10-12 months checklist

To help keep my sanity, I've enlisted the help of every wedding website I can find and have printed off their checklists of when to do what. I am happy to announce I am ahead of schedule. Maybe. According to weddingchannel.com, 10-12 months before the wedding, the following things should be done:

Introduce both families and officially announce your engagement
We did announce our engagements to our families already. My parents will be holding an engagement party for us in September so I guess we'll be a bit overdue on the "introduce both families" bit.

Find out who pays for what and start a budget
Brian and I decided long before we got engaged that we would pay for our wedding ourselves. My parents have offered to pay for the engagement party and the reception for when we get home. Okay so that's done.

Create and track your guest list with our easy to use tool
If only creating a guest list was that simple. I did have the guest talk with my parents and have come up with a tentative guest list. This conversation was actually the birth of having a local reception for people who could not make it to St. Thomas. I haven't tried out the tool yet but it would be great if it had an option to decide your guest list for you. I kind of feel like the club owners of that really famous disco club. I keep thinking that I'm going to snub someone unintentionally. I don't want to but there are just so many people that have come into my life. If you're reading this and you don't get an invitation to my wedding, please don't be offended. If I had unlimited resources you would be invited, I promise. Okay, maybe not the fourth cousin twice removed that I only met once.

Compare calendars and select a tentative date
For the story on this, read my blog entitled, "Decisions, decisions". It's kind of funny if I do say so myself.

Choose your attendants
From the moment I started dreaming about my wedding (which started about a year ago), I always wanted Pam to be my maid of honor. I asked and she said yes! Now she is in charge of planning the fun stuff like the bridal shower and other parties.

Create a wedding website to share your engagement
I hope a blog counts because I really don't have the energy for anything more elaborate. I might decide to use one of the free wedding page offers out there just to keep people informed but I don't know how much more sharing I can do.

Send your engagement photo to the local paper
What?!? Let me tell you a little secret. Brian and I both hate having our pictures taken. He, especially, hates having a picture taken. I'm saving up all the picture points for the wedding. I am not sending a picture to any paper. Besides, which local paper are we talking about? For my family, that would be the Union News and Sunday Republican. For Brian's family, that would be the Boston Globe. I prefer to stay anonymous thank you very much.

Conduct interviews and hire a wedding coordinator, if applicable
I like how they put in "if applicable". I'm planning on having my wedding at a resort where they have an on staff wedding coordinator to assist in all your planning needs. I guess I'm done with this one.

Decide if you want premarital counseling
This one makes me laugh a little. I know some faith's require you go through premarital counseling but all I can think of is if you need counseling now, what's going to happen later. It's only one day. If you need counseling to help you get to that one day, then that's not exactly a good sign, is it.

Get inspired by thousands of gown photos
I got inspired alright. So inspired in fact that I already bought my gown. It is hanging up safely in my parent's house where Brian's eyes will not see it until our wedding day. You can read about this adventure under my blog "running of the brides". I will have those memories forever.

Start thinking about where you want to honeymoon
Since we are doing a destination wedding, our honeymoon is already set. I love destination weddings.

Visit and book reception site and arange for parking
This one is not so easy to do. I just don't have the means to take off to St. Thomas to scout everything out. Instead, I rely on tripadvisor.com and people who have been. They have not failed me yet.

Visit and book ceremony location, including your rehearsal time
I've reserved my ceremony location. From the pictures, it's gorgeous. It's on a beach looking out to St. John. Ahhh, how I long to be there now as the snow is coming down and cars are sliding off the roads. Sun, sand, and surf. Perfect.

I'm feeling good about where I am in the planning phase. Hopefully, the whole year will be this easy when it comes to planning. However, I have a feeling that it won't. There's been a couple of quibbles already about where to have it and who to invite. Brian is great about this whole thing. He keeps telling me that it's my day and whatever I want is fine by him. He also asks that I tell him when and where the wedding will be so he can show up on time. That Brian. God, I love him.