Newly engaged. Don''t know what to do next, Please HELP!!!!!!!!

[FLgirl41]

So I am newly engaged and my fiance and I have decided to have a two year engagement and get married fall 2009. We want to wait for him to be done with Law School and me my masters (if I get excepted). We live in Florida but will be getting married in Minnesota. We are from Minnesota and all our family is there.

But my question is what do I do? I have only been to like 2 or 3 weddings in my life so I have no idea how to plan one. Do I need to start planning now, or do I wait? I have no idea what to do!! Does anyone have advice, or themselves have a 2 year engagement? Where do I start? Are there any book so help me?

Please help!!!

Thank you in advance!

 

[akw94]

Congratulations on your engagement! I don''t have much advice about a 2yr engagement but I think there are some things you can do now. I figure you can start looking around and figure out your likes/dislikes (just keep in mind that everything is subject to change in the next two years!). But you can scope out locations and narrow down choices. You can buy lots of bridal magazines and start clipping pics of what you like. You can research flowers, etc...
So although I wouldn''t make any choices this far out, there''s nothing wrong with a little research.

 

[AsscherGirl]

Welcome! Congrats! My fiance & I will have an almost 2 year engagement. We didn''t do anything until we were 1.5 years out from the wedding. At that point we started looking at reception halls (that took six months and we didn''t do anything else during that time frame!)

Fall is a pretty popular time of year now to get married, so I would say start looking at places to hold your reception around 1.5 years. You don''t have to book anything, but it''s always good to have first choice!

Most people plan a wedding in about a year, so you could just relax until you get closer to that time frame! I wanted to have our major vendors booked by 1 year out, so my timeline was a little accelarated).

Hope that helps! Your ring looks beautiful in your avatar - did you start a thread?!!

 

[Akasma]

Hey FLgirl!

Your situation is exactly the same as mine, so I can relate I too just got engaged and am planning a fall 2009 wedding. Wonder what else we have in common?

I was wondering the same thing. What do I do now? The great thing about having this amount of time is that you can really shop around and have time to decide. My FI and I are putting together a tentative guest list, have decided where we want our wedding and now are planning a trip there to look at churches and reception halls that will accommodate our number of guests. I think you should start thinking about the big stuff right now, like place, time, how many guests, etc and also get an idea of what you like. It''s never to early to start looking at gowns either. You could always head to www.theknot.com as well, they are an EXCELLENT resource for planning weddings.

Oh and Congratulations on your engagement

 

[Mandarine]

Hi there!!! I''m a FL girl too!

There is a lot you can start doing now, but I would take it easy...you don''t want to get overwhelmed, specially with so much time in advance!. Here is what I would do:

- Start with a spreadhseet with some basics:

* Draft guest list (to get an idea of # of people)
* Draft Budget (how much total, how much per item). For example if you have 10K, get an idea for how much you want to spend on the ceremony, reception site fees, decor, catering, entertainment, ect.
* Ideas list (anything that pops in your head, you can just keep adding here!).
* Vendors list (to keep all info related to vendors in one place)
* You and your FI should sit down and talk about what do you envision your day like. Then come up with the 3 things that are most important to you for this day. This will help you keep focused and not stress about things that don''t really matter. It will also help you stay on budget!.

- Start doing searches for ceremony and reception sites:

* Will you be getting married at a church?. If so, start gathering a list of churches. Not all churches are willing to marry non-parishioners, so do some homework.
* Reception sites. Go to Minnesota''s board on the knot and ask for suggestions. What do you want in a venue? outdoor?, indoor?, balcony?, views?, no rental fee?, allows outside catering?, all inclusive?. Start thinking of some of these so you can start crossing off choices. Some of the popular places can book over a year in advance, so this is were you can really get a head start!!

There are things I would not worry about quite yet: decor (since it would depend on the venue), your dress (because fashion changes!), invitations or stationary design (this too will depend on the venue)...

Anyway, good luck and welcome!

M~

 

[FLgirl41]

Thank you for the great tips! I am thinking this isn''t going to be as easy as I anticipated. I never imagined there needed to be this much thought. You can tell I am totally ignorant with the whole planning thing.

Danielle: What do you mean when you said "Your ring looks beautiful in your avatar - did you start a thread?!!". I posted somehting in LIW. But wasn''t sure if I should post else where. I am still new to this forum figuring it out.


Mandarine: Good tip on starting spread sheets! The budget is a huge thing for us concidering we are paying for a majority of it ourselves, so nice tip on that!!!

Akasma: Congrats on your recent engagement as well!

 

[AsscherGirl]

Date: 6/26/2007 12:10:36 PM
Author: FLgirl41
Thank you for the great tips! I am thinking this isn''t going to be as easy as I anticipated. I never imagined there needed to be this much thought. You can tell I am totally ignorant with the whole planning thing.

Danielle: What do you mean when you said ''Your ring looks beautiful in your avatar - did you start a thread?!!''. I posted somehting in LIW. But wasn''t sure if I should post else where. I am still new to this forum figuring it out.


