Planning - what have you done so far??

Re: Planning - what have you done so far??

• thatgirl2 member

  

  July 2015

  I'm so excited to have found this board! I got engaged about two months ago. Our date is set for the end of August (2016). Sorry for the long post, but I've been dying to vent some things and see what others are doing.
  
  A little extra background:
  I've only been to a handful of weddings in my life. Most of them small. So, I'm quite clueless about weddings: how to plan, what to expect, what other people expect, and so on. To add to that confusion, both of my parents are deceased. So, planning isn't going to be easy for me due to the emotions and figuring out what to do about FOB and MOB stuff.
  
  My areas of focus:
  Research: I've been reading a lot and compiling photos of things I like (dresses, decore, etc).
  Venues: We immediately confirmed the ceremony and reception venue. The ceremony is a small church that was easy to book. And, the reception venue is a friend's nice home. But, I wouldn't describe the reception as a backyard reception either. The home is a stylish, water front home.
  Colors/Theme: I'm trying to set the theme and colors. I have my theme in mind, but have not confirmed the colors.
  Budget/Guest List: According to the majority of timelines I've read- August 2016 weddings should have (or almost have) a guest list and budget in place. That's been difficult for me because my family/soon-to-be family have not been much help for me to finalize the guest list. I think, they think I'm planning to soon. The guest count could drastically impact the budget. I realize how much when we expected a 25 count (budgeted accordingly) and are now closer to 70.
  
  Timeline variations:
  I think timelines change depending on the situation (# of guests, destination or not, hot wedding town or rural area, how fancy or laid back you want things). Due to my situation: a 'destination' wedding, tight budget, some questions regarding tradition and how to handle those things, etc, I decided to tackle as much as I could now. That way if I have a small emotional freak out later, I have time to do so and I've read you can save money by planning early/allow for price shopping, etc.
  
  Tips:
  I took a time line from APracticalWedding.com. They have spreadsheets galore to download. That's allowed me to customize my timeline. For example, destination wedding have different invite/save the date mail dates and I have a lot of weight flux, so I won't get my dress until closer to the wedding to avoid 18 million alterations.
  
  I hope some of my rambling helped! I'd love to hear what others have done so far!
  
  
  

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• [Deleted User] member

  

  July 2015

  We're slowly getting pieces together. I found a comprehensive list of things to do online that my fiancé and I have slowly worked our way through. So far we know our dates but we haven't fully figured out how things will occur. 

  
  

  What We Know

  • Small wedding at City Hall with just the immediate family. We'll have lunch or dinner afterwards with the immediate family, their SO's, and our wedding party. 
  • A very vague understanding of the timeline. We know when is the wedding and the West coast reception but all of the pieces in between haven't been established. Like going through my timeline, we have like 3-4 family nights (where we hang out with the extended family) allotted. As we figure out the venues, I think this part might become a bit easier. 
  • We're planning on having two receptions: one on the West coast because that's where we live and where most of his extended family lives then another gathering on the East coast because that's where my extended family is. We haven't figured out the venue(s) nor the timing of the East coast reception. It might just end up being casual and just another family night instead, but that does mean I need to fly out there to work with my parents in figuring out some logistics. 
  • The bridal party was selected but my fiancé is still working on his selecting his group.
  • The colours were established but the bridesmaids let me know that they'd prefer to match with me and wear sarees. Solidarity is great, but that means a slight change in the wedding colours.
  • With that being said, I have a good idea of all the clothes I'll be wearing.
  • Engagement photography session has been booked.
  • Wedding website is up and running and semi-functional. 
  • We've started to narrow down the invitations.

  We still need to work on a guest list and a budget. It does seem that we have a max amount set (40 people) so it's just a matter of actually working on the guest list now. We do have a few venues in mind though. We also need to establish the budget.

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• Knottie1433287986 member

  

  July 2015

  My wedding is going to be a little bigger than a few of you, it seems.  Not so much to me but my family is too big so we are looking at approximately 250 invites. I'm hoping only 200 show up since most of my family have to travel over 2 hours to get there.  We will see...

  
  

  Anyway, I have the ceremony and reception booked at an awesome vineyard/winery.  That is about it!  I thought I was going to have my cousin be the photographer but she is already booked for that weekend - go figure.  

