Favorite part of planning?

dmbdbk

I put wedding planning on hold for a few months, but now that the busy season of my job is almost over I realize I still have a lot to do. What was your favorite part of wedding planning and what do you wish you didn't spend any time worrying about?

laurenclaire1386

Argh. Screw wedding planning. I suck at it and I don't want to do it. I also don't want to hire someone to do it either. I'm so freaked out by wedding planning right now that I seriously doubt there will ever be anything enjoyable about it for me, except the day of. Seeing it come together. But the process of putting it together makes me wanna barf.

jajph1974

My favorite part was when it was over.

ashmy211

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_favorite-part-of-planning?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:eb85d99f-d461-47e3-93bb-af575e7205d6Post:45f9095f-26bd-4e03-8a5f-f57128dda6ac">Re: Favorite part of planning?</a>:
[QUOTE]Argh. Screw wedding planning. I suck at it and I don't want to do it. I also don't want to hire someone to do it either. I'm so freaked out by wedding planning right now that I seriously doubt there will ever be anything enjoyable about it for me, except <strong>the day of. Seeing it come together. But the process of putting it together makes me wanna barf.</strong>
Posted by laurenclaire1386[/QUOTE]
That's the point that I'm at now too.

Koopa17

I liked dress shopping and designing the flowers.  Venue hunting sucked and it ended up being useless because my venue closed 2 months before the wedding and I went with a new venue that wasn't even one of the original (20...) we visited.  Cake tasting was nice too.

katiewhompus

My favorite part was right before I started and right after it ended!!

Honestly, I loved trying on dresses and I loved looking at invites.

dmbdbk

haha I think I'm at the point already and all we did was book a place and send out save the dates. One of my friends is getting married in June and when I went to her bridal shower last month her aunt lectured me about how I need to get a dress soon. My wedding is still about 6 months away so I figure I still have time to get something simple. Am I really late in getting a photographer, DJ and officiant (not a religious wedding)? I can't think of anything else really major besides those things.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

I'm hoping my wedding puts itself together. I have some vendors under contract, so I think I'll just go hide in a hole until October and when I come out everything should be fine. That's the way it works, right?

katiewhompus

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_favorite-part-of-planning?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:eb85d99f-d461-47e3-93bb-af575e7205d6Post:01b60eb8-a9b8-4b19-aa47-5eb7e1767923">Re: Favorite part of planning?</a>:
[QUOTE]haha I think I'm at the point already and all we did was book a place and send out save the dates. One of my friends is getting married in June and when I went to her bridal shower last month her aunt lectured me about how I need to get a dress soon. My wedding is still about 6 months away so I figure I still have time to get something simple. Am I really late in getting a photographer, DJ and officiant (not a religious wedding)? I can't think of anything else really major besides those things.
Posted by dmbdbk[/QUOTE]


That really depends on the day. A lot of the dj's/photogs I looked at were booked on Saturdays 8 months out, same thing with officiants. Those are things I would probably start getting locked down. 
The dress you may also want to go shopping for. Some dresses take a while from order to final finishing.

Brie2010

The best part was the initial excitement, before you get down to it and realize a) this is going to cost a lot of money; b) everyone has an opinion; and c) wedding planning will be a huge time suck and source of annoyance for the next X months.

Also the cake tasting.

laurenclaire1386

My wedding is supposed to be in seven months and I have not one single, solitary thing nailed down. Seriously. I don't even know where we're having it or how many people we're inviting. So my answer is nah, you got plenty of time. Because that's waht I'm currently telling myself. Yes, we could push it back. But I really don't wanna be engaged longer than a year.

Koopa17

I think I booked my photographer 5 months before the wedding...that's probably the next thing you want to do.  I didn't get an officiant until a month before, DJ was easy to find.  Photog and florist are probably your two next big things.  And make sure you give yourself plenty of time to have a dress ordered (some of them a long-ass time to come in) as well as invitations.

brookelynpaisley

I really didn't mind planning, though I wouldn't call it fun. I didn't let me stress it out though - I was able to walk away from things that were making me aggitated before I got stressed. Cake/food tasting was fun. I didn't really dress shop - I found mine online and tried it on for a formality.

The planning itself is not really fun, though I loved surfing Etsy to find personalized stuff for the wedding. Once my family and bridesmaids arrived the day before, then it was fun.

lauralaur

I looooved dress shopping and dress fittings. I also loved cake tasting. I got to take four cakes home! Then I ate nothing but cake for the next two days.

I did every single piece of our invites myself and while I do think they were the bomb, I really should've just paid someone else to do it and been done with it.

ETA: Also, my mom was OBSSESSED with the favors, and again, it came out awesome, but my mom e-mailing me 12 links to favor boxes every night was sort of a giant waste of my time.

Goldlie11

The tasting at the venue was great.  The food was seriously some of the best food I've ever had.  I found really cheap DIY invites that make me happy.  Other than that, planning isn't very fun.  

Once I get all of my vendors straight (which should be soon), I plan to put planning on hold until early next year when I will go dress shopping.  

ericksb

Planning has been a breeze for us, but I'm a natural planner. I think I had just about every element of the event planned within 2 weeks of getting engaged and had my dress within the first month (we have a 7 month engagement). We had lots of after-work meetings during those first couple of weeks, but the rest of the time has been really smooth sailing. The invitations took awhile to print & assemble, but it was something we could work on while watching tv at night. We're less than 3 months from the wedding and not stressed whatsoever. :-) (This could change, but for now it's good.)

dmbdbk

We've already been engaged for over a year. It took us 8 months to decide on a date and place. I'm hoping to start looking into some of these things in May once work quiets down some more. I feel like I need to follow-up with our reception hall on what the 2nd payment needs to be too because its due soon. That's not going to be a fun check to write.

