Wedding organisation

[ioukta 0]

Hello everybody,

I'm the foreign woman part of the couple and I've been toying in my mind with dates and timeframes concerning my wedding. which made me remember, I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE !!

so here's my question : Whether you are already married or about to or planning to

- What part of the preparation did/will you take care of from home during the months you use/d to move out, after you get/got your visa and before you leave/left ? How much of the 6 months did/will you use?

- What part did/will you take care of in the US ?

- and how big would you say your wedding was/is? was/is your family there?

i would love to hear what has been done, what has worked, what hasn't, what's planned etc...

Please don't forget to mention if you are the foreign man, foreign woman, US man or US woman part of the couple

Let me hear your stories

Edited September 30, 2009 by ioukta

[Nik+Heather 121]

I'm the US woman, and I started planning as soon as he asked me (in January). We already had a venue in mind as we'd gone there on one of our first dates, so that was easy, and the caterers were restricted to just 7, so that was also easy to narrow down. As soon as I saw my dress I knew it was "the one", so that was easy as well (though the 6 or so fittings to get it just right from off the rack............)

As you can see from my signature, we have used up quite a bit of our 6 months, but that was because we picked a date early on in the process and wanted to be sure we had a really good chance of getting it. I might have considered moving it up, but it's in Arizona (desert) and it's HOT.

I have been at my parents' house nearly every weekend getting all sorts of things together save the dates, invitations, programs, menus, brunch invites, card part invites...etc. etc. etc. There's a LOT you can do to get ready even before you pick a date and start putting money down (though I started doing that early as well).

[baron555 934]

Hello everybody,

I'm the foreign woman part of the couple and I've been toying in my mind with dates and timeframes concerning my wedding. which made me remember, I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE !!

so here's my question : Whether you are already married or about to or planning to

- What part of the preparation did/will you take care of from home during the months you use/d to move out, after you get/got your visa and before you leave/left ? How much of the 6 months did/will you use?

- What part did/will you take care of in the US ?

I looked on the county website for their marriage license requirements and civil service with the judge.

- and how big would you say your wedding was/is? was/is your family there?

The wedding will consist of four, me, Alla, little Leonid and the judge. No wtinesses required.

i would love to hear what has been done, what has worked, what hasn't, what's planned etc...

Big ceremony at a later date. Nothing planned at this time.

Please don't forget to mention if you are the foreign man, foreign woman, US man or US woman part of the couple

I'm the USC, male.

Let me hear your stories

[Gemmie 142]

I'm the foreign female.

- What part of the preparation did/will you take care of from home during the months you use/d to move out, after you get/got your visa and before you leave/left ? How much of the 6 months did/will you use?

To be honest, we didn't do anything before I left home. I had about 5 weeks from when I got my visa and I spent that time preparing for the move, saying goodbye to my loved ones, and finishing my degree.

- What part did/will you take care of in the US ?

We got a marriage license, contacted someone we personally knew that could marry us and arranged to meet with her to sort out a date/time. Then within 2 weeks, we bought a dress and some decorations, candles, flowers, etc and made the back deck in the yard look really pretty.

- and how big would you say your wedding was/is? was/is your family there?

Just my husband's parents and grandmother. We didn't want a big wedding, but we might celebrate when our family and friends can all be together.

[Jasmin&Travis 1]

I'm the foreign female.

- What part of the preparation did/will you take care of from home during the months you use/d to move out, after you get/got your visa and before you leave/left ? How much of the 6 months did/will you use?

I'll be leaving around a month after I get my visa[i hope] I've got my dress already, I wanted to go out round all the shops with my mum and she wanted to be there to buy the dress for me. We've decided we'll have it out the back of his house, a friend of his family is going to marry us so that's pretty flexible. Haven't made any other preparations really, been looking around for general ideas.

- What part did/will you take care of in the US ?

Setting the date/time, catering and buying the deco most probably. I've spoken to my mother-in-law to-be about deco and they're going to pick anything cheap up that they find that's suitable or I may like.

- and how big would you say your wedding was/is? was/is your family there?

My mum dad and brother are flying over for a month, to meet everyone, see where I'll be living and to be at the wedding. My fiance has quite alot of family who are rather close and I think the wedding list we put together as a guideline was around 75 people. <.>

I'm quite relaxed about it really, I don't want anything too glitzy. I'm hoping to be over there for christmas and to have a january wedding, the delay between getting my visa and going over there will also help my parents and brother get holiday time at work, book flights and sort out finances and pet care.

