Recently Engaged, just signed up for the knot and I am lost...

jenmcbride13

So my fiance and I were engaged over the holidays. He did a great job with the setting, ring, everything. I am so happy. I really wanted to enjoy the engagement for a second so I decided to not even look at planning anything until the new year. It was a nice two weeks but everything is flushing on me at once. I need to find a venue in NJ (central or south) within a budget. Oh and to top it off my fiance wants to get married this year....in October. So thats 10 months from now. Please help...so far I have a maid of honor lol....

AddieCake

That's plenty of time as long as you keep on task.

For us, the order of operations started with budget, preliminary guest list, venue. Since we knew we would keep it under 100, we probably could have gone venue before guest list, too, though. But those are the main three that you need to take care of ASAP. 

Congrats and happy planning!

K Everdeen12

You should hash out a guest list and a budget, then search for venues based on those parameters.  October might be a hard time to find an available venue, so be flexible with the date.  (My wedding is this September in the Poconos, and we booked 2 years out -  they had no October dates left for 2013 when we looked.)  

Chrissy241987

I just joined too and after looking around I am suddenly stressed. The "tools" section did it for me. 179 things on my to do list!. Noooooo!!! I want to keep this simple but it seems it is going to be anything but. In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_just-engaged-proposals_recently-engaged-just-signed-up-for-the-knot-and-i-am-lost?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:683Discussion:4b452fdd-d7f9-4b0e-b962-a52910c64aa3Post:12fd5feb-3ddc-4f52-97d7-04d0ee2dbbcf">Recently Engaged, just signed up for the knot and I am lost...</a>:
[QUOTE]So my fiance and I were engaged over the holidays. He did a great job with the setting, ring, everything. I am so happy. I really wanted to enjoy the engagement for a second so I decided to not even look at planning anything until the new year. It was a nice two weeks but everything is flushing on me at once. I need to find a venue in NJ (central or south) within a budget. Oh and to top it off my fiance wants to get married this year....in October. So thats 10 months from now. Please help...so far I have a maid of honor lol....
Posted by jenmcbride13[/QUOTE]

Salsera29

Chrissy...don't let the checklist stress you out. A couple things to remember...

1. There are things on there that you are not going to do

2. A lot of things are stretched into multiple tasks that are actually one thing...ie "start thinking about photographers, research photographers, interview photographers, choose a photographer, put down a deposit..." etc etc

3. Don't get overwhelmed by the tasks that are months away. Concentrate on the ones listed in the time period you're in. 

OP...the good thing about Jersey is that we have venues coming out our ears. Spend an afternoon online and email lots of venues for price quotes. Pick a few that you want to go visit and bring your FI with you. And when you go, don't get discouraged if the first few don't work. (I left the first venue in tears because it was so awful and the second one because it was gorgeous and there's no way we could have afforded it.) You do have to get on it but you still have time to find a great place. 

Good luck! :-)

jenmcbride13

OK I am motivated! I have a great list going, we are going to check out our first venue tonight. We have our guest list and his parents, my parents are still working on it. I asked most of my girls and woo hoo I am ready to start getting down to the nitty gritty. Thanks everyone for your advice. Also @ Chrissy, I am staying away from that to do list for now lol. I already have a binder that tells me what I am behind on lol. Oh and I have to start working out, like stat.....

Thanks everyone!