How long does it take to plan a wedding? (from engagement to the day)?

Question

From your past experience how long did it take to organise everything and get it together?

My OH and I are getting engaged within the next few months but I want to know when a realistic date is to set the wedding.
Thank you in advance. :)

Answer 1

Hi that is all entirely up to you when you set the date. As im getting married this year I have been planning since last march and everything is nearly done. It all depends on what your wedding is. If its a church you then have to set a date. If its at a registry office/civil ceremony you can take all your details to the registrar and get married sometime this week. But its all up to you. When we decided to get engage we left iot a couple of years the out of the blue i just said lets get married next year. So I just picked a date i liked the sound of, 14th july 2007. its in the middle of summer so the weather should be nice. I then went to see if the date was free and then booked the date.
No matter what date you decide, as loong as you get the date set with where you are going to get married with. Then they will tell you to cme back and see them with final payments nearer the time.
As i am fresh at doing all this i have lots of good advice so why not email me and we can chat.

Answer 2

It really depends on how big a wedding you want but most people plan at lease 6 months ahead and many make it a year.
There are two reasons for doing this-
1. So that the people you want to come to your wedding are free and have not made other plans or booked holidays.
2. So that you can book the location for the wedding and reception that you want- because so many people plan ahead the best places are booked up well in advance.

If you are not inviting many people you could suggest a date now and ask if they will be free to attend. If you are not too fussy where the wedding is you might be able to book somewhere sooner.

Almost everything else can be booked at short notice, a couple of weeks even. You can buy a dress off the peg tommorrow. Even if you want to get something made for you many dressmakers can make a wedding dress from scratch in a couple of weeks if you pay for it!

Congratulations, by the way and good luck. The bigger the wedding the more problems you will encounter and the more discussions/ arguments you will have.

Answer 3

You can plan a wedding in anywhere from 2 days to 2 years, depending on what your wishes are.
Is there a certain place you absolutely want to get married in or have the reception in? Then that is going to be a major factor, when is it available? If venues are not an issue, everything else, even for a fairly major affair, can probably be planned in less than 3 months. But 6-12 months is a good time to have from engagement to wedding, so things don't get too stressed.
And, some advice, don't get too bogged down in the details - my husband and I had a simple ceremony and reception at my mothers house, all the food was homemade and there were about 100 guests and everyone loved it and thought it was cosy and intimate and special.

Answer 4

It depends on how detailed you want to be with your decisions. If you plan to make a lot of the ittems for your wedding, you will want to allow ample time. I made 3 favors for each guest, the ring-bearer's pillow, the bridesmaids jewelry, the centerpieces, & the guest book for my wedding. With that stuff and all the rest of the planning our engagement lasted about 18 months. We happened to get engaged around Mother's day of 2001 and our wedding was in November of 2002. We chose november because we enjoy autumn. I was VERY specific on how I wanted things to be for our wedding so it took a while to plan and choose. But I think a year is probably about average. In my opinion: two years is a long engagement and 6 months is short.

Answer 5

I would say realistically if you are planning the "BIG DAY" as a big white wedding with all the traditional trimmings then I would say at least 6 months, although I know there are people that have done it in less time than that and it has turned out beautifully. 6 months is a pretty good amount of time, as you always have time to find an alternative if something goes wrong.

Answer 6

Depends on the area & the time of year you're wanting. If you're looking for this June at the most popular area in your town...chances are you aren't going to get it. Some places book a year or more in advance. That said, I'm getting married in March. I started planning in October. By Thanksgiving I was done. Everything & everyone booked, all the dresses & food were picked. You just need to pick your location & go from there.

Answer 7

I got engaged and then married a year later. But we did not set a date. We decided in the August that we wanted to set a date and we did it was in the november. So its not long at all, its just the wedding invertation you have to send so people have enough notice.
Good luck and I really hope it all works out for you both.

Answer 8

There is no set period. Some it can a be matter of days to many many years. It all depends on your relationship with your and your H2B, your financial position, your requirements, your career etc

From engagement to wedding it is 2years for me. I need to finish university, and we want to buy a house to move into once we are married so you will are getting married abroad in Sept 2008.

Consider how long it will take for you to look for a wedding dress, organise reception location, photographer, caterers,

Good luck, and hope you the day goes well.

Answer 9

Im getting married next year and my fiancee and I found a location that does both the wedding and reception and since we ahve less then 50 ppl we can do btoh for under 4k and they are all inclusive bar cake dj everything so it really depends on how big a wedding you are having and what you want exactly i planned the whole thing in about 2 weeks since we knew the date we wanted so it really does vary.

Answer 10

There are so many things to consider, this is such a wide question i mean you need to decide what type of wedding you want - a big white wedding, a small family wedding, a foreign wedding, the time scale depends on what time of wedding you want and how much detail you want at it. Small weddings can be organised in a few weeks, where as big white weddings may take a couple of years to organise. You need to decide on the type of wedding you want and then start from there.