Bride-to-be Blogger Alyse: Setting the Date!

Alyse and Kevin, this past 4th of July.

For a while now, I have been a living calendar for all 2012 dates. If someone is talking about an event next summer, I can say, “Oh the 14th? That’s a Thursday.” I can list all of the 2012 summer Saturdays in chronological order, and tell you which days of the week all 2012 holidays fall on—all off the top of my head. Apparently, these are the little details that take up valuable brain space while planning a wedding.

After a few weeks of “just enjoying the engagement” (read: looking at wedding magazines), I was ready to pick a date. Kevin and I looked at our year, and after considering that I was starting a new job in January, and that my sister was graduating from high school and Kevin was taking a big exam both in June, we knew the wedding would have to be scheduled for July or later. There was another equally important issue: We didn’t want our wedding to fall on any date that conflicted with the Phillies’ potential playoff schedule, or a Penn State football game. So the fall was out.

We decided that July was the “safest” month both life commitment- and sports watching-wise and began looking around for venues with July 7th or July 14th availability. At first, I was a little concerned about the Fourth of July. Of course, I knew that it fell on a Wednesday, but I wondered if people considered the weekend before or the weekend after to be part of the holiday. Many of our friends flock to the shore for summer weekends, so we wanted to consider that—but we also just wanted to pick a date, already!

I looked at about eight venues during May and June in the Philadelphia area—a subject for a later post!—and decided. I picked the only venue that I could possibly picture our wedding to be. After coordinating the church, the venue and the local hotel, the only mutually available date was July 7th. So, we had our date! It was a relief for me to put all of my concerns aside and just let logistics take over.

Now that there is less than a year left, I feel a definite shift in planning pressure. The wedding planning timelines don’t just tell me to “think,” “discuss” or “consider” things, but rather “book,” “buy” and “decide” things. And as I get really into the wedding planning, my 2012 calendar skills have reached an all time high. On July 7th of this year, my aunt texted me, “364 days left!” I responded, “actually, 2012 is a leap year, so it’s still 365.”

Brides, how did you pick your date? What dates or seasons were off limits for you or your fiance?

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