How do you handle planning your wedding

[beccaogingi 0]

I am finding this whole thing frustrating, like how do you plan on sending out invitations when you have no idea when the date is? My fiancé's sister is pregnant so depending on when the approval is we either have to wait for his parents to be able to come (because his mum wants to stay with her for when the baby is born) or hurry up and have it before the baby is born (if it gets approved in time, which looks doubtful)... so we either have to rush out invitations if that is the case or else I guess we will have time.

We are lucky that I go to a small church, so the priest can work with us on the date.

We are going to do the reception at my house, and cater it ourselves (he, his mom, and I are all food snobs and control freaks, so it's really the only way ) so the food is just going to the market (or maybe getting a deal from a food wholesaler)

I am going to do the flowers myself (as a former florist) and it will be pretty simple anyway, I would like to order roses for my bouquet.

He had a vintage tux already and I bought a tux shirt from him from a shop that was going out of business (and it looks really nice on him, he tried it on when I was visiting).

I just got my dress.

You read those wedding planning sites and they say "oh you should have this taken care of here" and so on so I worry there is more I should be doing but there is only so much preplanning you can do when you don't know the dates. I figured everyone here will appreciate the frustration.

[Leafgal 3]

Well it sounds like you have lots of your planning done which is great.

What I have done is verbally told everyone to keep the date we have picked open, but that it isn't written in stone as it depends on when the visa gets granted. That is all I can suggest. Good luck.

[Fandango 1,439]

It's basically a 'hurry up and wait' situation...or wait and then hurry up, lol.

I wouldn't be planning too far in advance until I knew for sure when he was coming....it sucks because I want so much to do different things (like order the cake from this bakery that is taking orders for 2008 already) but there's no way I can commit to anything without knowing he has the visa in his hand.

Gotta plan for murphy's law....

[slim 1,525]

I'm planning on getting in my truck and driving down to the JPs office. I'm not really sure what I'm going to wear yet... don't know how formal I'm going to be, it's all up to the ol' lady, after all, it's HER day! (Says the guy making all her dreams come true by giving her a ride to the courthouse.... why do I feel like I just stepped out of a King of the Hill episode?)

In all seriousness though, we're just going to do a very simple civil ceremony followed by a nice dinner together and a night at home, then spend the next day celebrating with the family. I hope to someday have the "church wedding" once we get everything else taken care of. This is going to be a practical matter, not a big, emotional, waiting my whole life for this moment type thing. (Maybe that will come down the road. I hope!)

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I left the planning to Nani - this just ain't something a guy would want to get into.

[gimygirl 0]

when is his sister's due date? when are you thinking of getting married? from your timeline, it appears that you still have at least 3-4 months ahead of you ....

[Widge 0]

As the couple who hadn't got a minister booked 24 hours before the actual ceremony perhaps I am not best placed to comment in this thread

[beccaogingi 0]

when is his sister's due date? when are you thinking of getting married? from your timeline, it appears that you still have at least 3-4 months ahead of you ....

She's due in mid-October and I just got my NOA2 email. I guess everything will work out one way or another planning wise, it's just frustrating to not be able to be sure about the timing. As we all know, I guess I just wanted to vent among sympathesizers.

Edited July 11, 2006 by beccaogingi

[globetrotter 0]

I sympathise!!! I am planning ahead, keeping it small and simple and HOPING that the visa will come through on time as expected. I have warned family members who want to go ahead and book flights about the visa issue so if they still want to go ahead and make the most of the earlier booking princes they can. ON top if it all though I have 6 weeks of data collection to finish of for my PhD. Cannot do it after the wedding as I will not be allowed to travel for 2-3 months.Wedding has to be in October (the week of the 21st) beacuse that is when people can make it - parents are teacher with very restricted holiday times. So now I am waiting for my visa interview date to come through and making plan B arrangements for data collection in case I have less time than I would like.... at least life is not boring!!!!! :-)

[ajames79 0]

Well right now...it is kind of a nutsy situation for most of us isn't it?!

I am doing as much pre planning as I can. Calling to check prices, check availability, what they may offer.

As it all depends on when the visa is granted.

But this is how I look at it....once we have the visa..we have at least 6 months for Chris to arrive, I can maybe speculate that when we have our interview that it will be granted. SO...if I plan a date then, perhaps I will be okay.

if need be...I will do a quick court house no emotion have to do it type paperwork signing...then have a full emotion, all the family, food and a pretty dress type wedding later!

[MHandMB 0]

I had no idea when the visa would get here, so I planned wayy far in advance. I waited until we got the NOA2 to book the ceremony/reception location, and even then, I booked a place that had a gracious cancellation policy. I put it 7 months out, hoping that everything would go ok. Well, Amed got his visa in April, and we wanted to start AOS as soon as possible, so we were married civilly via a notary public in May, and are still going to have our big wedding in November.

Except in official circumstances, we still refer to ourselves as fiances, and I haven't changed my name yet, and only our very close friends and family members know that we're legally married, so our big day will still feel special. And it gave us plenty of time to plan everything out how we wanted it.

Hope that helps!

[ajames79 0]

I had no idea when the visa would get here, so I planned wayy far in advance. I waited until we got the NOA2 to book the ceremony/reception location, and even then, I booked a place that had a gracious cancellation policy. I put it 7 months out, hoping that everything would go ok. Well, Amed got his visa in April, and we wanted to start AOS as soon as possible, so we were married civilly via a notary public in May, and are still going to have our big wedding in November.

Except in official circumstances, we still refer to ourselves as fiances, and I haven't changed my name yet, and only our very close friends and family members know that we're legally married, so our big day will still feel special. And it gave us plenty of time to plan everything out how we wanted it.

Hope that helps!

yeah that is a smart idea...don't tell anyone....ya!! Keep the element of suprise up!!

Wonder if I can keep that from my mom as well! *giggle*

Edited July 11, 2006 by ajames79