Ridiculously long engagement...

[bezark]

Right now, just relax and enjoy the research, becuase when you get to 6 months before the wedding you will be running around so much that you'll wish then you had more time. XD

Truth!
By the time our wedding rolls around in May, we'll have been engaged for 2 years. While I liked the relaxed browsing of the early days/months, I was really anxious and it seemed like our day would never come.
Now that we're about 3 months out, wedding stuff has consumed my life. 

[jadeye]

I just got engaged!  There were lots of horses involved in the proposal....

Any-hoo We're waiting until I get my degree so we have a general time set for spring of 2010 and I know I'll probably chance my mind multiple times about theme, crafts, location, but what I have been doing is making inspiration collage pages and keeping them in a binder along with a rough guest list and a list of things I would like to eventually craft for our wedding.

[nataleeza]

Thanks everyone!  I knew I'd come to the right place.    And congratulations to all of you who are engaged also!
I've been with my partner for 9 years already, so I am getting far too excited that the weddings is actually nearly in sight!  I'm planning to keep browsing and pulling ideas together until I'm sick of it, and will hopefully feel a bit more relaxed for a few months!

I hadn't thought of pulling ideas into a note book, I'd had a look at wedding planners, and they focus more on getting quotes and booking things etc (which is obviously out of the question at the moment).

I bought a scrapbook today, and I've been printing out pictures and pasting them in.  It looks great!  Here's the only one I've finished yet:


I've been holding onto the main green dress picture for about 2 years, as I think it's absolutely beautiful!  The other two I found in a wedding magazine.  It should all be shades of olive, but the colours are a bit wacky...

I feel so much better now because I really can use the extra time to look over heaps of pictures, and pick out exactly what I'd like to craft when the time comes. 

I'd recommend getting your guestlist together. It's been not only the most time-consuming, but also the most contentious item yet!!

Excellent point!  I can't even guess at how many guests we will have at this point.  As small as we can manage, but I have a large, close family.

the things i did at the beginning, i wish i hadn't.  now i'm stuck with stuff that either doesn't go or stuck doing things twice...

That was my thought, but thanks for supporting that.  I'm just dying to break out the paper and glitter!

Right now, just relax and enjoy the research

I totally will!  I'm a researcher by trade, so if there's one thing I can do, it's conduct thorough information gathering

[sweets4ever]

Yeah, most wedding planners that are for sale focus on numbers, timelines of the big day, schedules, etc.  Your scrapbook is the FUN planner!  I saved lots and lots of photos for inspiration along the way.  It really does help organize your thoughts and you can actually see the wedding coming together right before your eyes.

Wowww, the green dress looks really pretty!  Are you going to buy your dress, make it or have it made?

[nataleeza]

Wowww, the green dress looks really pretty!  Are you going to buy your dress, make it or have it made?

No idea!  I'm going to try some on, and if I find the perfect one (in my price range), then so be it.  But my fiance's mum was a seamstress, so she might offer to help me make one.  As long as it makes me look beautiful, I'm open

I'm not even sure what colour I'd like.  That green really speaks to me, but I think the lad wants me in white.  I'm that case I'll be wearing champagne, white looks terrible one me!  But I guess I still have at least 18 months to think about that.

But I've gotten into this whole planning thing, I've started planning my planner!  I'm in the middle of creating a checklist (none of the readymade ones are quite right for me, we will be having a small intimate gathering, with a minimum of stress and strain), and a budget sheet etc, so I can print it out a year before the date, and start working through the decisions.  I found the checklist on theknot.com to be a good place to start.

[kjlutz]

I'm not even sure what colour I'd like.  That green really speaks to me, but I think the lad wants me in white.  I'm that case I'll be wearing champagne, white looks terrible one me!  But I guess I still have at least 18 months to think about that.

Pick a colour you love and love amazing in.  I wore a dark red dress with a bit of white at the top, a white veil, and had snowflakes silkscreened on the bottom of my dress.  It was great, I've worn my dress since, and my one aunt didn't even realize I wasn't wearing white until half an hour into the ceremony.  The point of my story is wear what you are comfortable in, because nothing says you have to follow Queen Victoria's lead.   

[amigurl55]

Congrats!

I have about 11 months until my wedding.  We have set our budget (a lot of wedding books and magazines will have a chart to help you with that), scouted out locations, and came up with the guest list.  We've also purchased some supplies for our favors, simply because they were either on clearance or were a seasonal item and wouldn't be available by the time we get married.

You should at least go try on some dresses to get an idea of what you like and what looks good on you.  You can also get an idea of pricing this way, and that'll help when you go to figure your budget.  Check out some wedding books at the library and get some ideas about location, decoration, etc.

Hope this helps!

[RockinRobyn]

the day we get married will be after 2 years of being engaged adn 5 years total of dating 

It's tempting to start ahead but I think it's best to wait on most things because you may change your mind, location, wants, etc.

congrats 

[jadeye]

But I've gotten into this whole planning thing, I've started planning my planner! 

Haha, awesome!  Yeah the page you made is totally what I've been doing.  It's great to see everything coming together visually.  I'm totally a visual person so it helps a lot.

So we moves ours back another 6ish months to have a fall wedding (thats a 2 1/2 year engagement at this poing...ugh) but we have started working on our favors.  His family makes awesome apple butter and I want to honor his family by using the apple butter as favors.  We've been collecting apples and turning it to apple sauce then freezing it until we can borrow his granmothers copper kettle (which it needs to be cooked in at very high temps) and the process takes 8 hours for one batch.  It's good to know though that it can be stored in air tight jars for years without going bad.  I believe preserves and jellies are the same way and would make great favors as well for any country/rustic wedding.  Good luck with everything!

[fluffybaka]

I'm engaged and not getting married until, at the earliest, fall '09.

Of course, my wedding will be heavily crafted.     I've started sketching out dress ideas, thinking of color schemes, and trying to figure out who I want to make my cake.  I've also starting figuring out what aspects I want to do myself, what I'm going to ask fellow crafters to help with, and what I'm just going to suck up and buy.

I haven't crafted a single thing yet, but I have started doing all sorts of planning.