Arrgghhh, what was I thinking

I organised my wedding in 14 months, so you're not too far behind.

Although I'd booked my florist well in advance, I didn't do anything about choosing flowers until a few months beforehand. Your florist will be able to advice you on availaibility etc so don't panic about having to have everything decided so far in advance.

I only decided on my colour scheme about 10 months beforehand and I found my dress about 10 months beforehand as well.

Some brides get engaged years before they get married so they will have things organised well in advance, or have a clear idea of what they want (e.g. Zippy27, Ooh La La). Others, like me, just made decisions as I went along.

DON'T PANIC!!!!!!!

Oh, there's loads of time... I was in the same place last year and only had the venue and tog organised, and knew that I had to have pink in the colour scheme somewhere and that OH's kilt was green.... and it all stemmed from there... we found Prettywild's site ordered some samples, decided on our STD (which has fed through to all our other stationery) and sent them out at the beginning of December... after that I was on a roll and you will be too, I promise!

p.s. I'm having orchids with a pink centre so don't worry too much about what colours go with your season, I knew for sure I definitely didn't want the oranges/reds etc, just choose your favourite flower and start from there!

Well we have under a year between engagement and wedding and we've been pretty much sorted for the last month, so even if you hadnt thought about your wedding with a year to go, you should be absolutely fine. As it is, you have a venue and TOG so youre well away! Everything else will fall into place!

Poor you! Don't let it all get on top of you yet - a year is certainly enough time to start planning so you are in no way behind! If anything, I wish I hadn't been so eager to plan as I now have nothing left to do and am unsure how to fill the void now...

We're all here to bounce ideas from and I'm sure someone can find you a mood board with those colours in.

I'm not sure everyone has 'the one' moment with their dress. I am not entirely convinced I had that moment; I just know that I kept comparing other dresses to a certain one I'd tried on previously.

If your potential bridesmaid is determined to be there then make her your bridesmaid as I'm sure she wouldn't let you down! But maybe get her to choose her dress over there once you've decided on a colour? Is that an option for you?

I'm sure there are more flowers than shown in the magazines but I'm no flower expert!! I think mags tend to stereotype the wedding for the season. I'm a summer wedding but having black and white so that doesn't fit their themes either! Visit a florist this weekend and see what flowers they have in at the moment for more of an idea maybe?

Hope some of htat helps you!

I know it probably seems a bit overwhelming at the moment but the good thing is you have the 3 major bookings confirmed and people have booked weddings in much tighter timescales very successfully.

Don't feel pressurised to have a typical orangey/gold/red Autumn coloured wedding - colours of brown and gold are perfect and adding accents of green and a dusky pink should work beautifully. But any of those colours work equally well with each other. Have you considered silk flowers rather than fresh that way you can choose any flowers despite the season? If you're undecided on stationery yet, send a fairly generic Save the Date card, it doesn't have to match the invitations - sometimes it's nice that they don't match as it makes the invitations seem more special and surprising when they are sent nearer the wedding and it will buy you some time to hone your ideas together. Have a google search (particularly of wedding blogs) for inspiration and moodboard as these are a great way getting inspiration and often far more creative than the magazines suggest.

I just wrote you a whole long reply and hitched crashed on me! Doh!

I didnt really do anything other than book the venue until about a month ago, so about 9/10 months before the wedding. I have broken it down to what I want to get done in each month leading up to the wedding and then just focus on one thing at a time. I get a good sence of satisfaction at the end of the month when I have done everything and then move on.

As for deciding things i do that as i go! The colour 'sheme' sort of fell into place, OH said he wanted a pink tie so it went from there. And flowers and things - not a clue, but im guessing the florist will insipre me when i see her.

Just take things one step at a time and post your ideas on here and everyone else might be able to help you follow them through.

x

Drifter, drifter, drifter!

If you panic, i panic!!!!! I have organised diddly squat.

All i hvae is venue and photographer and that my dear is it!

I have decided i am NEVER going to have that gushing 'this is the one' moment with the dress. As you know ive tried shed loads and hate them all.

I hvae NO idea on colour scheme, no idea on anything!

To be honest, when i see the 2010 threads it used to scare me but now i dont care.

I know that if i booked stuff now i would hvae gone off it by the time our wedding comes round, plus i dont want my flat full of wedding crap for a whole year!!!

Dont panic - i am benchmarking myself on you, so when you get your dress and decide on your colour scheme i will panic and demand you do nothing else until i have them two items sorted!?

