Planning a Wedding while waiting?

[Olivia&Brock 0]

So my fiance and I wanted to start planning our wedding now because we wanted to have a nice wedding where everyone could go and that takes a hell of a lot of time. So I've been trying to plan it with my mom and we're starting to realize how difficult it is. It's just really hard to set a date when we don't know exactly when it will be approved or if it wont be or what. I was just curious if anyone had any advice on it because we really wanted to start planning the wedding now so we can just have it done by the time everything's approved. Thank you <3

[Penny Lane 8,159]

If you want to plan, plan for something around this time next year. Don't book anything you can't get a refund for or change the date for. A year SHOULD be enough time, but you never know.

[Olivia&Brock 0]

If you want to plan, plan for something around this time next year. Don't book anything you can't get a refund for or change the date for. A year SHOULD be enough time, but you never know.

Yeah that makes sense, It's very stressful! lol But thank you <3 (:

[Penny Lane 8,159]

It is. Just be careful. You don't want to be close to your planned date and not have your visa and be struggling to rearrange and replan. Be smart and honest with who you choose to book with (venue, flowers, food, etc) ..

You could always have a small wedding in front of a justice of the peace and then plan for a big celebration later. That's what a lot of couples do to save some stress.

[miguel.angel 11]

I was thinking of posting something similar before. In my case, i need to do the planning here. We are hoping that she can be here by October and get married by November (NOA1 April 4) I dont even know if this is even feasable.

Of course, i cant book anything but i think we can have everything more less picked out with a couple alternate venues according to the size of expected wedding.

However knowing my family, they would want this huge wedding where everyone could come and i honestly dont think organizing a big wedding in this small time frame is possible.

Thoughts?

[GodsGift225 54]

It will be helpful if you can fill out your timeline, so we can have a better idea of you filing dates. Also don't risk in giving a deposit down in any location as you can't predict when you will getting an Approval from the USCIS... But like the previous posted mention a year should be fine, Although you don't have a year to marry since you are a K1 visa, and you have 90days to marry. I would advise to wait until you hear from USCIS.

Good luck!

[Lic.Matos 1]

In my case what I'm doing is having a small ceremony at city Hall and have my Reception with friends and family in June of next year! if that helps, and you are right it is lots of work. Good luck!

[kate&javi 26]

Sincerely, I was stressing out before thinking that I had to plan a wedding in such a short amount of time (we want to go to the US as soon as my fiance receives his visa since my sister is getting married in November), and my mom just told me to get married at the court (Justice of Peace) when we arrive here and have the ceremony/reception deal early next year. Since we will getting to the US as the cold weather arrives in Chicago, and I hate cold weather, we decided on that. So we chose a date, picked our places, made some deposits. It's a lot less stressful and we don't have to worry so much about getting married before the cold weather and being stressed about planning a wedding. I have a big family and my fiance's family will fly over for the wedding, so having a wedding date farther in the future is better. We are going to get married legally, then celebrate with everyone when it's spring and the weather is nice. At first I didn't want to do that because I didn't want our wedding to seem fake, but we just won't be telling people we actually got married at the court first, haha. I'm less stressed, plus I know that when we get to the US, I can focus on other things like getting a job, moving in our apartment, buying a car, etc. (I live overseas with my fiance) instead of worrying about the expiration date on the I-94.

[del-2-5-2014 1,339]

suewilly[/b]' timestamp='1342463823' post='5529518']

In my case what I'm doing is having a small ceremony at city Hall and have my Reception with friends and family in June of next year! if that helps, and you are right it is lots of work. Good luck!

Gowon approves of this most excellent plan.

[miguel.angel 11]

We only have 90 days to get married. We want to get married and have a reception within 45 days Max. However it all may change. Ideally early November would be a good time assuming everything gos as per schedule.

Im not gonna book anything but i found a couple venues I like.

So basically the plan is find something we like and hopefully its available after she gets her visa.

