Setting the Date

Can I just say that setting the date for our wedding has been by far the most difficult thing I have encountered in my planning thus far? You don't realize how much goes into decided what day you will become husband and wife until you are actually trying to work around schedules of the people involved. Through our adventures in setting our date, I have come up with a list of seven questions/things to consider when picking your date:

1. What style of wedding do you want?
2. Work around your schedules.
3. Consider those in your wedding party.
4. Consider both football teams.
5. What colors do you want?
6. Do you have any deadlines/budget restraints?
7. Don't try to make everyone happy.

This topic will be detailed, so it will require two posts. Check back tomorrow for 4-7!

1. What style wedding do you want?
    When setting your date, you need to consider the style and feel you envision for your wedding. If you dream of a casual outdoor wedding, then you will not want to get married in December or January. Unless of course you like somewhere like Alabama, where it was 75-80 degrees almost all of December. Or you live somewhere in a typically and predictably warm climate. But even then, I don't recommend it. Sundresses just don't look cute in January. Period. Likewise, if outdoor is your thing, you may not want to schedule an afternoon ceremony in July. Unless you want to look like you are melting in your pictures. If you dream of a formal wedding in a church (or even an informal or semi-formal ceremony for that matter), you can pretty much plan on whatever day strikes your fancy.
     We knew pretty much right away that we wanted an outdoor ceremony. That took November-March/Early April out altogether. We didn't want to deal with the unpredictable weather we knew we would face in those months. So we knew up front we wanted to look at late April-early November.

2. Look at your schedules.
    My fiance Ben is a competitive archer, and his competitive season takes almost every weekend from early February through the beginning of August. Because of the considerable amount of focus his career takes (and the scarce availability of weekends), we knew we were limited to late August-early October. Yikes, I know. But that's life and you just have to roll with it.
    Likewise, if you or your fiance are school teachers, mid-August, mid-December, early January, and early May probably wont work for you, since those are times you would need to be focussed on new students or exams. If you or your fiance are enlisted military, you may have to work around your training or deployment schedules. Whatever your profession, consider your busy seasons and plan your wedding accordingly.

3. Consider your wedding party.
    It's not a must, but I can tell you that it is appreciated. If you know that your MOH has exams a certain week, it is not very nice to make your wedding when you know she needs to be focused on schoolwork. If you know one of your bridesmaids is in another wedding, you may want to check with her so she isn't forced to choose (or pull a 27 Dresses and race back and forth to both). While we didn't have any major conflicts, it is definitely something to think about.