I am getting married in 1 month.

Greetings all.

Many of you know that I proposed to my fiancee about an hour before the Stray Cats took stage in Minneapolis back in July of last year.

We are now down to the last 29 days here, and I am not entirely sure if we are going to be ready.

Not to say that we aren't ready to marry one another, I mean like, to prepare for the wedding, reception, honeymoon, and all that crap.

A few weeks ago, we closed on a house, and I have been putting in a lot of hours getting the house ready, painting, cleaning, organizing, and all that crap. Boy is owning a home a whole other story.... Who knew growing up wasn't all it cracked up to be!!! Hahaha.

Does anyone know of any good free wedding preparation websites, documents, spreadsheets?

Pretty much, just a couple of young, poor kids on a budget, luckily both with degrees, and unfortunately not a ton of time left to make sure everything is going to go as planned.

Regardless, I will be sure to keep all of you updated on the happenings of it, as I have been cyber-friendly-like with so many of you, and have actually had the pleasure of meeting the select few of you at various times.


Oh, and Tommy, if you want to let Brian and Julie know they are welcome to come to the wedding, I can sure send them an invitation, we just need to make sure enough dijon chicken is prepared.... (hey, worth a shot!)


-BK

jk-
this is just one of those big hills & turns on that big roller coaster of life! Sounds like you two are busy, busy, busy! Everything will turn out awesome and you'll look back & wonder what you were so worried about.
I'm no help in the wedding planning department. I used a planner out of a book! High tech, online stuff wasn't readily available when I got married. Maybe that's what went wrong in my marriage! Ha!
I did have to order the "bridal toss" bouquet on the morning of my wedding though because we forgot about it! (your fiance' will know what I'm talking about) The florist was able to come through on short notice though, that was a relief!
If the house isn't "perfect" I think your family/guests will forgive you since the wedding is foremost in your lives. And what you don't get done before you move in gets put on the "honey-do" list.
Hang on, because once you're married the ride just gets wilder & wilder from here on out....you'll love it!
Keep us posted!

hey johnnykool,
I got married a couple of weeks ago (Aug 9) so I know exactly what you are going through.
We kept things really simple (or so we thought)... no catering hall, no band, etc. We picked a great restaurant knowing that the food, service and most importantly the guests would provide the vibe for the reception. We kept the budget quite low and my wife has always wanted a small ceremony, so while it took A LOT of compromise between the two of us, it all worked out quite well.
Here's the deal (as friends told me leading up to the big day): no matter what you do or how well you plan, something will slip through the cracks. Guess what? It's no big deal.
Here are two examples: one of my groomsmen told me that at the end of his reception he and his wife were alone in the reception hall looking around and saying what a great day it had been when they realized - they were alone in the reception hall - with no ride to the hotel! With all of the planning they did, they forgot to arrange a ride after the reception (the limo leaves when you and the bridal party arrive).
Fortunately a couple of friends popped back in and gave them a lift.
My curveball? Two weeks before the wedding our minister's nurse contacted us to say that he had been hospitalized and could not perform the ceremony. We had a chapel, reception, cake, honeymoon - and no one to officiate. Lesson No. 1, things will work out. We made a ton of phone calls and found a terrific Minister within 24 hours.
As long as you and your bride enjoy the day; and you give your guests a reasonable shot at a nice gathering (someone will always complain) you've done your job.
If you have people in your bridal party you can count on, they should be able to handle all of the little stuff during the big day so that you and your bride can enjoy yourselves.
I will check with my wife to see which of the planning sites she was happiest with. Remember these are guides that usually take advertising dollars so they may push for things you don't really need. Assuming you have more happening at your wedding (band, catering versus our just using a restaurant), try to assign the best man or a trusted groomsman to keep things running smoothly on the wedding day. You shouldn't have to run around talking to the band, the maitre'd, etc.
Sorry if I babbled on here...
I'll post again with some links that we used; and feel free to contact me for any other info.
Bottom line, there will be stress. Just remember that you are both aiming for a common goal; and if the biggiest issue you are dealing with is planning a wedding, then life is good!!!

Appreciate it all,

we are coming down to the last 17 days, just got a little financial stuff taken care of, but still a lot of work to do.

-BK

By the way, congratulations!

Getting married is a pretty cool thing. A lot of my friends already got hitched, so pretty soon they'll be hounding me about "YOUR turn, dude!" Where you crazy kids going for the honeymoon? Or is that classified... haha

Be sure to let us know when you get back. Best wishes from NW Minnesota,

Chris