To ask if you've ever planned a wedding in a short amount of time

[ShortNoticeWedding]

I'm thinking of planning our wedding for August /Sept this year.

It's not going to be a huge do but I would like a church ceremony and reception afterwards.

Has anyone ever planned a wedding in this amount of time?

Yes, we decided to get married early Feb and managed it by the end of May (so wedding season still). We did pretty much all of it ourselves though and I had an off the shelf, non wedding type dress. Our ceremony was in a nice council venue and we had the first slot of the day, which was relatively early, so hadn't booked up yet and we were really lucky that the gastropub we wanted for the wedding breakfast wasn't booked.

I just about managed to get a florist to do me a bouquet and some buttonholes, but my hairdresser was already booked up for the day (had my hair done the day before instead). We had semi professional friends do our photos. We didn't have a cake, either, but weren't really fussed.

It is definitely doable. Get on with getting your rings sorted, in case you want them made. Once you have those, and a venue, and each other you've got the essentials 😊

My sister did it in 3-4 weeks after we discovered that my mother was not going to live much longer.

Civil ceremony in hotel, only about 50 guests think but more in evening. Lots of bridesmaids (I think getting the dresses was the hardest thing). A lot of helpers. She had her dress already but that was about it.

But it was January so no issue with things being booked up.

So 3-4 months sounds like plenty of time to me, provided you can find a venue. You just need to be organized and decisive. Not faff around looking for "perfection". I bet at one time most people did it in that sort of time frame.

11 weeks. Wedding booked for a weekend in August. 80 day guests 100 evening guests. Got everything I wanted and more.

I think it's possible, especially if you go for August rather than September and if you're flexible about what your want.. Do you know which church and venue you are interested in? If so contact them as for all availability and try and find dates that match up. Would a weekday wedding work? That can be a way of getting more availability last minute. We did plan our wedding over a fairly short time but not as short as you are thinking.

September rather than August I meant...

Yup had it organised in a weekend. It was small but we just had to wait a few months for the legal stuff to be sorted first (in ROI).

We got married about 2 months after getting engaged.
My husband organised everything though

Yes, but you need to stop thinking about it and get on with organising it!

Yes, decided June, married August

My Dsis arranged hers in 6 weeks - church, dress, reception for about 100, the whole shebang. It was a fantastic wedding!

Yes, absolutely possible if you are not hung up on specific venues and suppliers. I organised ours, which was a big shebang with all the bells and whistles and 120 guests, in six months, and it was more than enough time. After we’d booked the venue (got a cancellation) we didn’t do anything else much for a good couple of months. It absolutely isn’t necessary to take years over it. The only supplier who seemed at all flustered about it was the wedding dress shop, but despite all their doom-mongering they managed to deliver the dress with a month to spare.

We did ours in 3-4 months as my mum had received a terminal diagnosis. About 70 guests. I googled places and only went to see one. The bit I regret is the rushed wedding dress shopping. I loved my actual dress, but getting one in a hurry was hard. I got an ex sample so it was a posh dress cheaper. A lot of bridal shops want you to order a dress 5-6 months before the wedding. Having a relatively short lead up helps narrow things down as there are less photographers to narrow down as most are already booked up. Also quite good for haggling. I got quite a lot off the usual venue price.

Yes, 4 weeks. We booked the nearer available date at the Registry office and went around that.
Needed to be flexible in our reception venue due to the "short notice " but we weren't fussy really about what we wanted. Had around 50 guests, possibly all assuming (wrongly) that I was pregnant!!

I handle the administration of weddings for our local CofE parish as we do a lot. A CofE church wedding is only going to be possible if you have a connection to the church you want to get married in, eg attend it regularly, live or ever have lived in the parish, either set of parents currently live in parish, baptised in the parish and a couple of other options. If you don’t have those sort of connections you need to attend regularly for six months first.

If all that’s ok then you are at the mercy of the Vicar, whether they are available and happy to do it at such short notice (the church is currently very conscious of sham marriages and several clergy have or are being prosecuted for conducting marriages that turned out to be scams).

Hope you can manage it though!