If you are having a short engagement but are still looking for a day of celebration, instead of just a registry wedding and a party with the family at a later date, the keep reading. Planning a wedding in 6 months or less can be done it just be prepared for a lot of planning, organising and a ton of decisions over the next few months.
Quick Decision & Planning
When planning a wedding in a short time period you can’t be indecisive, as this will cost you precious time and you may miss out on very important opportunities. In the first week or two of your engagement you need to make decisions on the following:
- Budget
- Religious or civil ceremony
- style of wedding venue
- Groomsmen & Bridal Party
- Wedding theme
- Possible colour scheme
- How you want to invite
These are all key decisions that will really help to get your wedding planning into full swing and save a lot of time when it comes to choosing vendors.
Getting Inspiration Quickly
If you are stuck for ideas then why not create a Pinterest account and set up different boards for each area of the wedding and pin what you like. This will really help you both get a visual idea of what you are looking for and also give you inspiration along the way. Another way to get ideas flowing is to buy a wedding planner or a notebook and start writing down all your idea and decisions you have made, this way you have a book to refer back to when you need some quick inspiration.
Finding a wedding quiz online is another great way to work out what you are both looking for. Which Wedding Reception Venue if Right for You? is an online quiz, which has been designed to help couple working out what they really looking for. This quiz goes through every aspect of your wedding and you choose which answer fits you both the best. At the end of the quiz it tells you which reception venue reflect all your answers and therefore givens you a starting point for venues. I recently did this quiz and it suggested a Ballroom reception venue with a lot of glam and elegance incorporated into the day, quite simular to what we have choosen.
Booking Vendors
Try and book your Venue, Church/Registry office, Photographer, Florist, Catering as soon as possible. Your wedding venue will need to be booked first, as it will determine your wedding date and will get booked up a lot quicker than the rest of the vendors. If you are still stuck on wedding venues then why not take a look at some of WeddingWire’s wedding venues for some great inspiration on which venue would be perfect for your wedding. Once you have booked these vendors you will have a very clear idea of what your wedding will be like, making everything else easier to plan and undertake.
Date of the Wedding:
You will find that the majority or even all of the summer dates will be gone so you will need to be flexible with the date you want to get married on. You might need to go for less popular months like March, April, May, October or November. If you really want a summer wedding then look at Monday through to Thursday as people tend to not choose these days as guests need to take time off work and most couple prefer a weekend wedding. You wedding date will be determined by your wedding venue so finding you wedding venue early will really help you in the long run.
Once you have your wedding date, venue and ceremony sorted you can then send out the invitations to your guests, allowing for enough time for the RSVP’s. It’s ideal to have you RSVP’s back at least 6 weeks before the wedding so you have a confirmed number of guests for your caterers and venue.
Groomsmen & Bridal Party
You will find you will need to rely a lot more on your Best Man and Maid of Honour to help out with the planning of the wedding, due to your time scale, so keep this in mind when choosing them. You might also find you only want one or two ushers and bridesmaids, which is completely fine and you might what their help too so remember to choose people who you know are reliable and don’t mind helping out where needed. Your Groomsmen and Bridal Party are there to help you through the big day but also the planning so make the most of them.
Staying Organised
Organisation is key to pulling off your big day, even if you are having a long engagement. I touched on this briefly before but purchasing a wedding planner, notebook, or diary and write everything down in it, will really help you organised and on top of deadlines. One tip is to make sure it is small enough to fit in your handbag so when you are on the go you can still note down ideas and you can take it to all your vendor meetings. I like to always have a ‘To do List’ near my wedding notebook so I know exactly what needs doing next and you can put deadlines on the items too. If you prefer something on your phone then why not sign up to a wedding planning website, the one use here, where you have a checklist of things to do, directory of trusted vendors, and wedding inspiration posts. Using a Wedding planner websites allow you to access it anywhere and it also means you and your partner can look at it even when your not together too.
Finding a Wedding Dress in Time
A lot of people immediately think there is no way they can get a designer wedding gown if their wedding is in 6 months or less, due to the fact a wedding dress can take up to 7 months just to be ordered. Well there are way to get around this. This first is at least once a year bridal shops will have sales where they will be selling off some of their sample dresses they have in store. These are dresses customers have tried on before purchasing ordering their own dress. This means that you can buy a designer dress for sometimes less than half the original price and take the dress home that day.
There are a few things you have to watch out for though. Firstly is you need to try and get a dress that is a simular size to you, if the dress is too big it will take a long time to alter it and you will loose the original look of the dress. Secondly just check the dress is in a good condition, you don’t want foundation stains on your dress or it black at the bottom of the skirt, from it being dragged the floor. If they are any loose pieces of lace or beading you can ask your seamstress to sew those up to make it look pristine again.
Another avenue to go down is looking at off the hanger wedding dresses, if you don’t have the budget for a designer dress and you can’t get a designer dress in time. There are so many brands that have brought out bridal ranges like ASOS, Phase Eight, Monsoon, with some of the looking stunning (a few above). They range from around £30 all the way up to about £400 so there should be something for everyone’s price range. The advantage of these dresses is you shouldn’t need any alterations needed saving you money but also time.
Hopefully this will help you get started and give you some time of how to pull a short engagement off. If you have more questions about specific area of planning a wedding than take a look at the rest of my wedding planning blog posts, as I go through everything in much more detail. If you have any questions as always leave them bellow and I’ll answer them for you.
Have a lovely rest of your week and see you soon.
Steph x