[miguel.angel 11]

Sincerely, I was stressing out before thinking that I had to plan a wedding in such a short amount of time (we want to go to the US as soon as my fiance receives his visa since my sister is getting married in November), and my mom just told me to get married at the court (Justice of Peace) when we arrive here and have the ceremony/reception deal early next year. Since we will getting to the US as the cold weather arrives in Chicago, and I hate cold weather, we decided on that. So we chose a date, picked our places, made some deposits. It's a lot less stressful and we don't have to worry so much about getting married before the cold weather and being stressed about planning a wedding. I have a big family and my fiance's family will fly over for the wedding, so having a wedding date farther in the future is better. We are going to get married legally, then celebrate with everyone when it's spring and the weather is nice. At first I didn't want to do that because I didn't want our wedding to seem fake, but we just won't be telling people we actually got married at the court first, haha. I'm less stressed, plus I know that when we get to the US, I can focus on other things like getting a job, moving in our apartment, buying a car, etc. (I live overseas with my fiance) instead of worrying about the expiration date on the I-94.

Its not a bad idea really. I live in Houston. Our weather is so unpredictable but honestly in November, specially early its not cold at all. At least for the last couple years. As a matter of fact, we had spring weather in December last year.

But the more i think about it, the best thing to do is either have a small intimate reception (something totally against my Mexican family roots) or have a reception at a further date.

[kate&javi 26]

Its not a bad idea really. I live in Houston. Our weather is so unpredictable but honestly in November, specially early its not cold at all. At least for the last couple years. As a matter of fact, we had spring weather in December last year.

But the more i think about it, the best thing to do is either have a small intimate reception (something totally against my Mexican family roots) or have a reception at a further date.

Since a lot of my family doesn't know that we have to get married in 90 days (besides my parents, my sisters, and my fiance's parents), we can keep it a 'secret' that we are actually married when we have the ceremony/reception that is more how we really want it. Actually it will be easier for us because we are having a bilingual ceremony, so finding someone to do the ceremony will be easier. We will legally be married on paper (for AOS), but in the minds of our family members, our marriage will be in April. We will actually have the ceremony and the reception like any normal wedding, just without signing the marriage certificate to make it 'legal', as we will have already done it when we first arrived.

[Olivia&Brock 0]

Yeah the only problem I have with getting married at the court is that I KNOW my family is going to be mad lol. They all want to be there to see us get married and not just to celebrate. But I'll post some more of my timeline stuff too

[at long last 58]

We are planning a very small gathering (9) people for when I arrive then within a month doing another family and friends wedding. That way we will have all our paperwork sent and be able to enjoy the time with family and friends for the second ceremony. We have our Justice of the Peace on speed dial. We are going to get our marriage license before I leave at the end of August that way the official ceremony will happen within a day or two when I arrive. We decided for the family and friends ceremony to just do a nice brunch and a few dances, then we are having a pizza and bonfire party in the evening.

We can hardly wait as with everyone one else on VJ. We even have what we call our sparkle party. The two of us try on our wedding rings and go stand out in the sunlight and watch them glitter..lol.. I know crazy. But this is our second go at this visa thing and we grab any little happy moment before I have to return and wait it out once again. Hopefully it won't be another 5 months...

Enjoy any and all time together however fleeting it may seem at the moment. happier times are on the way.

hugs to all

Terri

[KTandTommy 31]

My family would be mad if they didn't get to witness the wedding either, BUT, they understand that it's part of the whole visa process. So what we're doing is a courthouse wedding as soon as I arrive in the US - my parents and his dad will be there. And we're planning our "wedding" wedding for May 18, 2013. We'll still do a ceremony, and say vows and everything. In fact, my dad was just telling us last night that in Italy (where he's from), back in the day, you actually had to do a legal wedding before your church wedding anyway, because priests didn't have the legal right to pronounce you married... So we're basically considering our wedding to be much the same.

Though technically we will be legally married by May 18, we will celebrate that date as our anniversary, and that is the date that we consider ourselves to be married. The courthouse wedding is just part of the paperwork process

Oh, and also, with the May 18 date - everything that we've booked to date, we've had them put a clause in the contract saying that should our visa not be approved by that time, we can move the date forward without penalty.