moving up the wedding!

[Meg1984]

My fiance and i have been planning a July 2010 wedding. But the more we think about it and the more we talk about it the more we dont think we can afford to have the big wedding. Our parents were going to pay but we have started to feel bad about spending so much money. And its not like we had a giant budget or anything but with the state of everything latley we feel the money could go to more important things. Such as looking and buying a house something that we are in the process of doing. So we were talking last night and we have decided that we would like to move the wedding to August 8th of 2009. We would still have out beautiful church wedding but we would not have the big giant reception. My grandparents have a beautiful backyard with gardens and burch trees. I was thinking about having a very casual backyard bbq style reception if you can even call it a reception. We would rent a tent and some tables. We would also cut the guest list from almost 200 down to around 65-70 at the most. Am I crazy for doing this? I still am planning on having all of the things I have thought about it would all jut be much smaller. Any advice? Can I pull off a small wedding in 4 and a half months?

[~*Kate*~]

I don't think it's crazy. I know several girls on here planned beautiful weddings in even less time. You just have to do what will make you happy! There are several threads in the "themes" forum that have inspiration pics for outdoor receptions-- poke around and see if anything grabs you. :)

[Raychel]

I don't think you're crazy.... in fact it sounds pretty responsible but that is just me :) You could totally pull it off in the time you have left!

[Mel]

totally do-able!

[Meg1984]

We decided last night that we are absolutly moving the wedding up to August 1,2009! Ahh I am so excited!

[blondelildevil]

I agree with everyone else too. I definately think you can do it! :)

[Mel]

hooray!
now get to planning missy!

[km]

:wavey: Congratulations!!!

[Meg1984]

i feel like i have a million things to do and no time to do it in! I have the church, and reception site as well as the photographer. Im worried about all of the little things.

[SueMartin]

best advice?? make a list.. there are a number of threads/posts with lists of things to do.. but you can do it.

[Maria 05]

Definitely its doable but it will require a lot of clever planning and not getting bogged down in minute details which can happen as Kate said there is plenty of ideas and Sue's advice about a list is completely indispensible. It sounds hugely romantic and beautiful

[~Sherry~]

It can totally be done especially since you've already been planning a wedding!

[Liz&Cailen]

My wedding is Aug 9th, and even though we've done a lot of planning. The only tangible thing I've done is mail save the dates and buy a dress.

We have also booked the venue, photographer, DJ, videographer, flowers, and officiant (although all but the 1st are friends and family).

So, with a million things left on my to-do list and so far very little stress - I think you'll be fine.

Good luck!

[Winter_Bride]

Congratulations!!

Along with what others have said, pull a good checklist (http://www.mustloveweddings.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127) and see what applies to you (don't worry about the traditional timeline!)

Think outside the box. Dresses, attire? Bridal boutiques will often have samples you can buy off the rack if you want the traditional gown, but bridesmaids dresses can be ordered in faster and a lot of them now come in more formal, bride-y styles too!!

And spread the duties! Do you have friends you'd trust with decor or flowers? You can ask them to brainstorm for you, and put things in motion once you approve the ideas!

I think it's totally doable! My friend put an entire wedding together for over 200 people in 6 months. The timeline was longer than yours, but the guestlist was too! And it was quite a beautiful event!

Congratulations again!!

[BasBleu]

Hey friend. :) Are you still thinking of having the reception at your grandparents or did you go with your original site. I don't think my sister mentioned. She did show me the BM dresses she tried on. I like the styles!

[*Diane*]

It is completely do-able to move up your date. I would caution you though about the reception. It seems like it would be less expensive to do a backyard reception but there are a lot of rentals that come with that. How big is your guest list? Let's start there. :)

[Meg1984]

We decided against the backyard reception. It would have been too much work to pull it all together. We will have no more then 130 people at the wedding. Thankfully our reception venue had two cancellations the day we wanted. We are going to keep it there. That way I dont lose my deposit. Things are coming together. Im having the most trouble with bridesmaids dresses right now. They need to be ordered asap!

[Mel]

i was just thinking about you last night miss meg....
my best friend got engaged on her bday (03/26) and got married 08/04 - so you'll be right around what she had for planning, and everything came together great.... even with her and her fiance living in dc, parents in ca, and the wedding in co -- which leaves me to believe you'll have no problems...

you do need to get on dresses! stores are being extra weird about time to get them in this yr, whereas in the past i know i've ordered way closer to weddings that i have been in...

