Timelines and Checklists

The first order of business when planning your wedding (or any special event) is creating a checklist. That's why you can't help but find them all over the place in wedding magazines and websites. They'll tell you when you need to order invitations, bridesmaid dresses, and decide on flowers, and they'll include the most minute detail like "decide whether guests will throw rice or rose petals 2 months in advance."

Yes, in a perfect world you would have plenty of time to plan and arrange for everything. However, in my opinion a lot of the checklists and timelines can drum up fear - if you don't have the venue selected over a year in advance you're SOL! Truthfully hotels and bigger venues book up quickly, but if you're planning a wedding for 150 or less, it is quite possible to throw something together in just a couple of months without having to elope to Vegas. Good news, huh?

The wedding I did in February was supposed to take place Memorial Day but the couple had to move the wedding date up 3 months. We had approximately 100 guests, and I was hired 10 days prior to the date. The couple found Suxanadu, a venue with availability (see pictures), and the bride already had her dress. So in those 10 days we found a caterer, valet, DJ, and I purchased several hundred candles. We nixed the idea of flowers due to budget and because the reception venue was modern and stylish, and already gave such an elegant aura in the candlelight.

The nice thing about the venue we used was that it was a private home, so we had all the time we needed to set up the day before, and we were able to pick up items the day after. Hotels are much more strict about this!

So basically what I'm trying to say is ignore the fear of getting everything arranged in time, and just know that when there's a will there's a way to get a wedding planned in a small amount of time.