Should I take a semester off to plan the wedding?

CodyLeeFinney

Curious if any of you girls did not take a semster off to plan your wedding.... is it do-able or would you recommend taking a break? Thanks a lot

angelsong21

No - I'm planning our wedding right now for next May 2012 and I'm a full-time student and part-time employee and also do volunteer work.  It is definitely doable during school --  just plan ahead, do as much as you can possibly do on breaks and in advance, and you'll be good.  For example, this semester is my last semester of core classes before I begin my upper level dietetics courses, which are going to be very hard and time consuming.  Knowing that, I have already booked the full-service venue, have a cake person lined up, contracted a photographer, contracted a DJ, have save-the-dates done, invitations picked out (waiting on a coupon to buy), guest list almost finalized as much as possible, etc.  Doing it all now since I know I can't later.

You'll be just fine -- just stay as organized as possible and work ahead when possible.  Good luck!

Enami

I wouldn't take the time off just to plan. FI and I got engaged in October, and started planning in December, which gave us a year and a half. We sat down and scheduled when we would start adressing "x" and when it needed to be resolved by, all within breaks. We plan on DIYing as much as possib;le, so we looked at decorations and the best seasons to get those decorations (lights=after Christmas, summrey things=end of summer). I thought we'd be fine doing it during school. But turns out I'm probably taking the semester before the wedding off because we're having a baby in September, and I don't plan on going back to school full time until after FI graduates, which is August 2012.

untherapy

ditto everyone - you really don't need to take time off.

However, I also don't think being in school means you have to have a really long engagement. I'm in my second year of grad school and we're going to be engaged 7 months when we get married in August.

For me, planning is the relaxing break from homework and reading research papers. Weekends, spring break, and throughout the week whenever I just CAN'T TAKE IT anymore I work on the wedding a little bit.

Use TK's checklist! It's overly comprehensive and the 2-month chunks have helped me a lot, mnostly because without that I'd be rushing ahead and stressing out unnecessarily...

MPaskel07

I pretty much agree with everyone else. I'm a Literary Studies major and am used to taking several Lit classes at a time, while still working about 25 hours a week. This semester I decided to through in wedding planning between November 12th and June 4th.

So while I wouldn't completely stop taking classes to plan a wedding, I definitely took a lighter load this semester rather than the 4 Lit classes I was planning on taking. I took two hard classes and a slightly easier class, still working on the days I don't have class, and plan my wedding in between homework, work, and premarital counseling. I also made my fiance take over parts of the wedding (the groomsman tuxes, honeymoon plans, his cake plans, etc.) and then made sure he helped me make decisions on other things because I wanted him to be involved and I didn't want to deal with all of it.

MrsCatfish

I'm a professor, and a grad student, and I wouldn't recommend putting off school for any reason you don't have to...and that includes planning a wedding.

It's all about balance.  I had a student one semester who was planning her wedding (it was the fall...she got married in the middle of November).  She was so wrapped up in wedding planning that her schoolwork seriously suffered.  Don't wreck your GPA for your wedding.

When my sister and brother-in-law got married last summer, she had just graduated from college and he was doing a summer internship for his MDiv program.  They moved across the country in mid-May, spent the summer planning the wedding, got married in August, and moved back across the country so he could start school again in September.  It was crazy, but it worked.  Maybe a late-summer option would be something to consider if you're worried about balancing schoolwork and wedding planning.

whitma87

DO NOT take a semester off for wedding planning. It would be a big mistake. You can always plan during the weekends or when you get home from school. Pushing your education off to the side to plan a wedding is not reasonable. You'll have enough time to do it. Fiance proposed in November when I was a senior in college, still a senior about to graduate this May, and we've got everything planned already. Education should be put first so you two have a better life together. When you get your degree and a nice paying job, you'll be happy you didnt put it off.