As you all know by now, I jumped the broom and got married a little over 2 months ago. Married life is… I’ll tell you all about that at another time. In any case, this post is more about my sister. My older sister got engaged right before I did, and her wedding is set for September 25. Now, you saw that I said she was engaged before me and scheduled to get married after me. I have no idea why she has waited until the last minute to plan her wedding. My inbox has been suffering from e-mails about bridesmaid activities, a bridal shower, invitations, etc. I simply refuse to respond because I just can’t fathom why she waited until now to start getting these things together.
We got our bridesmaids dresses months ago, so I assumed other things were trucking along. She sent out Save the Dates just a few weeks ago. Save the dates are supposed to go out 6-9 months before your wedding date, not 3 months before. Invitations are supposed to be sent 3-6 months before. We’ve yet to get invitations. I have no idea what she was thinking.
My very first internship was as a Wedding Coordinator, so I know a few things about planning a wedding. The first thing you learn is to plan your wedding early, not late. Now I’m a slight exception; I planned my wedding in a week but it also was a courthouse wedding with a small guest list, and low maintenance. There was no need to plan anything in extravagance. There were no invitations, no bridal party, no reception. Just a small ceremony and dinner down the street. Hers, however, is at a venue, with a bridal party, with lots of family and friends. It takes at least 9 months to plan a wedding like that.
I’m actually in the process of writing an eBook called 10K Wedding: How to Have a Platinum Wedding on a 10K Gold Budget. It’ll walk you through planning your wedding from beginning to end while keeping a budget in mind. The average American wedding is almost $30,000. Who really wants to spend that kind of money on one day, especially when you don’t have it? 10K is also a play on words in the sense that you can have a beautiful wedding for a fraction of the average price: $10,000. Readers don’t have to plan their wedding with a $10,000 budget; it can be even less. The ebook will have lots of tips and resources for the wedding of your dreams (and your wallet’s dreams).
How long did it take you to plan your wedding? How much did you spend for your big day?
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It only took me 7 months to plan my wedding and we spent about $12,000CND. Friends of mine planned their wedding – venue, bridal party and all, in four months. Really, I think the amount of time it takes to plan a wedding also depends on the availability of resources. There’s going to be a lot more available for an October-April wedding as opposed to a May-September date!
You’re right Kara. Depending on what resources you have you can plan your wedding rather quickly. My sister though is so lazy haha so I definitely think she should’ve started a lot earlier.
3 weeks and my wedding was a lot like yours. I don’t (always) see the point in spending a lot of money on a wedding. I rather the house down payment 🙂 although sometimes I wish it had been a little bigger/fancier but that feeling passes when I see the balance in our savings.
Same here! If we had the money, I still would’ve preferred a small wedding and a new home 🙂 You can still have a big ceremony for vow renewal if you still get that feeling!
we just got married about 2 weeks ago and we paid around 9 to 10 k for everything… I’ll be posting an updated post on my blog detailing everything soon if you need any examples for your blog.
Congratulations! I hope you guys had a wonderful time!