If I'm not lucky enough to be over there by december, it'll be moved to me flying over in february and getting married sometime in march.

Good luck!

[ms_jinga_lala 0]

I am the US woman - doing 90% of the planning for our US wedding (we will have a second one in India in the future because his parents want us to)

- What part of the preparation did/will you take care of from home during the months you use/d to move out, after you get/got your visa and before you leave/left ? How much of the 6 months did/will you use?

He (well his mom) is picking out our wedding clothing - he wants us to match. He is also picking out the jewelry and helping me figure out the customs and traditions and little things that make an Indian wedding meaningful.

- What part did/will you take care of in the US ?

I'm booking the location, mixing up the ceremony to accomodate the best of American and Hindu traditions to make one unique yet fabulous, once in a lifetime wedding event! I'm booking the venue and working out all the particulars of making it legal and bona fide by American and Hindu standards.

- and how big would you say your wedding was/is? was/is your family there?

Our wedding will be fairly small. My family will be there, his will not. There will be less than 50 people total.

i would love to hear what has been done, what has worked, what hasn't, what's planned etc...

I'm planning on having the wedding procession be in American fashion, my bridesmaids will be wearing saree's, my groomsmen wearing Indian clothing of their choice. I will be having American traditional foods as well as traditional Indian foods. I intend to do a lot of the cooking myself because he and I both prefer low sugar foods and there isn't a bakery around that would make the cake or sweets with so little sugar and they still taste good. I really don't like cakes from bakeries and such, they just are not as good as homemade in my opinion. I love to cook and I've already got my own special recipe for quite a few Indian dishes that I think would be good at my wedding.

To mingle the tradition of money blessings in India, I intend to put out money tree's on the tables (it's a tree branch potted with slits cut in the branches or some other way that guests can attach money) and I'm going to find someone to bless us with the money garlands that are placed around the couples necks.

I'm having trouble finding a pandit locally so I may wind up having to figure out something else instead. I don't give up easily though, so we will see. Instead of the unity candles being used to light one candle, I plan to use them to light the sacred fire so we can take our seven steps around the fire.

I also intend to have the whole thing video recorded and have an exhaustive amount of pictures taken.

If one of you signs up for the JC Penny's wedding registry online and adds enough items to your wish list, they will give you a free wedding planner in the store. It's very nice and can help you organize some of the information and will give you a good place to store some photos and things so you can plan whatever you want for your wedding. If there is no JC Penny's near you, try some other online American store registries like Target, they too send you coupons and some freebies to help out with some of your wedding and home making adventures. You can get email newsletters, tips, ideas. Brides.com is pretty good about sending out some great information and their website has a lot of good information too to help you plan a wedding on your budget and to suit your tastes.

The best piece of advice I can give you is start thinking seriously now about what parts of a wedding in your culture are important to you and that you really want incorporated into your ceremony. You and your fiancee can start talking and planning now for how things will be and then when the time comes you will already know what needs to be done to throw the wedding together on short notice and both of you be satisfied with the day.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

We had about 9 months to prepare from K1 application to interview - but my now husband did a lot of leg work since during that period he visited Canada more then I visited the US. Since it was a second marriage for us both we decided our own living room was plenty of space for the 20 or so guests. It was a nice arrangement .....we emptied the room entirely of furniture, cleaned etc...it had a very large fireplace which served as the backdrop for the minister and we arranged the chairs in a semi circle design. My best friend came down several days before and helped decorate beautifully - her husband was a better bow-maker then the ladies at Michaels

- we did the food ourselves (by the way, I don't recommend that...I was up at 4 am on my wedding day baking!)

- I made my own 3 tiered wedding cake which was kind of fun

- our minister happened to be a friend of the my husband who was a navy chaplain

- the hubs is super nerdy and our invites and wedding programs were printed at home and yet looked professional as well

- the MiL is helpful crafty and offered to help with flower arranging as needed

We went back and forth a lot on whether we should have various things but due to the moving date target, it was impossible to secure even a small location on short notice. and we didn't want to waste any deposit money.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Udella&Wiz

[TBoneTX 45,309]

Thread from 2009 is now closed to further comment.