Wedding ~ When And Where?
Best case scenario for planning any kind of wedding? Have about a year available to do it all, from start to finish.
Great weddings can be planned in less than 6 weeks, but if you want a wedding with all the trimmin's and lots of attention paid to details, a year or thereabouts is an adequate time period.
A year gives you enough time to plan a wonderful wedding where everyone involved remains relatively sane and as stress-free as possible, and all parties are still speaking to one another when the day arrives!
Remember, everybody involved has a life, too, and all this wedding stuff has to be done on top of people's regular home and work responsibilities.
You want this wedding to be memorable in a good way, and if you want a wedding with lots of trimmings, there's a lot to do - wedding invitations, a wedding cake, a wedding gown to be ordered; wedding favours, wedding rings, music to decide on; wedding venues, bridal attendants, decorations to be chosen. (Want more information on all that's to be done? Go to "Prepare The List" which is also under Basic Rules - rule number 2 - on your navigation bar.)
One area where a couple should be realistic is when choosing a date for their wedding. Sometimes it's hard to get the church you want at the time you want and the reception venue you want for the same date.
Make a list of several possible dates if you can, and prioritize that list.
Mark and Sarah want to get married on August 8, 2008 because they think it's cool to have their wedding on the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the millennium. Unfortunately, nine gajillion other couples want to have their wedding on that date for the same reason. They may have to change their date, or change their church or the time of their marriage ceremony or change their reception venue of choice and those changes will be made according to where their priorities lie.
For example, Mark and Sarah are able to get the church of their choice for August 8 but not for the time they want. (Churches, etc. often have multiply weddings on any given day but they usually have a limit as to how many they are willing to officiate on any one date. Usually, it's first come, first served and Mark and Sarah weren't first.)
The reception venue they have chosen and really, really, really want is available on that date.
Mark and Sarah are realistic and decide that they will change their plans a little and get married a little earlier in the afternoon than they had planned in order to have the wedding on the day that they have already chosen. The date is more important to them than the time of the wedding. If the reception venue that they really, really, really wanted was not available for that date, they would have changed the date in order to have their reception at this particular venue.
Again, prioritize.
