So your significant other popped the question, and you said yes! Maybe you are not even thinking about the wedding because you are so excited and living in the moment. Or perhaps you are already mentally planning the wedding and feel the stress coming already. Both of those feelings are normal when it comes to getting engaged.
The next step after saying yes is planning for the wedding. There is no right or wrong time limit when it comes to planning weddings. Weddings can be designed in any amount of time. It depends entirely on the people getting married. Planning for a wedding can be done as little as two months to a few years.
The average time it takes to prepare a wedding is 13-18 months. Just because it is the average time, doesn’t mean that your wedding planning has to take that long. If you are wondering how to plan a wedding in 2 months, keep reading because it is more than possible.
Develop a Vision
The first thing you have to do when planning a wedding is to develop a concept. It is especially crucial if you are going to speed up the wedding planning process. Your vision can cater to you and your partner’s desire. For inspiration, Pinterest is the perfect place to look. On Pinterest, you can look at other ideas as well as create your wedding board.
Having a vision for your wedding makes everything else easier. If you know what you want early on, you can get things situated sooner. Your image should include a place where you want to have your wedding. The location is important because if you are looking for a venue, you have to book them ahead of time.
If you are planning on having a destination wedding, you need to not only find a place at the destination of choice, but you also need to arrange travel arrangements.
The next vision you should have is the theme of your wedding. The wedding doesn’t have to have a distinct idea. It can be based on colors, season, or location of the wedding. If you know the desired theme, it can make planning the wedding a lot easier. When developing a vision for your idea, food and attire need to be put into consideration.
Know what you not only want to look like but also know what you want people to look like coming to your wedding as well as finding food that is suitable for everyone. In this vision, you should estimate how many people will be at the wedding for location and food purposes.
Use Planning Resources
The best way to stay organized when developing a vision is to get a wedding planner. Wedding planners are perfect because it not only gives you tips but also allows you to design the wedding according to your taste. It’s also good to have your thoughts written out. These planners can range in price from $10 to $50.
They can be found at any book store, online, amazon, and even in marshalls. The planners usually are split into tabs and keep track of budgeting, wedding styles, and more. If you don’t want to spend any extra money on a planner, you can create a wedding checklist. The checklist will have all that needs to be done for the wedding.
When planning a wedding in two months, you need to make sure that everyone is available. In your vision, you need to know who you want to be at your wedding so you can start reaching out. Traditional weddings usually have bridesmaids, maids of honors, a best man, and groomsmen.
At the wedding, there also is an officiant, flower girl, and ring bearer. There are many websites online that offer wedding planning templates. You can find the one that is easiest to use and most suitable for your wedding ideas for free.
Set a Budget
In planning a wedding in two months, budgeting might be the top priority. It is no brainer that weddings can be pocket drainers. By nature, weddings are usually costly, but you can save money if you do it right. Come up with a budget plan on how much you are going to spend.
As well as how you are going to pay. In the budget plan, you should have the overall budget you plan to spend on the wedding. It will include everything and is the total amount of money you want to spend. Your budget should be based on what you and your partner can afford.
Once you have an overall budget, it’s time to budget for small stuff like a videographer, photographer, accessories, and party items. If you set a budget, it will make it easier to know what to expect and how much to spend.
When it comes to planning a wedding in two months, your budget can be anywhere from $2,000 to $15,000, depending on how you want your wedding to look.Some essential items that you need to budget for include the venue. The venue could be for the ceremony and the reception unless they are going to happen in the same place.
You also would need a budget for food, desserts, and beverages, which can be alcoholic or non-alcoholic. Next, you would need to budget for decor, which would include flowers, rentals (tables, chairs, dance floor, etc.), invitations as well as party favors.
Your budget should consist of attire as well, meaning what you are going to wear as well as the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Lastly, you need to budget for the officiant and marriage license. There are many wedding calculators online where you can enter your information and come up with an estimate of how much your wedding is going to cost.
Bring It to Action
After you develop a vision and create a budget, it’s time to put it all into action. If you want to plan your wedding in two months, you must start making moves as soon as possible. That means you should be reaching out and confirming venues.
Attire should be picked for you and those in your wedding. You also want to make sure that you reach out to get the food and beverages sorted away. To make your wedding a reality, you need to start paying for stuff.
Pick a Date
Picking a time and date is important and should be one of the first steps of action. It can be one of the hardest parts when it comes to planning a wedding in two months. When you plan a wedding in a short amount of time, you need to pick a date that not only venues have open but ones where people can make it.
Think about whether you want to have it on a weekday or weekend. Weddings are usually on Friday and Saturdays. The time is also essential. You need to decide if you want it to be during the day or in the evening. If your wedding is going to be outside, it is best to do it during the day.
