Hitting a Mental Block

AmandaPudinPie

Hello, everyone. I'm one of the crazies who is getting married before graduating. =] (And of course, I'll be staying in school.) We originally we're planning on December of 2012, but that proved to be difficult on a number of levels and we ended up settling on August 4, 2012. Six months. I was doing pretty good with getting things accomplished before school started last month, but now I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. We're on a small budget, so we aren't hiring a wedding planner. I wanted my bridesmaids to pick out their own dresses--either collectively or individually with a few guidelines--but as one of them, my cousin, pointed out, no one wants to be the one to make that decision. Now I'm looking at the checklist which is saying "Order them now! (OR DIE!)" and feeling flustered because I found one with my sister and said cousin that they and I liked, but I wanted the other bridesmaids to try them on before saying, "buy it." Two of them live far away. So I feel stuck.

I also have no clue what to do about invitations. I want to make/print them myself if possible, but pouring over designs has left me feeling even more undecided. We sent out save-the-dates with pingg.com, so there isn't an obvious matching choice. I'm looking for something informal, and swing between not really caring at all what it looks like and then feeling that I *must* care greatly. I think I finally decided to go with silk flowers. My mom is going to help arrange them and she keeps asking me what I want, where again I have few definitive answers.
/>.< Then there's everything else to do with decorations and food. My fiancé doesn't have a "vision" for how things should look either.

Anyone else feeling/felt this way?

ChristineNB

Your date is the same of mine, so I understand how stressed you are feeling.  I know I should be buying a dress, getting invites ready, etc but every time I turn around I have another exam another paper to do and the wedding stuff keeps getting pushed back.  I'm lucky that my fiance is not in school and is very supportive and good at helping.

HopefulLife

Take a deep breath and relax. It'll work out. I would organize what you think has to be done say this week (with school work) and then slowly work out what needs to be done soon and tackle the others when you have more time. Also, take a break once in a while.
As for the dresses, I'd just give them a guideline to follow (which is what I did) like color, fabric, length, and/or anything else that matters to you.
For the invitations, there are lots of at home printable ones at stores like Joanns, Hobby Lobby, etc so it's DYI and gives a basic design/layout. If you have a color or theme, choose something along those lines. If not, just find one that you like (and can afford!) and go with that.

unicorntrees

Hi! I don't think I've officially posted in this area of the forums, but I've been looking for a while.

I am graduating this semester (hooray!), but our wedding is in August as well, on the 19th, so I'm probably at the same point in the checklist, AmandaPudinPie. I definitely know how you feel, except all I want to do is focus on wedding stuff and ignore all the homework, haha. I just started planning our wedding in January, so I constantly have this feeling of needing to rush to do something for wedding planning. Before the semester started for me, I picked out my venue, dress, and bridesmaids' dresses, so I have those decisions out of the way. 

I would suggest that maybe you rank what schoolwork has to be done by importance, plan out when during your week/month/etc. you have time to work on it, and then schedule in a day to go dress shopping, or whatever it is that you need to do. For your far-away bridesmaids, just call them constantly and consult with them. Since you found a dress you liked (and your other bridesmaids liked), send them a link online or email them the picture of it, then see if they can try it on during a time that fits their schedule. Have them take pictures of themselves in the dress and send it to you. I am sort of doing this with my mom and trying to pick a flower girl dress for my half sister (they both live in Florida). When is your spring break? You could plan to get some wedding things out of the way during that time too. 

Regarding invitations, I'm going to use Vista Print. If you like Vista Print's options, someone posted a groupon for it over in the DIY thread. Here's the link, and thank the poster from that thread for the deal: http://www.groupon.com/deals/vistaprint-corpus-christi-1?c=button&sid=11097078&s=body&utm_source=newsletter&p=2&division=corpus-christi&date=20120210&utm_medium=email&utm_content=all-deals_corpus-christi&utm_campaign=vistaprint-corpus-christi-1&addxe=Q0FTQU5EUklBQFlBSE9PLkNPTQ==&user=d8e41a890685a546bd05654bbcd0790699a2587ef4d46af7847498148d6c712b

That is such a good deal, believe me. 

snr1

I am also graduating this semester, but getting married in June 2012. So soon I know! I have found that it is stressful to try to stick to the checklists. I started planning in late December and decided not to stress myself out with sticking to an exact timeline, except for sending out invites which I will do 8 weeks before the wedding. TK says 3 months I think, but that is pretty early. Well anyways I have been able to get so much done already, the venue, photographer, groomsmen's outfits, save the dates, bought my dress. Just don't put all this pressure on yourself and you will do things when you have the time. Most things aren't hard and fast on the timeline.

violakat03

Something I found that helped was I found two days where I didn't have any upcoming tests/papers due, got all my homework finished in advance, and used those for planning days. I was amazed at the huge amount of stuff I got done when I was 100% focused on wedding planning for just two days.

Maybe try setting aside days for wedding planning. Especially if you've got a light day where you only have one class and can spend the rest of the day getting things done. Just make sure you're caught up on homework and papers and other studying, then focus completely on wedding planning for a set amount of time.

RandaW

I am SO with you guys! We were planning on waiting until next year to get married because that is when he finishes school. In January we decided that we were moving it up to this August and it has been a mad dash for me ever since. Luckily I graduate this semester so this summer will be a little easier. I am about 30+ things behind on the check list and it's stressful. My fiance is about 12 hours away so i know how it is to be doing the planning on your own. It's really stressful but in 6 months we will be happily married. Just gatta keep your eyes on the prize!