- Sorry if this is becoming venting!

dmbdbk

How long does it take for invitations if you order them? I'm not sure yet if we're going to order them or just make them ourselves.

mags0607

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_favorite-part-of-planning?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:eb85d99f-d461-47e3-93bb-af575e7205d6Post:45f9095f-26bd-4e03-8a5f-f57128dda6ac">Re: Favorite part of planning?</a>:
[QUOTE]Argh. Screw wedding planning. I suck at it and I don't want to do it. I also don't want to hire someone to do it either. I'm so freaked out by wedding planning right now that I seriously doubt there will ever be anything enjoyable about it for me, except the day of. Seeing it come together. But the process of putting it together makes me wanna barf.
Posted by laurenclaire1386[/QUOTE]


Ad this is where I am right now. I helped a friend plan her wedding, and I thought it was fun. Sure not as fun when its your money, family, stress level, and time.
I just want it to be Oct 16, and for it to have all come together.

maggyruth

I'm looking forward to being done.  I thought that I would have a lot more fun with it (I had a lot of fun helping my friends out with theirs) but mine?  Meh.  I just want to be moving on with the next part of my life.

Koopa17

If you get them from an invitation store, typically you go in, find the style you want, give them all your information, they email you a proof, you approve it or make changes, then they should come in within a few weeks.  I think the whole process took me a month, between incorrect proofs and shipping times.  So it's not something you need to rush to do soon, just make sure you don't push it too close to when you want to send them out, I guess.

dmbdbk

mags, I'm getting married Oct. 17th!

iamjoesgurl

I loved every part of my wedding planning once we picked our venue.  I had a very specific idea of what I wanted and it was hard to find exactly what I wanted.  But once I did, everything else was great.  I liked dress shopping, all of the DIY stuff I did, doing e-pics, cake tastings, and picking out everything from flowers to favors.

I think our invites were supposed to take up to 6 weeks but we got them in 3.

dmbdbk

Thanks everyone! The advice was really helpful.

tlv204

I actually liked wedding planning. I think I'm weird though and enjoy being stressed out, because I was certainly stressed out. I freaked out over my invitations daily, but I think those are one of my favorite things I wish I hadn't cared quite so much about decor though. I wanted my centerpieces to be "unique" and spent days of my life searching for antique bud vases and candle holders. I mean they were cute, but I could have thrown a lily and a table runner onto the centerpieces the venue already had and called it a day. Still would have been pretty and cheaper and easier.

FutureMrsTR

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_favorite-part-of-planning?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:eb85d99f-d461-47e3-93bb-af575e7205d6Post:3b1fcb05-1278-4fa8-b419-002c36e31b48">Re: Favorite part of planning?</a>:
[QUOTE]I loved every part of my wedding planning once we picked our venue.  I had a very specific idea of what I wanted and it was hard to find exactly what I wanted.  But once I did, everything else was great.  I liked dress shopping, all of the DIY stuff I did, doing e-pics, cake tastings, and picking out everything from flowers to favors. I think our invites were supposed to take up to 6 weeks but we got them in 3.
Posted by iamjoesgurl[/QUOTE]

<div>See, my problem is that I don't know exactly what I want and I realize I'll be happy with many different things so all of the options just confuse me.  I looooved dress shopping and wish I could have bought 5 of them.  After that I really just started wishing someone else would do everything.  I just wanna be married already :)</div>

miss.jawright

I am really far out from my May 2011 wedding and have been planning a lot. So I am not stressed and get to enjoy it. Plus  no one we have looked at has been booked so far in advance. When it gets down to the little details I am sure I wont like it as much.

tlv204

TR I love your dress! This is totally unrelated but that would be really cute as a tea length dress too. I really wanted a tea or knee length dress, so every dress I see I imagine at that length, sorry!

FutureMrsTR

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_favorite-part-of-planning?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:eb85d99f-d461-47e3-93bb-af575e7205d6Post:98154f47-1a3e-4833-845b-7fd0b2564811">Re: Favorite part of planning?</a>:
[QUOTE]TR I love your dress! This is totally unrelated but that would be really cute as a tea length dress too. I really wanted a tea or knee length dress, so every dress I see I imagine at that length, sorry!
Posted by tlv204[/QUOTE]

<div>Thank you!  Yeah, I was trying to figure out how I could change it to a shorter dress after the wedding, haha.  I think I'd have to take some tulle off and maybe just have a satin skirt.  We'll see :)</div>

squirrly

Planning overall has been really easy.  Executing is more trouble.    I've enjoyed designing everything myself to exactly suit us.  However, I have now had enough, and am now very stressed it still won't be good enough no matter what I do.  I waffle hourly with whether I should panic and do more, or whether I should just give up & show up the day of.  I'm aiming for something in the middle - just get it done.

Least fun - dealing with the airline to book the honeymoon flights.  7.5 hours and 13 phone calls.  No lie, no exaggeration.  I wanted to strangle several people the last time we went round & round.

kd.joseph

I have been done for months, now we are just paying the balance on a few things. But I also had a clear view of what I wanted, and if it didnt work I just tweaked it. And we also are running away so we dont have to deal with half of what you girls do.  

On a seperate note, TR I love your engagment pics, you two are so cute together.