What to Do When Planning a Last-Minute Wedding
Life comes at you fast! You never know when you or someone you’re close to might end up in a situation where you need to plan a wedding fast. Here are the most important, most immediate actions that you need to take for it to go smoothly.
Notify People You Want There
This one is essential because people have busy lives. Normally, you would want to notify people at least six months beforehand, so that they can make necessary plans to travel and take time off of work. If the wedding in question is fast approaching, you may or may not have time for traditional invitations. You still likely will want to do them (for memory’s sake at least), but thankfully you have the power of the internet to contact people directly. You can set up a link to Google forms (or something similar) so people can inform you if they plan on coming via social media. You may want to make a list of people you can message directly to get quick responses from those who you want to be there the most.
Figure Out Where You’re Getting Married
The venue is also an important aspect that you typically want to have locked down long before the wedding happens. You usually even want to have the venue prepared before you send out the invitations. Because of that, it might be a little more difficult to find the ideal venue at such short notice. Nicer venues will be exponentially more expensive. If you or your spouse have any connection at all to a religion, you may want to consider having the wedding in a house of worship. Those tend to be cheaper – and even sometimes free entirely. Often, getting married in a church involves spiritual preparation.
Bare Essentials
A last-minute wedding doesn’t need to have all of the bits and pieces of a traditional, large, expensive wedding. Sit down with your future spouse and make a short list of all of the most important aspects that need to be covered. Seating, food, music, and minimal decorations will probably be on this list. If you have the ability or resources to make one or more of these more elaborate, go for it! But keep in mind the limitations of time.
You need to be realistic when planning such a quick event. Put your energy and planning towards where it needs to be. That might mean excluding certain aspects that you wanted to have. The most important thing isn’t that you have a perfect wedding (which is impossible), but rather that you have a wedding with the people you love.
Check out these major expenses you need to budget for when planning your wedding!