Planning questions!

patriciatrimback

My fiance and I got engaged on March 17th, 2012. We told all of our friends that day and definitely enjoyed the evening, especially with it being St. Patricks's Day. Now both of our families have been given the news and we're talking a little bit here and there about a date.

We want to wait until he's done with college, which will be in Spring 2015, so I was thinking a Summer or Fall wedding that year. Right now it's set for October 20, 2015 but that's up for change.

We're also anticipating having to save up and pay for all/most of the wedding ourselves. We've yet to talk to either of our families about who will be paying for what. 

My questions;

- Should we send our engagement announcements now?

- When should we officially start planning our big day?

sessionswedding

Engagement announcements, if they are sent at all, are usually sent around the 1-year mark before the wedding.  So I would not do those yet.

The only planning I would do at all before the one year mark is decide how much you want to spend on a wedding, divide that by the number of months left until your target date (so just say October 2015, which is 42 months from now), and put that much money per month in savings.  So if you want to spend $10,000 on the whole thing, you would need to put approximately $240 per month into savings.

Basically, nothing but saving money until October 2014.

khines18

I agree with Sessions. Save money and don't worry about the planning. Take it from someone who's 2 months away from the date - you will have your time to be overwhelmed no matter how far in advance you plan. If you know your desired venue, check how far in advance they take bookings. Some places allow a two year notice. Aside from that, so much will change with friends and ideas that your work now may be for nothing but added stress.

Best wishes!

JGreenfan2000

thats what i would do after you find out a date I would start looking for a venu some of them can book years in advance we started booking stuff around 18 month mark because our date is very popular and you can make payments on everything. I know its exicting and you want to jump in right away but make sure you know what you want and then save for it.