need wedding motivation, aka, what are you trying to plan during the holidays?

[lulu66]

so, i''ve been engaged since august; planning our wedding next fall. and i am losing any bit of motivation that i''ve had in the past. friends and family are driving us crazy to lock down a date because so many will be coming in from out of town. in order to do that, we need to visit with reception sites in the area and for some reason i have absolutely no motivation to do so. but, today, i''m going to at least "pre-screen" phone call 1/2 of them (the ones we''re more serious about). i am, i am, i am...maybe if i repeat it over and over i actually will.

on the bright side, my mom''s coming in this weekend and i think we''re going to get my dress!! right now, clothing options are all i can get really excited about. i feel like so much else is dependent on the reception site we choose

so, my question to you is, what are you trying to accomplish before the holidays & are you having any luck? advice, suggestions, commiseration, anything welcome

 

[FrekeChild]

I''m just trying to hold it all together! And I bet I won''t get anything done before the holidays except finish school and do a mad dash to buy some last minute Christmas presents, but after Christmas I have to go into high gear and start dealing with the thing I''m most worried about--PACKING!

YOU CAN DO IT! Go out there and call those reception venues!

And I''ll resume freaking out.

 

[luvthemstrawberries]

Date: 12/9/2009 8:26:23 AM
Author:lulu66

so, my question to you is, what are you trying to accomplish before the holidays & are you having any luck? advice, suggestions, commiseration, anything welcome

Haha, ummm, EVERYTHING!! I''ll have approximately a week after the "holidays" to do any more work, so things are rolling steady right now and need to keep at that pace! Whew!!

I went through the same thing as you with getting up the motivation to actually look into the places. We were actually engaged for 9 months before we set a date and place, because nothing felt right to us. We ended up choosing to do a small family-only wedding first, then a reception later with the bigger family and friends, because it was what finally felt right to us. And the place we chose was after months of looking all over the state. We actually visited a few venues, but I swear probably looked at hundreds of places online and have spend who knows how many hours researching them. So don''t feel bad that you don''t have the motivation. Don''t push yourself, and do what feels right to you.

You''ll be in the best frame of mind to make those decisions when you''re ready to actually go and wanting to go, not pushing yourself just because of a time crunch from people.

 

[MagsyMay]

Hmm, I''m trying to lock down ceremony musicians (reviewing contract today), book DJ (sent in contract yesterday Monday, woohoo!), visit several florists and get quotes when I am in my hometown after the holiday, and possibly go out dress shopping again and decide if I want to go with one of the dresses from my first outing.

Sounds like a lot when I write it out, but it will be the longest stretch of time I will have been home since August, so we need to make the best use of our time!

Visiting venues was about the ONLY thing I was excited about actually, so I won''t be of much help to you! I think we visited about 12, after researching hundreds of others online of course. Trust me though, once you get that part nailed down you will feel SO good. It was stressing me out big time because I was afraid of all the dates we wanted being filled. Not sure where you''re located, but I know in the Chicago area a lot of the venues book out over a year in advance, so try to use that as motivation to just GET. IT. DONE! You can do it and it''ll feel so good to be done with it, I promise!

 

[shertz1981]

6 objectives to be accomplished by 1/1:

~Videographer
~Photographer
~Florist
~Officiant
~All addresses gathered
~Flower girls/ringbearer determined

 

[lulu66]

Date: 12/9/2009 12:32:20 PM
Author: FrekeChild
I''m just trying to hold it all together! And I bet I won''t get anything done before the holidays except finish school and do a mad dash to buy some last minute Christmas presents, but after Christmas I have to go into high gear and start dealing with the thing I''m most worried about--PACKING!


YOU CAN DO IT! Go out there and call those reception venues!


And I''ll resume freaking out.

well, finishing school, while not directly wedding related, is a BIGGIE! congrats! try not to freak out too much.

 

[lulu66]

Date: 12/9/2009 1:37:18 PM
Author: luvthemstrawberries

Date: 12/9/2009 8:26:23 AM

Author:lulu66


so, my question to you is, what are you trying to accomplish before the holidays & are you having any luck? advice, suggestions, commiseration, anything welcome

Haha, ummm, EVERYTHING!! I''ll have approximately a week after the ''holidays'' to do any more work, so things are rolling steady right now and need to keep at that pace! Whew!!


