Planning a Wedding in Three Months

You've read the title and I'm sure you think of how impractical and perhaps how inconceivable it might seem to plan a wedding in just three months time -- but I'm here to say that it can be done. Yes, it can be done. Perhaps you're in the same boat, or you just want to see how fantastical the idea of quick planning can be pulled off. In any case -- here goes.

I'd been married before, but didn't have a wedding and the wedding wasn't a true vow of a relationship as it should be with God at its center. So, I really wanted a wedding dress and I really wanted a pastor to preside over the ceremony. Neither of us felt necessary to have a church wedding, but working in a church made securing services there simpler.

Logistics is the first thing that comes to mind when getting things in order. First, you must pick a date. In our case, we wanted to get married before the huge holiday rush between Thanksgiving and New Years, so we chose the beginning of November. If date isn't important to you, look at local facilities where you would consider getting married and select a date based on their availability.

Location is important. Since we had a good idea of when we wanted our ceremony, narrowing down locations was simple. We looked at several locations around our home, in Florida, and narrowed down where we wanted to go based on budget, availability, and flexibility.

We knew we wanted a small wedding with just family and a few friends, so we had a limited wedding party. We secured friends to help with music, decorations, pastoral services, so our flower girl was our only particular in our wedding party. We hired our catering and rented our facilities, keeping the ceremony in the same room as the reception, which kept the wedding small and cozy. Keeping things small made a huge difference in being able to pull off the wedding in three months.

I am petite, so finding a dress was a little tricky. I went to several different bridal shops looking for the perfect dress and ended up settling on a mail order dress from David's Bridal, where I had tried on several dresses. I needed to get the dress tailored since it was far too long for my shortness, but ended up paying less than $200 total on the dress.

Decorations -- I scoured wedding catalogs for ideas and images online to determine what sort of look I wanted for the wedding. After talking to the caterer and establishing a room set-up, it was easier to figure out what I wanted to do with the room. I settled on colors and started shopping. I'm a bargain shopper, so I went to outlet and warehouse stores for flowers and other decorations that I liked. I ordered fresh flowers online to be delivered a few days prior to the wedding to mix with the silk flowers.

Food had been picked out, I had my dress, invitations had been sent out and RSVP's were coming in. My cake was being made by my family and I scheduled the room to set-up and several friends to come help us decorate and transformed the room for the ceremony the following day. I had written my own service, confirmed the details with the pastor, we rehearsed, and things came together quite well.

I only had one mishap with purchasing tablecloths on ebay, which was rectified and new tablecloths were ordered. This was my only freak out bride moment -- when the perfect priced and shape/size tablecloths were not shipped to me, I was a little miffed. In the end, the room came out gorgeous and I only had one moment of upset. Tip: When pulling a wedding off in three months it is acceptable to have one moment.

While many brides want more than what I'd planned for my day, I wanted simplicity and family to celebrate in the moment of my wedding.