Hi

Don't worry i felt exactly the same and to a certain extent still do. We decided our date in June this year for New Years Eve this year which gave us a whole six months to plan. 3 months on i still feel disorganised and worry about certain things. Sometimes hearing others planning on here overwhelmes me and scares me that i havent a clue about certain things or how i want things. i've still got quite a bit to do and what with xmas coming up its a bit of a worry, but i'm sure i'll get there as will you, and of course everyone on here is brilliant at offering advise and being realistic and although i stress about it and worry, i'm really enjoying it, so sit back and relax it will fall into place i'm sure xx

Don't worry! You sound pretty well on target to me - you do have 12 whole months still. Some people are happiest when they are incredibly organised and like all their little ducks lined up well in advance. Look at it this way, if you book some things too far in advance, what if something else comes along that makes your head spin and you change your mind. Use this time for research, look at magazines and tear out the ideas you like. I couldn't believe how many more venues suddenly seemed to appear to me after we'd made our booking as an example. You don't need to have the dress sorted yet, your ideas for the sort of wedding you want will continue to evolve over the months and your idea of the right dress to wear to that will also most likely vary with it. Okay, I might be waffling now so I'll stop here. You don't have to have this thing done and that thing done just because someone else has - it's your wedding not theirs. Start panicking when you're in my situation, I have about 2 months, have only just booked my photographer (who is lovely), am still finishing the invitations, haven't thought about the menu, the vows, readings. Agggggggggggggggh (runs off screaming stage left!)

Hi

Dont stress...you have the big things sorted. Have a break from wedding dress shopping then try again!

I organised our wedding , whgich was quite big in 6 months.....did most of it in the first 6 weeks...so you have loads of time.

Good luck

T

Really don't panic, I started planning with 10 and a bit months to go so am doing the lot in much les than a year. I have only just ordered my dress and although I've asked a few florists for quotes none have come back to me yet so I'm still without flowers (wedding is May). We didn't bother with STDs and if your sending them with Christmas cards maybe you could just put a not in the Christmas cards along the line of 'had a great year, and our wedding will be XXX', then you can leave the stationery til a bit later.

You have the main things sorted and have plenty of time for the rest!

Chill! We've only just started to book ours and will be getting married in 8 months - it's doable!

I don't quite have a colour scheme yet - know the sorts of colours we want but once we find a tie (we're not hiring suits - just having normal ties) this should help us decide. Stationery we've just looked on Vistaprint and found some great ones and one that matches us perfectly.

Things will fall into place - don't stress!

Don't panic ! You have the main things done, the rest is just window dressing !!!

I would say you should try and organise a florist, you don't have to decide on which flowers or colours yet, though you could have a look at what flowers florists have in at the moment as they will be what's around this time next year, maybe get some inspiration ?

Also won't all the new season of dresses be in the stores around November time ? Maybe make some appointments for then ......

You will be fine ?

Suze xx

DONT PANIC!!!! You've got some of the big things booked already which is good.

Don't get disheartened by other brides on here - some are just super organised. A year is plenty of time to arrange everything - there are girls that do it with less time.

Why don't you sit down and write a 'to do' list and try to put some dates to the tasks roughly around when you would like these things done by. Prioritise the most important first and try to concentrate on only 1 or two things at any one time.

Hope this helps.

Blimey, just chill!

When my wedding was a year away I was still 4 months away from getting engaged so you have plenty of time.

I truly beleive wedding planning is as stressful as you want to make it. Family politics being the only slight exception to this.

I didn't have a colour scheme, yes my bridesmaids wore the same colour as each other but that colour wasn't used anywhere else on the day.

No-one, apart from you and perhaps your close friends/family, really care about the stationary. It's not a big deal at all.

Go to a florist ask them for their help, they'll be able to tell you what's in season and rough costs and show you pictures. Just pick one you like the look of.

Dress, just try a load on. I didn't have a 'the one' moment, had serious wobbles the month before but do you know what, I LOVED my dress on the day.

It's really really not worth getting this stressed out about. I suggest you start a list of everything that needs doing and assign a realistic deadline against each task and tick them off as you go along. If you have any BM's do delegate tasks to them too.

Oh, and hitched is always here to help too!

Calm down and breathe!!!!

You have plenty of time - we got married exactly one year after we got engaged - so at your stage we hadn't even started looking at venues! Get yourself an excel spreadsheet (or a planning book - plenty available) and prioritise.

For us, the first thing we did was book the church and the venue, as that determined the date. Then the caterer (our venue wasn't a hotel though, so we needed to hire everything in - you may not even need to do this). Everything after that just sort of falls into place. You don't need to have it all done now!!! I think we only booked our florist (s - we had 2 for logistical reasons) a few months before, and saw them only a few weeks before to finalise what we wanted. You don't need to decide what flowers you want now.

Enjoy it - don't let it take over your life, and don't get all stressed about it especially with a year to go. If you're all stressed about it, then if any tiny tiny thing goes wrong on the day (and something is bound to, but it will be insignificant and it will probably only be you that notices) it could ruin it for you - and you don't want that!

nf x

Hi Drifter

We got engaged 3 years ago but we knew we weren't going to get married immediately as we weren't even living together at that point. For the first year I had the occassional look at potential venues on the internet and we eventually decided on one which we knew had about a 2 year wait on it so we booked it August 2007 for a Nov 2009 wedding. After that we literally did nothing wedding related until January this year (all energies went into house hunting etc) so you're about 4 months ahead of where I was!