  
  

  I'm not sure what to do next.  My sister is 21 and my MOH and she is pushing to go dress shopping etc but I don't want to go until October -ish.  That's plenty of time, right?  I've been basically looking on pinterest, the knot and different magazines to get an idea of what I want for colors.  I have no idea right now!  It's so hard to figure out..  Any suggestions.  

  
  

  I haven't even looked into music yet but I know I need to get on that and a new photographer.  It's a bit overwhelming - but I'll figure it out! 

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• beautyofdreams member

  

  July 2015

  My wedding date is August 13, 2016. We have been engaged over a year so we have ALOT done. lol. We have our venue, photographer, videographer, and caterer. We plan to invite 150 with hopes for 125. I have collected a few decor items but told myself I won't start on any DIY stuff until January when we send out save the dates. Everyone is traveling to us so we are sending them out on the early end. We pretty much have our bridal party. 4 bm 4 gm 1 jr. bm and 1 jr gm. Oh, and i have my dress which i love, love, love. I filmed Say Yes To The Dress in Atlanta and was on the current season. actually glad to have filmed it so early that way no one will remember what my dress looks like a year from now! haha. happy planning! 

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• neekeec11 member

  

  July 2015

  thatgirl2 - I honestly don't think it is too early to have a rough estimate of the guest count. It was actually the first thing we did and it helped in deciding the reception venue.

  knottie1433287986 - Oct should be fine but if you have certain designer(s) in mind I would check with the bridal shops who carry them to see the approx. timeframe it takes for that designer(s) to ship them. Some designers take up to a year to ship to a bride (per my local bridal shops). Most, however, take 6 months or so.

  beautyofdreams - that's awesome you have so much done! having longer engagements can come in handy when spreading out all the "to do" things.

  
  

  Now to my situation - We got engaged in Feb and our wedding is middle of Aug 2016. Our current guest count is 260 (mostly our families) and we have both venues booked. We are doing 6 BM/GM with a RB and FG. I am a planner at heart so I have most of the big vendors booked (photographer, DJ, transportation, caterer, etc.) as well as my dress bought last month!! I'm now looking at BM dresses because one of my ladies is pregnant and I want her to try on dresses before she gets too big (due in March). Other than that, I am enjoying using pinterest and other sources like it for ideas/suggestions.

  Happy planning to all

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• thatgirl2 member

  

  July 2015

  I'm now running into the issue of-- we have the guest list, but I have a pretty high expected no rate (destination wedding). I don't want pick a venue that's way too big and I don't want everyone elbow to elbow. I'll probably post in the etiquette section, but is it rude if I tell close family (e.g. aunts/uncles) that we're trying to get a rough head count now for planning, so do they think they'll be able to come? I mean one couple already said they don't plan to come, because of the distance.
  

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• [Deleted User] member

  

  October 2015

  Thatgirl2: not sure if you are open to it, but a friend of mine used appy couple (wedding website/app for phone) and send out her save the dates through there (it was a destination wedding). The save the date actually had an option to RSVP so that gave her a pretty good estimate on who was coming and if she could invite others that did not initially make the list (small wedding). And it's all digital so it was really easy to do/send back your response. 

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• [Deleted User] member

  

  October 2015

  Aug 27, 2016! I have the venue booked, guest list complete and photographer penciled in. Oh and went dress shopping once. That is about it! I would like to get the music penciled in next- I feel like the good ones book up early  

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• [Deleted User] member

  

  October 2015

  I'm also Aug 27... I'm pretty excited. We have the venue, dj and photographer. I've been surprised how many places/venues/people are already booked for next year. One local bridal salon expects people to make appointments 6 months out then the dresses take 8 months to make. Yikes!

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• [Deleted User] member

  

  October 2015

  We booked our venue, have sent save the dates, I have my dress, and we will hopefully book our photographer and my hair stylist in the coming week or two. Right now I'm working on room blocks, which is getting somewhat irritating.
  
  Every step of the way so far has involved meeting with vendors who make me want to rip my hair out. Has anyone else found this?

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• shoebie member

  

  October 2015

  This is a second one for both of us, We are doing it at a chapel in the woods and having a reception at a county park with a dj and catered itallian. 

  
  

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