I went through the same thing as you with getting up the motivation to actually look into the places. We were actually engaged for 9 months before we set a date and place, because nothing felt right to us. We ended up choosing to do a small family-only wedding first, then a reception later with the bigger family and friends, because it was what finally felt right to us. And the place we chose was after months of looking all over the state. We actually visited a few venues, but I swear probably looked at hundreds of places online and have spend who knows how many hours researching them. So don''t feel bad that you don''t have the motivation. Don''t push yourself, and do what feels right to you.

You''ll be in the best frame of mind to make those decisions when you''re ready to actually go and wanting to go, not pushing yourself just because of a time crunch from people.

YAY for being on the down hill slop of your wedding planning & THANKS for sharing your experience. we have been struggling with the "where" too. at first i wanted to get married in my family church (fi is so sweet & basically goes along w/whatever i want in the wedding dept) but i was really stressing over the logistics of hosting 150 out of town guests in a very small town (see many previous posts). so, then my mom mentioned we should have the wedding where fi & i leave. after that i wasn''t stressed anymore, so i took that to mean we should get married here. but now it is just stressing about where to have the reception (and honestly money plays a lot into that. i''ve always had champagne taste on a beer budget!).
....but i have an appt to see the #1 on our list tomorrow. it''s an italian restaurant that fi & i love! it fits in our budget; the only thing that might put us over a bit is the bar prices. but, we shall see...

 

[lulu66]

Date: 12/9/2009 1:47:09 PM
Author: MagsyMay
Hmm, I''m trying to lock down ceremony musicians (reviewing contract today), book DJ (sent in contract yesterday Monday, woohoo!), visit several florists and get quotes when I am in my hometown after the holiday, and possibly go out dress shopping again and decide if I want to go with one of the dresses from my first outing.


Sounds like a lot when I write it out, but it will be the longest stretch of time I will have been home since August, so we need to make the best use of our time!


Visiting venues was about the ONLY thing I was excited about actually, so I won''t be of much help to you! I think we visited about 12, after researching hundreds of others online of course. Trust me though, once you get that part nailed down you will feel SO good. It was stressing me out big time because I was afraid of all the dates we wanted being filled. Not sure where you''re located, but I know in the Chicago area a lot of the venues book out over a year in advance, so try to use that as motivation to just GET. IT. DONE! You can do it and it''ll feel so good to be done with it, I promise!

i''m dress shopping too! my mom is visiting this weekend so we''re trying to get some stuff done. you visitied 12?!? i don''t think there''s even 12 possible reception sites where i live. ahhhh, small town USA. but i do need to get moving. the space we''re visiting tomorrow had 1 of our 3 dates already booked! "GET.IT.DONE!" <----my new motto! THANKS!!

 

[lulu66]

Date: 12/9/2009 1:54:16 PM
Author: shertz1981
6 objectives to be accomplished by 1/1:


~Videographer

~Photographer

~Florist

~Officiant

~All addresses gathered

~Flower girls/ringbearer determined

that''s quite a list! YAY, you''re going to get so much done. mine: DATE, church & reception officially booked, dress (i hope!). that''s it till the new year but, jeez, they feel like biggies to me.

 

[shertz1981]

LOL, I''m almost done having meetings for all but the videographer.

Those bleeping addresses are the worst, though. *Glares at friends who aren''t cooperating*

 

[lulu66]

Date: 12/10/2009 12:32:10 PM
Author: shertz1981
LOL, I'm almost done having meetings for all but the videographer.


Those bleeping addresses are the worst, though. *Glares at friends who aren't cooperating*

maybe i need to start my address gathering NOW. LOL. i have been writing them in the address book as we receive christmas cards, that counts, right?

 

[laughwithme]

I find the easiest way to go about a laundry list of tasks is assign one per day and then DO it - and the more you do, the more you find the motivation to accomplish the next one, because you get on a roll. It''s so awesome crossing something off the list, that you want to move to the next one because you''re like, "bring it on!"

My goals to accomplish over the holidays....

Save the dates stuffed, stamped and addressws....they''re going in the mail first week of Jan!
Set up Jan appts with florist and cake baker
Ask cousin to do our makeup (she is a makeup artist)
Talk with family about who is doing bridal shower (several people have offered)
Start registering in Jan
Talk with FIL''s about location/plans for rehearsal dinner
Find out which pastor our church is assigning us

 

[nkarma]

Narrow down to 4-5 venues for the wedding
Make appts to see venues when I am visiting 2/6
Contact Fave photographer about August availability
Maybe go dress shopping with mom and sis
Start to collect addresses
Get BF to start website
Get BF to talk to friend who got married at same DW city
Get quote from friend for paperless save the date and scrapbook