Mandarine: Good tip on starting spread sheets! The budget is a huge thing for us concidering we are paying for a majority of it ourselves, so nice tip on that!!!

Akasma: Congrats on your recent engagement as well!

Flgirl - there is another forum on this website called "Show Me The Ring". People usually start their own threads about their rings with pictures and such!

 

[FLgirl41]

Date: 6/26/2007 2:02:44 PM
Author: *~*Danielle*~*

Flgirl - there is another forum on this website called ''Show Me The Ring''. People usually start their own threads about their rings with pictures and such!

Ah well then I will have to start one! Thank you. I love Pricescope!

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 6/26/2007 11:45:58 AM
Author: Mandarine
Hi there!!! I''m a FL girl too!

There is a lot you can start doing now, but I would take it easy...you don''t want to get overwhelmed, specially with so much time in advance!. Here is what I would do:

- Start with a spreadhseet with some basics:

* Draft guest list (to get an idea of # of people)
* Draft Budget (how much total, how much per item). For example if you have 10K, get an idea for how much you want to spend on the ceremony, reception site fees, decor, catering, entertainment, ect.
* Ideas list (anything that pops in your head, you can just keep adding here!).
* Vendors list (to keep all info related to vendors in one place)
* You and your FI should sit down and talk about what do you envision your day like. Then come up with the 3 things that are most important to you for this day. This will help you keep focused and not stress about things that don''t really matter. It will also help you stay on budget!.

- Start doing searches for ceremony and reception sites:

* Will you be getting married at a church?. If so, start gathering a list of churches. Not all churches are willing to marry non-parishioners, so do some homework.
* Reception sites. Go to Minnesota''s board on the knot and ask for suggestions. What do you want in a venue? outdoor?, indoor?, balcony?, views?, no rental fee?, allows outside catering?, all inclusive?. Start thinking of some of these so you can start crossing off choices. Some of the popular places can book over a year in advance, so this is were you can really get a head start!!

There are things I would not worry about quite yet: decor (since it would depend on the venue), your dress (because fashion changes!), invitations or stationary design (this too will depend on the venue)...

Anyway, good luck and welcome!

M~

Hi FLgirl! Welcome to PS! I totally agree with Mandarine. I got engaged on May 6th and our wedding''s not until July 12, ''08. The only things we''ve done so far is book the venue (the ceremony and reception are at the same place) and blocked rooms off at a local hotel. If you''re getting married at a hot spot of some sort, it can''t hurt to look around and see what''s out there. We''re getting married on the southern Maine coast and the area can get pretty touristy. My mom wanted to find a hotel as soon as possible to ensure guests wouldn''t have any trouble in the height of tourist season. If it weren''t for that, we wouldn''t have done that yet.

Sorry I''m rambling! Bottom line: you have plenty of time! If you do simple things like look around, see what you like, start a spreadsheet with ideas, possible guest list, etc, you''ll be fine.

You''ll find that everyone here is really helpful. Have fun in the pre-planning stage!

 

[So_happy]

Hey there! Welcome

I will have had only a 10-month engagement and one of the things I wish I had been able to do was actually enjoy being engaged for awhile

Seriously, the day after we got engaged, we had to start planning. It''s almost as if, for us, being engaged is synonomous with wedding planning. So, now that you have your date (which will definitely keep your loved ones happy as that''s gonna be one of the first questions they ask you lol), I''d say take a full month and only talk about wedding planning if it naturally comes up. Actually BE engaged and not wedding planning heehee. (Keep in mind, I am a 10-month engagement bride!!! This is "stress" talkin''

)

Okay, so after that month, definitley get ideas first (bridal mags and pricescope!!) And go to the Knot''s checklist and see what''s "due" in your timeframe. Come here read all the threads that are entitled something like "Show me your......(cake, dress, veil, shoes, tuxes, flowers, hairstyles etc)" so you can see what real people are choosing....plus you''ll get comments and suggestions from others to read along with any posted pics. THAT can be helpful too.

I was also a no-clue bride 8 months ago. I had only been to 2 weddings also and one was a very small scale (30 guests) one where we brought our own dishes and the other was HUGE and both the bride and groom are from Brazil and naturally all thier families were, too, so I didn''t hear one english word spoken that entire night (including obvioulsy the ceremony). I didn''t get much bridal wisdom from those AT. ALL. Due to my lack of wedding knowledge, and not (to this day) ever having been IN a wedding, I dove right in to wedding planning with no sense of what I really loved/wanted/needed. I figured since I have no pre-concieved notioins, just pick something and be done with it. Well, I started to develop those notions slowly but surely and now I am having the wedding of my dreams, a touch out of budget, and I am SO excited. BUT............it took a lot of "Do Overs" for me (i.e. 2 dresses, shoes, veils, engagment rings even).

So, a warm welcome to you!!!! We hope you post all your questions here often!!! OH yeah, also go to the threads that consist of tips from present brides to new ones in the tone of "what I''ve learned during wedding planning". Those were alot of fun to write and since you''re asking.........couldn''t hurt to read what us veterans have thought would be useful if given a chance to do it again.

Happy Planning!!!!!