Check-in with your wedding team to see when everyone is available. It is vital to pick a date and time that your guest will be available. If you have a wedding, chances are you are going to spend some type of money on the ceremony and reception. It’s best to make sure that everyone is there to experience it.
According to your wedding destination, it is also essential to pick a date aligned with the weather. If you plan to be outside for any part of your wedding, make sure you don’t choose a cold day. Also, stay away from snowy and rainy days. You should also stay away from scorching days.
Being outside in the blazing heat in dress clothes can be uncomfortable. The most popular months to have weddings are September, October, and June due to the great weather. If you are planning on having a wedding on holiday, take into account that people may be busy or traveling.
Pick a Venue
Realistically if you want to plan your wedding within two months, you need to book a place as soon as you know the number of guests you want in attendance. Wedding venues are not only expensive, but they also happen to be busy, especially during the popular wedding months.
There are many different options when it comes to picking a venue. Weddings can be in churches, hotels, banquet halls, country clubs, farms or barns, museums, and restaurants.They also can be held on the beach, a boat and outside like in a garden.
It is possible to have a wedding in your very own backyard. When picking a venue, think about the season and the date of the wedding. Most places do have catering, but if you are looking to have your wedding on a beach or outside, you’d have to reach out to catering services.
The venue will probably be the most expensive expense. The average cost for weddings typically ranges from $12,000 to $14,000, including the fee for the location along with incidentals, food, and drink. The price depends on where you want to have it as well as who is catering.
The search for a wedding can be demanding, but there are resources online that can help you find the perfect venue.
Pick a Dress/Suit
What you wear is what people are going to remember the most, so it is important to dress to impress. If you want to plan your wedding in two months, you need to start looking at dresses and suits to find the perfect one. Finding the best dress is hard.
There are so many options, although they say when you know, you know.
The first step to picking a dress is finding out the style you like and the style that fits best. If you have a specific theme, you can find dresses according to that theme. Once you have a style in mind, you need to get sized.
Getting fit can sometimes be uncomfortable. Dresses will often be a couple of sizes larger than your actual clothes.Once you find your size, shop according to that size. Don’t try to get a gown that’s bigger or smaller in hopes that you will lose or gain weight because two months is not a lot of time.
When it comes to picking a dress, you need to take into account your budget. The average cost in the U.S for a wedding dress is $1,000. Dresses can be anywhere from $200 to more than $20,000, depending on the brand of the dress and where you get it.
For suits renting one is an option, but most people opt for buying a suit so it can be fitted. It is recommended that suits be tailored so that it fits nicely on the big day. It can range anywhere from $50 to $200 depending on the tailor and style of the suit. Suits and tuxedos have a variety of fabrics, such as cotton, wool, and linen.
There are also different formalities when it comes to suits. There are casual suits which are suitable for daytime weddings and beach weddings, cocktail suits which are usually worn for barn or farm weddings and semi-formal suits which are more for the evening and country clubs as well as hotels.
Formal suits are for weddings in ballrooms and mansions. Suits and tuxedos can be cut differently depending on body type. The cut can be extremely slim fit, slim fit, modern fit, and a classic fit. There are also different styles of jackets. They can be standard, cutaway, or have full dress tails.
Lastly, the lapels on the jackets can be notch, peak, and shawl. You not only need to pick a dress or suit for yourself, but you also need to find something for your bridesmaids and groomsmen to wear. You need to come up with a color scheme, a dress, and suit type.
You can have your bridesmaids all wear the same dress, same color dress but a different style or let them choose to wear what they want to the wedding. The same goes for the groomsmen. When you send out an invitation, you should have the dress attire of those in attendance. You can choose a color or can just go for formal attire.
Make a Guest List
To get a venue, you need a guest list. Creating a guest list can get kind of chaotic, especially when it comes to who you should invite. Initially, you will want to include every person you have ever met, but you need to understand your budget.
If the venue you are going to can only hold 100 people, then it’s best if you think it through who you plan to invite. Make your list with your partner so that you do not forget anybody’s families or friends if you happen to have different friend groups split the number of people so that you can invite your family and friends as well as your partners.
Once you come up with several people, it’s time to send out the invitation. You can do that electronically or through the mail. A lot of weddings now have people rsvp online, having the invitation go straight to your cell number or email address. You can also do it through social media, which is a good option.
Make It Legal
People think that just because you say “I do” it’s done, but that’s not the case. The ceremony is meaningful, but it’s not the main piece. You have to make your marriage legal by signing a marriage license. The license binds you together with your spouse and comes into play if one’s last name is going to be changed.
