K1 Wedding Planning -what is/was your plan?

[Aztec&Taino 144]

Married at the courthouse with only the judge and the three year old as witnesses.

Then many months later had a open house reception with only snacks and drinks served.

Rather than a big diamond ring she wanted a new big canoe.

We are both very practical and live our lives for ourselves and make no pretenses based on what others may think.

I love practical people!

[missyouhoney 1]

Well, we don´t care about fancy and huge weddings, so we will have a church wedding and a reception with family and closer friends.

For me it´s very important that we get married at church. The problem with not knowing when the visa will b granted is that we can´t register for any pre-marital courses nor can we reserve a date at church. Since we only have 90 days once I arrive at The USA, I´m very sad we will have to do a cold courthouse marriage and then have the church wedding. I´ll keep praying that we can find out when the visa will b granted in advance so that we can plan our church wedding.

We have already checked venues, and I already have my wedding dress, perhaps I should´ve waited but it was ther perfect dress.... LOL.

I miss my sweetheart a lot.

[M & J 5]

We are optimistically but cautiously planning a official ceremony and reception w/ aprox 150 guests in Novemeber. I just figured it I can its better to get it done versus going to the court and trying to plan for something formal later. Leave it to me it for sure wouldn't happen. lol I'm doing as most others that decide to go this route are doing....making sure there is a clause that allows me the change the date if the K-1 process doesn't go as planned. Now I don't plan on sending out formal invitations and encouraging family to buy plane tickets until the visa is in hand...but I did reserve the location (and was able to do so w/ a surprisingly small deposit amount) and am starting to engage other vendors. I have also notified people I wanted in the wedding party and my family of the ideal date.

It's been ok so far. All I can hope for is the best and then adjust if things don't go as planned.

[del-11-03-2013 1]

We just did civil ceremony in SF city hall and a small reception (25-30 guests in a restaurant). We book our make-up, hairstyle & photographer 2 months before we got married. I think it is easier to book those service when your wedding on the weekdays. We bought our traditional wedding clothes in Malaysia.

We plan to do another wedding in Malaysia for my family & friends (250 guests)in June 18th,2011

[bahisgirl 11]

My husband and I kept it nice and simple. We went and got our marriage license a week after he arrived, and a week later went to the local JP by ourselves. That was the way we wanted it (much to the chagrin of the entire family!). Afterwards we went to Subway for lunch (got a few strange looks in there...we were a little overdressed ) and spent the rest of the day and night just in our own little world.

We are considering having a reception later this year to appease the family, but I wouldn't change our day for anything. It was just what we wanted.

[Mariye & Ky 172]

We have a date in mind but nothing planned with vendors. We're not sure when we'll be approved, but very optimistic of maybe having a late summer wedding that's very small and simple. One thing that I do know for sure is that our photographer will be the best I can find! Other than that, we have a lot of other big planning to do first.

[baron555 934]

The Joliet courthouse isn't cold , we did have to remove our coats. We both wore our best jeans!

[TeddyHoney 42]

I have no recommendation because that will be up to you and your circumstances and finances. We are an older couple and I have been Married to a filipina before and sort of been thru this process before only with my ex I married her in the Philippines and braought her and her son over on what was then Immediate Relative VISAs. This time, older and wiser, my fiancee has no children and we have no plans of a big wedding right away, for many reasons. One is that we don't want to spend so much money of a big wedding and reception. I've been thru that once and she is cares more about us finally starting our life together than a big wedding and reception. There are so many other things we would like to use that money for! Another is the 90 day time schedule. Even if we wanted a big wedding and reception the time constraint would not allow us to do it the way we would want anyway. Its too difficult to pinpoint a date in the future when you have no idea what the two governments will do to your applications and documents and how it will turn out. So we're not going to have that stress added to the stress of the too long process.

We will have a civil wedding with some of my family and friends there to witness and then someday int he future we will have a moderate wedding and reception to renew our vows.

Best wishes in your choice!

God bless!

[TeddyHoney 42]

Married at the courthouse with only the judge and the three year old as witnesses.

Then many months later had a open house reception with only snacks and drinks served.

Rather than a big diamond ring she wanted a new big canoe.

We are both very practical and live our lives for ourselves and make no pretenses based on what others may think.

My kind of folk!

[Saddle Bronc 124]

My initial idea was to do a civil wedding in VA or MD, and then the church ceremony in MI (Novi)--until I was asked what the requirements were for civil wedding in MI.

I then called Oakland County (where Novi is located) on this, and found out that for a church wedding there, it could be combined (an ordained pastor resident in that county--which contains several towns/cities such as Farmington Hills, South Lyon, Pontiac, ...--was deputised already to perform the church ceremony)--and that was what we finally did.

[minkthecat 6]

My fiance and I had our wedding planned for May 1st (over 8 months after our NOA1) Just after Christmas we made the decision to postpone the wedding because our NOA2 has not arrived. At this point we are early enough into things with our vendors that we haven't lost any money and they are being very flexible and understanding. However, 35 of our guests had gone ahead and booked flights to come to the wedding and I had to call all of them individually and explain that they had spent money they didn't need to. Not fun. Aside from anything else, the planning of a wedding on a 'maybe', causes unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety on the couple, that I would not wish on anybody. Anything could happen. Wrong spelling on visa documents etc. which could result in more delays. I agree wholeheartedly with the advice of this site not to plan a thing until the visa is in hand. I have been in the position of postponing and if I could stop just one couple going through what we have, I would.

Be patient and think of how fun and special it will be , planning a wedding, knowing that it will all definitely happen on your terms. Awesome, is what it will be.

Good luck!

[Afrikan Queen 11]

We are planning for simple yet average size wedding (I don't know what avg really is) in a church. We have not reached the end of our K1 journey so I haven't went out on a spending spree for our wedding. I have been making small preperations until we have the visa in hand.

[Ashex 4]

Only planning on doing a quick civil ceremony once she is here. I've entertained the idea of getting a sketch artist to do a charcoal drawing of us in the courtroom like the drawings you see on the news during big cases.

Other then that I've got a photographer who is going to do a photoshoot for us in our wedding gear and then a small party after that.

[Justine+David 218]

We filed in August and planned for a September wedding the next year. We made it with plenty of time (received visa in April) but decided for the court wedding right away when he got here in June so we could file AOS. We made sure it was okay to push the date forward with our vendors if we needed...so my mom and sisters flew out to D.C. for our civil ceremony and then David and I flew out to Seattle for our big wedding in September (with a few of his friends and his family members)

[monyfer 27]

Will go down to city hall and sign the legal paperwork as soon as FI arrives in US. Planning the wedding (ie religious ceremony and reception) for June 2012.