How to Plan Your Wedding in Three Weeks
If you’ve always dreamed of getting married in an ivory princess dress paired with a lace cathedral bridal veil, surrounded by 500 of your closest and dearest friends, this blog is not for you. But if you like the idea of having a good time on and before your wedding day, read on.
I’ve seen many friends get married. Almost all of them spent about a year planning their wedding and tens of thousands of dollars for the ceremony and reception. From afar, planning seemed like an agony, and watching people suffer from it made my current husband (spoiler) and myself want to ever have their own wedding. If we spent so much time and effort on something, we would like it to be paid for, and not to have 60 thousand dollars fixed in our bank accounts.
But in the end, the benefits of family life, namely health insurance and the ability to wear rings, won us over, and we tied the knot. We did it quickly, efficiently and economically; that’s why you should – and how you can – do it too.
Select month
One recent December, we decided to get married and gave ourselves three weeks to prepare the wedding, setting a date after Christmas. Because the first step in planning a three-week wedding is to schedule it when your families are about to come to town. Meeting on the fourth of July? Thanksgiving week? Celebrating 90 years of grandparents? Every time people are about to unite, perfect. This means that your anniversary will be closer to an already existing holiday: great! Easy to remember and even easier to celebrate.
To issue documents
Before moving on to Step 2 – Selecting the Day of the Week – make an appointment at your local county clerk’s office to get your marriage license. Do this early so that the slow wheels of bureaucracy don’t get in the way of your future bliss.
Select a day of the week from Monday to Thursday
Now that all the paperwork is complete, it’s time to pick a date! Make sure it doesn’t drop out on weekends, as places in establishments and restaurants are usually booked in advance for the weekend. Instead, schedule your wedding on a Tuesday or Wednesday night and you’ll have a choice in town. Having our wedding on Wednesday after Christmas meant I was able to easily book a session in the salon (still have fabulous hair, even if it’s not a fabulous wedding) and restaurant for the reception.
Choose a place
When it comes to wedding venues, you might be thinking, “We’re just going to make city hall,” but city halls (at least in big cities) are often booked more than three weeks in advance, so be prepared to get a little more creative. Does your city have a beach, a beautiful park, a quaint river bridge, a majestic hiking trail, a steep landscape, or a photogenic monument? (If none of that is available, you might want to move.) Since it’s only 3 weeks before your wedding, you can rely on the weather forecast to pick a good day.
We are fortunate enough to live in San Francisco, where there are many scenic spots, as well as comfortable temperatures even during the height of the “winter”. We chose a beautiful location in the Golden Gate Park near the windmill; It usually costs $ 800 to reserve it for a wedding. But since it was Wednesday, and we knew that the ceremony would last no more than 10 minutes and that there would not be many people at the wedding, we took the risk of holding it in a guerrilla style. As expected, it worked out.
Send an email to a small number of guests
One of the benefits of having a quick wedding plan is that you don’t have to invite tons of people, send out expensive invitations in the mail, or create a dedicated website. No time! You just send an email telling people that this is happening (or not, if you want to make a variation on this: a three-week surprise wedding). Your closest relatives and close friends in the city will be there. You don’t have to worry about inviting all of your coworkers or college friends you only talk to on Facebook, or every member of your distant ancestry, including a second cousin you haven’t seen since you were six.
Plus we live in the modern age: take advantage of the benefits. We invited friends and family who were unable to attend in person to join us via Google Hangout for a toast at the front desk. (We did have one particularly dedicated friend who flew in from New York at the last minute, but he’s crazy.) It worked out well, and fewer people in real live shows means fewer plate dinners and more money to spend on others. … your life together. And hey, spending less on a wedding means you’re less likely to get divorced . Hooray!
Hire a waiter
A potential obstacle for spontaneous wedding planners is finding someone to host your ceremony. Professional employees are usually booked several months in advance, so don’t even try. Instead, choose your most charismatic friend to become your official. There are many online services that will allow them to become an Internet church minister within a week. Bonus: they actually know you well and will say meaningful things at the ceremony, rather than make an ordinary phrase.
Decide what to wear
Bridal Wear: Order online if you don’t already have something in the dark suit or white dress category. I chose a long dress by Rachel Pally ; they have great maternity clothes and I had a baby 11 days before our wedding. (Did I mention this before?) Anthropologie has an entire online store dedicated to bridal wear . When it comes to jewelry, borrowing has never been more important.
Not only
Bridesmaids and Grooms: Fuck it. The origins of the wedding party are grotesque .
Don’t Go Crazy About Things People Usually Go Crazy About
Buy a wedding cake if needed. But since you are likely to have around 20 people coming, you only need one small one, and you can ask your favorite neighbor’s baker to cook something for you.
As far as jewelry goes, touch your cunning friend or relative to take care of it. Part of the spirit of a three week wedding is to accept any help offered. It’s amazing what a creative person is capable of with candles and several beautiful bowls of water and soaring flowers.
As for a professional photographer and videographer, just be sure to invite at least one person with an iPhoneX and a habit of posting beautiful Instagrams. You don’t need 1000 photos from your BIG DAY, and you don’t need a video on your wedding day. These videos are never watched, except for people who end up getting divorced and then cry bitterly with rage, swear and drink copious amounts of wine.
Do not worry
The best part about planning a three-week wedding is that, despite what you might think, it’s not stressful at all. This is more like organizing a small dinner than an awards ceremony. People’s expectations are low because you planned it in such a short amount of time. You don’t have hundreds of people making everything difficult and expensive. And you don’t have to make a ton of decisions because you don’t have a year ahead of you to worry about every detail of the day. This means that you and your soon-to-be-legally bound partner won’t have a million things to argue about for the very long time leading up to your wedding.
So if you are not married yet, consider this. And if you follow my advice, don’t worry, I’m definitely not expecting a “thank you”. One final bonus for a three-week wedding: there is no register of gifts and therefore no thank-you letters.