It is not a complicated process, but it is a multistep process. Once the application is accepted and you have your ceremony, you will receive a marriage certificate. It just proves that you are married and should be done after you get engaged if you plan on getting married in two months.
Each state is different when it comes to the process of obtaining your license and certificate as well as the waiting period. Some states have a waiting period of one to five days, while other states have no waiting period.
Ask For Help
When it comes to planning a wedding, it is best not to do it alone. Although it is your wedding and you know what you want, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Taking on the load of the wedding yourself can be extremely stressful and time-consuming.
There are many ways you can ask for help, and it all depends on you and how much you are willing to ask. If you want, you can reach out to a professional. In hiring a professional, you would want to get an event planner, one who specializes in weddings.
If you don’t want to be bothered with the stress of planning a wedding or don’t have enough time, a wedding planner is a good option. The planners would be responsible for everything, including the design and style of the event, as well as coordinating it the day of. They also are in direct contact with the vendors and can help with the budget.
The downside of event planners is that they can be expensive. On average, planners cost $1,000 to $5,000 for the day of the wedding. A lot of the time, wedding planners need ten months in advance, but some people can help you, the price may just increase significantly.
Having a planner may not be the most economical option for a short term wedding. You can also ask for help from family and friends. If they are happy to help, you can give them small tasks like creating and sending out the invitations or working on the party favors.
You can also split the wedding planning into sections and give people sections to focus on. These sections would look like food (meal, dessert, and drinks), decorations, and any other items.
Your bridesmaid and groomsmen can also step in and help with the wedding, especially if they already helped with the bachelor or bachelorette party. Having your bridesmaid and best man help with the wedding is a good idea because chances are they know what you want and what you are expecting. They usually understand their responsibility.
See the Bigger Picture
It is easy to get caught up in the small stuff of planning a wedding like deciding on the style of your hair, the color of your nails or the type of shoes you want to wear but when you are planning in a small amount of time you need to see the bigger picture. See the wedding as a whole for the first month, at least.
Focus on the bigger stuff like booking a venue, food as well as finding an officiant and getting a marriage license.There is a chance that everything won’t work out as you planned, and that is okay. Just remember that you are marrying the love of your life, and that is what counts.
Amid all the stress, just know that it all will be worth it when you both say “I do.” In the end, you won’t remember the little details. You will remember how you felt on the big day.
Why Plan a Wedding in Two Months?
Planning a wedding in two months speeds up the dreading process which can sometimes take up to a year or two. If you know what you want, why not strive to plan a wedding as soon as possible? When you cut down the time it takes to plan a wedding, you ultimately will be married earlier.
If you are looking for a laid back option, planning a wedding in two months is ideal for you. There are some pros to planning a wedding in two months, but with advantages come cons.
Pros
Avoid long term stress: Have you ever heard of the term wedding burnout? It’s when you spend so much time planning for the wedding that you get tired of doing it. It won’t happen if you expect a wedding in two months, there won’t be any time to burn out.
Can save money: If you have a wedding in a short period, chances are you are not spending too much money on the event since you will be limited for spaces. You can save money in the long run.
Can save time: If you both are full-time workers, have children or just are always busy aiming for two months gives you more than enough time to resume back to work once you are married whereas if you plan for 12 months, you will be in between work and planning for the wedding for the entire year.
Get married sooner: The biggest pro is that you will be married to your lover! You don’t have to be engaged for half a year, and you can go straight from fiance to wife or husband.
Cons
Will more than likely have to do it yourself: A disadvantage of planning a wedding in two months is that you will most likely have to plan the wedding yourself. Two months is not nearly enough time for wedding planners, so a majority of them will either turn you down or up the price significantly.
No time for saving: Another con is that you won’t have a long time to save up for the wedding. A lot of couples push the wedding date six months or more after they are engaged so they can start saving together.
Might feel rushed: There is a possibility that you will feel rushed when planning a wedding in two months, primarily since most people aim for 13 to 18 months. You may feel like you are moving fast, which you are.
People will question you: Friends and family members will wonder why the wedding is happening so soon. They will tell you that it is impossible to plan a good quality wedding in two months and you may be judged.
Be Realistic
When it all comes down to planning a wedding in two months, it is vital to be realistic. Having an ideal and dream wedding is perfectly fine, but you must understand the time frame as well as your budget. If you want to plan a wedding in two months chances are you are not going to be able to have the most exquisite hall in your town.
Most popular venues have to be booked months in advance. With that being said, your dream wedding is still attainable in two months. You just have to be smart about it. These tips and tools should give you guidance and assistance in planning the best wedding ever in a short amount of time.
Why struggle and prepare for 13 to 18 months when you can do it in two?