[BasBleu]

Hey, I was thinking about you last night...remember that we put our wedding together in under two weeks! Yes, we had the formal reception later so those plans stayed the same, but everything else flowers, cake, church, photographer changed, etc. was done really quickly! I ordered my BM dress from the same place you're going to and if you do it NOW you'll have them in plenty of time. I ordered in March for July 23 but was all set for the June 4 date. We're cheering you on!

[Meg1984]

I am feeling much more confident about it now. Thanks to all of you and the wonderful advice. The Limo, dj and bridesmaids dresses need to be done as well as the flowers. I have had trouble getting in touch with one of my bridesmaids. I want her to go in and try on what i picekd out before we order. And 3 out of 6 of my bridesmaids live in Virginia and I am all the way in New York. Hopefully this week we will get the dresses taken care of. If the dresses are ordered this week they will be in by the end of June. Which will give us a month for alterations. My goal this week is to get the dresses taken care of. Everything so far is coming together. The photographer is wonderful, the cake is taken care of. The wedding shower has pretty much been planned. Like i mentioned before I need the limo, dj and flowers. Thoes are the big things that still needed to be taken care of. My soon to be mother in law will be doing the flowers. Before she became a teacher she worked at a floral shop and did wedding flowers. So I am not worried about that. The only problem with that is that all the flowers I want are not in season! But I am sure there are beautiful flowers that I can use that are in season. I thought about doing silk flowers. What are everyones thoughts on that? So much to do! But I am loving every second of it!

[Mel]

you are doing great meg!

there are some ladies on here who have used gorgeous silks... i'm anti-flowers right now though so i can't give sound advice :hehe:

[Meg1984]

why are you anti flowers?

[Mel]

i have had a hard time finding any that make me really happy, i have changed my mind no less than 6 times since november when we picked colors and i decided on what i wanted... i think they are great but i have called them the bane of my planning and the source of my bridal burnout.... :shuffle:

[Meg1984]

I am very sorry to hear that. I am sure you will figure it all out. Bridal Burnout is something I am afraid is going to happen to me

[Mel]

you don't have enough time for burnout ;)
and i know it will all work out ok - it always does! i know at the end of the day i will be married to the love of my life, and really, thats all that matters.

[*Diane*]

You are on top of the details! Good work! :)

[Meg1984]

I finally FINALLY made a decision on bridesmaids dresses! I feel so relieved. It was the only major thing stressing me out since we moved the wedding up. But I made the decision yesterday and I feel so good about it!

[Mel]

:jump4joy:

so, what did you decide? you know you have to show us too ;)

[~*Kate*~]

:yeah:

[BasBleu]

Whit and I were wondering if you'd thought about shoes for the BM dresses? And yeah, show us pics!

[Meg1984]

Its Alfred Angelo style number 7007 in tangelo and ivory. I couldnt figure out how to post a link right to it. I hope everyone can go take a peek!

[Mel]

so pretty!!!

here is the image of it....
http://s7d4.scene7.com/ir/render/AlfredAngeloRender/7007-600?wid=340&obj=main&color=239,145,70&sharpen=1

and the link (http://www.alfredangelo.com/Collections/ProductDisplay.aspx?productID=49b623ec-0df8-4640-8778-382013792791&categoryID=7c3ca069-092f-49d8-a227-b469d1b1f227&pg=1)

[and to post a link you can either just copy the url from the top and paste it in, or you can click on the icon with a globe and chain link to paste it in more subliminally into your post]

[*TanyaJeanne*]

Very pretty! Your wedding will turn out great! :)

[Meg1984]

the color looks a little different on line then it does in person. In person it looks brighter not so burnt orange like. I am just thrilled to have that taken care of and out of the way! Now on to everything else!

[*Jenn*]

good luck with all of your planning! :glomp:

[Meg1984]

Just to give everyone an update. Things seem to really be coming along! We are meeting with a dj this afternoon. That has been the one stressfull thing latley. Because we moved up the wedding and only had 4 months to pull everything together when I started to look for djs everyone was booked!! But we found one and hopefully he works out! I just wanted to give everyone an update!

[Mel]

so glad to hear it meg!