There is loads of time to get stuff sorted and as Nutfluff said, there's no need to let it take over your life (although at 2 months to go it probably will - see my recent lack of hitching due to stressing right out about not having made the invitations yet (they're due out by this Friday at the latest!) For save the dates have a look at Vistaprint as I think lots of girls on here have used them and been very happy. We didn't even bother with StDs as we told the people we knew we wanted there the date verbally and didn't actually finalise a guest list until the end of July!

As far as your colour scheme is concerned, chocolate brown with sage green and dusky pink sounds absolutely divine, with maybe some gold accents. No matter what the season your florist will probably be able to tie in any colour, even if it's not your first choice of flower or as someone else suggested, silk flowers these days are lovely.

Two words....Bluewater, me! (i hope BW doesnt mind me sharing that we were both late finishers in the wedding planning olympics!!) i got to three months before and had not done half the things that some of the 2010 brides have already done. I had one small panic but quickly realised thatt i knew what i needed and wasnt really in a tremedous rush to get it done, and did this make mine or BW's wedding any worse than others, nope, did anything go drastically wrong, nope, did i forget anything ultra important (apart from the cake topper), nope!

Please dont worry drifter, you will get there and there really is no hard and fast rules about how much you should have done by a certain date....oh apart from your dress shopping, but thats only cos i really want to see what you get )) x

Ditto what everyone else has said.

We started planning at the beginning of this year for Aug 2010 wedding. We booked the church & reception in February but OH lost his job in March and WP practically halted. I have been picking ideas up over the summer but OH starts a new job in 2 weeks so its full steam ahead. Going to see a photographer this weekend and we've been checking out a couple of bands this week as well. When we first started wedding planning, I had numerous sleepless nights with images of flowers, tables, favours, dresses..... etc spinning through my head. I think perhaps the break with Kev losing his jobs slowed things down in a good way - Made me calm down a bit!

I'm sure things will start falling in to place soon!

Ahh lovely ladies thanks fpr the replies I wil post a proper response later but after a day of stressing alternately about work and weddings I am off to the gym to reclaim my sanity!

Are you being serious with that comparison - or is that a typo?????

I am sure Kelly didnt mean it, or was confused. But I got engaged 2 and a half years before our wedding which seems to be a normal amount of time. Not all of us can afford to get married straight away. And yes I am super organised, but that's the sort of person I am, and once I decide something I go for it straight away. THere are many brides on here who are even more organised than me - we havent got transport for our bridesmaids, dresses are a pile of fabric in my wardrobe and we dont even know where we are off on honeymoon. SOrry Kelly but I was offended by that.

I think you must be right Zippy!

Just cos some brides (me for example) plan two years in advance doesnt mean we are organised - hell no! I am very disorganised and still dont have a clue about a lot of things. Sometimes making sweeping generalisations can really offend people - I am sure Kelly would not mean it in that way at all as she is a lovely lass, but I read it as "brideplannerzilla" lol

Anyway OLL was on here even before she got enagaged if I remember rightly - now that is organised!

I don't get it....is this a dig?

NO - not at all, I am saying you are organised!

But she wasn't planning her wedding when she was on here before her engagement. As far as I know, even now she's engaged she's still not exactly planning and is waiting until she has finished uni so I don't think it's fair to say that... I know it probably wasn't how you intended it but it does sound like a dig.

I'm pretty certain Saracroft wasn't having a dig, just as shocked as me about the previous comment.

I am thinking maybe this was an innocent comment that has been taken the wrong way

Jaysus Christ laydeees...... take a freakin chill pill and read my reply to OLL

....(flounces off to confetti!)

Evening all

Oh dear we have have gone off track, personally I admire the organised within our midst, I just panic sometimes when I compare myself hence this post. I think I feel guilty because I do have 2 years to plan (well one now) and I am still disoganised!

Right now for a proper reply

Firstly thankyou to all who have replied I feel a million times better this evening after reading all your advice suggestions and seeing where I fit in compared to others.

Shoegal

ahh you made me feel better don't you go getting all organised with out me now especially with dresses! (that said I am having a shop for dresses on the 10th of Oct before I stop all wedding planning untill next year!)

after a day of being a stress head I have decided that I will focus on dress and flowers next and forget about everything else untill next year and flowers are only going to be a research project as to what is in season and scented real flowers with scent is my theme at the moment!

So thankyou one and all I appreciate it with dissapearing BM's this is my vent for all things weddinging so that OH doesn't get bored with it (as he is good when we have occasional chats plus dresses and flowers arent his thing! he has transport, suits photographer and entertainment (check out my delegating!))

lol, ok, it just read oddly, coupled with the paragraph above.

Nooooo... Don't do it! ?

I did say in my reply that I know that probably wasn't how you intended it but people were taking it the wrong way and thinking they were being called brideplanerzillas as someone put it.

Anyway, end of.

And thanks for the birthday message!