Planning A Wedding In 5 Months

Every time I think about this, I freak out a little. I literally only have 15 days left of being a Szymanski.

It all seemed to go so fast, and so slow at the very same time. roughly 5 months ago, I was staring at Erik on one knee with a ring in his hand, and now in about 2 weeks, we’re becoming one.

I’ve had a lot people ask me if planning a wedding in 5 months was hard. A few looked at us like we were crazy. And a lot of people say “wow that’s fast!”

Well, to paraphrase a line from “When Harry Met Sally”:

When you meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. (Just as a disclaimer, I don’t highly recommend watching this movie….haha).

The point is, once we made the decision to spend our lives together, we wanted it to be official as soon as possible, but we also wanted a wedding.

Well….correction….I wanted a wedding, I’m pretty sure I could’ve talked Erik into an elopement if I was down for it 😛 (That doesn’t mean I didn’t think about it a few times during these 5 months ha…).

The normal planning timeline for preparing for a wedding is about 12 months, so cutting that down to less than half that time obviously brought about some stress, but also some fun memories. Let’s just say that there’s never nothing to do, so we’re never bored 🙂

Was it stressful? I mean, yes… but in the end, we’re getting married and that’s all I honestly care about at this point! And maybe it’s not fair to say I made it without any major stress yet, since I’ve still got 15 days to go.

However, here are a few tips for you if you decided you wanted to get married ASAP:

1 – Scope Out Big Ticket Items In Advance

Erik and I had decided about 3 and a half months in that we were for sure getting engaged, so we started scoping out venues pretty early on. In hindsight, I would have also started searching for caterers and cake options at this time as well, but the venue was the biggest hurdle. In addition, we also started looking at apartments online because my lease was expiring and we knew the next place I lived would be where Erik and I would be living after we got married.

We got the to point where we got engaged on a Friday, signed a lease the next day, booked our wedding venue on Sunday, booked plane tickets for our honeymoon on Monday, and sent out digital “save the dates” on Wednesday.

Honestly, we didn’t care if venues or vendors didn’t align with our fast timeline…we were determined to get married and have a wedding in some capacity within the timeframe we wanted anyway. Even if we had to get married in someone’s backyard 🙂 So if you’re getting married quickly, you might need to be willing to compromise on some things.

2 – Buy Your Dress Off The Rack

I went dress shopping the weekend after we got engaged, and bought the first dress I tried on. I mean, I tried on others, but that one was my favorite. Buying off the rack was necessary because I didn’t have time to get it ordered, and also they are cheaper when bought that way, so that was a huge bonus!

Make a day of it, bring your girlfriends and your mom, and just go pick out a dress! Keep in mind that you’re only really going to wear this dress once…so keep calm and don’t freak out over it too much. Yes, it’s your wedding and you want it to look nice, but again it’s one day out of forever in your marriage.

3 – Stay Organized & Delegate Tasks As Necessary

I used a platform called Notion to keep track of all the tasks I needed to do for our wedding. I looked up several articles of tasks to accomplish so I knew when and how to check things off the list, and dumped them all in a list before prioritizing them.

From there, I kept breaking things down into smaller chunks, determining what we needed to do for each month. This made the whole thing less overwhelming because I could view the whole endeavor as several small projects and goals to hit on a smaller timeframe!

And don’t be afraid to ask for help…I know in the beginning, it’s going to be extremely tempting to refuse help because you want it a specific way and planning is fun. But eventually, Erik and I got sick of planning every little thing and started delegating things to others. It takes a huge load of stress off of your mind and heart when you can trust other people to help you with your big day. So when it is possible, I am a huge advocate for requesting assistance if you have people whom you trust and who are willing to help!

4 – Keep Things Simple

Don’t make too many elaborate plans. You can have a few small surprises, but don’t go too big. The bigger and grander your ideas, the more time they take, and the more stress you add to your plate. I learned this from my amazing future husband and grew more relaxed as time went on, but your wedding doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s. And it shouldn’t! It’s YOUR day! Make it yours by being unique in a purposeful way, and remember that the point of the day is to have fun 🙂

5 – Find Yourself An Amazing Future Spouse 🙂

This goes without saying, but hopefully you’re marrying someone who desires to help you out with wedding planning and share that journey with you 🙂 Erik has been phenomenal with helping me out with planning (as I’m the natural planner of the two of us, I did more of the admin work upfront). He was always asking me what he could do to help out and was actively involved in the decision making, sharing in our excitement of our wedding.

I honestly wouldn’t have been able to plan all this on my own, and I owe a lot to my incredibly amazing man who constantly calmed me down when anxiety overwhelmed me, helped me even when he was super busy with army stuff, and offered so many encouraging words and relaxing back rubs 😀

Additional Tips 🙂

I know not everyone can have this, but Erik and I know so many people who could help us out in big ways. I have family friends who can take care of my hair/makeup and DJing, Erik has a connection to someone to flowers, my dad’s cousin is a photographer….etc. Essentially, we had a lot of connections. So if possible, see how many family friends you can have help you, then make sure you thank them in a big way!

Final Thoughts

Honestly, looking back over my life and the things I asked for, marrying Erik has been the answer to one of my lifetime prayers! I had asked God for so much when I prayed for my future husband (years before I knew he existed). I didn’t expect to get exactly what I asked for and more, but I truly did.

I struggled with being single for a while…I thought something was wrong with me sometimes because no one had chosen me and I didn’t even have a boyfriend. But if things had gone the way I wanted them to as different seasons of life passed, I wouldn’t be marrying Erik now.

Whenever you think you have a plan for your life and it doesn’t end up going that way, take heart. God knows so much more than I. He knew what was best for me in every season of my life, and He led me to where I am now. He said “no” to my short-sighted plans so that He could lead me into His glorious plan for my life. One I could never have planned for myself.

And it’s better than I could have even imagined, even if I’d tried 🙂

I went through a lot of pain and heartache to get here, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Every tear I cried was worth it, and every time God used the pain to bring me closer to Him, it was worth it.

Erik – I love you! Thank you for being the answer to my prayers. And all glory to Jesus, who brought us both closer to Him in our singleness and is now bringing us closer to Him in our marriage <3

 

Until next time (and for the last time as a Szymanski),

Hope Frances Szymanski