will save you money and then there are things that cost just as much/more and will take a ton of time since they are DIY. Make your list early and start getting them done!

ashleecrabb

Thank you so much for all of the advice. @littlems..that's tbe best advice yet. My fiance keeps telling me that I'm going to be finished with planning the wedding THIS September and then get sad when I have to wait around for Sept 2013!!! He might be right. I like your idea of breaking things down a little bit. We are visiting Jeanette's Pier in 2 weeks to hopefully put our deposit down. I also wanted to try out a couple of caterers but I guess it might be too soon.

OBX2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_north-carolina-outer-banks_new-to-the-board-and-just-engaged?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:598Discussion:81d642c8-343a-43c5-9f9b-3e655ce90580Post:6506dbcf-9c81-4588-912b-409b1a0fdb68">Re: New to the board, and just engaged!</a>:
[QUOTE]Thank you so much for all of the advice. @littlems..that's tbe best advice yet. My fiance keeps telling me that I'm going to be finished with planning the wedding THIS September and then get sad when I have to wait around for Sept 2013!!! He might be right. I like your idea of breaking things down a little bit. <strong>We are visiting Jeanette's Pier in 2 weeks to hopefully put our deposit down</strong>. I also wanted to try out a couple of caterers but I guess it might be too soon.
Posted by ashleecrabb[/QUOTE]

That is fabulous!  How exciting!

It may be a little too soon to do the catering, but you could possibly check out photographers as that is a pretty bug item to check off your list....that and finding an officiant.  I would probably secure those 2 items before I moved on to anything else :)

The top photographers and officiants book quickly, so grab 'em while you can :)