Setting the Date

[BimTheDuck]

Lovely Ladies I need some advice.

I had my heart set on a fall wedding (September) and have given close friends and family a heads up when asked about my date. The problem that I am running into is that this does not seem to be a very convenient time of year for lots of people.

The 2 main complaints that I have gotten are...

1. September is the start of Football season (pre-season but whatever)

2. Lots of people will have children in school at the time.

 

My questions for you all are... did you run into to any scheduling conflicts when setting your date? Did this effect the number of people who attended your wedding or did they simply attend as a non-sailing guest? Did the length of your cruise effect the number of guests in attendance

 

I was originally getting hitched Sept 2016 but with a fiancé who is less than enthused by the thought of wedding planning and no wedding party ( our decision, just seems simpler) the planning is pretty much left to my mother and I. I work full time, entering my second year of grad school and starting a 20 hr/wk internship in a few weeks so we decided to push the wedding back to September 2017 to give me more time to plan and actually enjoy the process.

[FutureMrsDiaz]

I was looking at options for spring break or winter break at first when I was planning so that my kids and my nieces and nephews had a chance to go but it became too much of a headache since different districts/states go at different times. I really didn't want a summer wedding due to the heat [emoji14] and the prices of the cruise I knew would be a problem for others. I too wanted a September wedding.. Only reason I didn't get one was I was too late in booking and the dates/ship I wanted was already booked. I am now booked for Oct 31 2015. Since Halloween was on a Saturday, I knew the cruise ships do things for Halloween, and I was giving people enough notice I thought this would be fine. I now only have 6 sailing guests and 26 non sailing. I have heard complaints about it being on Halloween and people having to rush home and do trick or treating with their kids. But it is what it is. If you have a lot of people interested in cruising it's up to you to decide when you want to go. But it's your day pick a day you two are happy with!! Happy planning!!

[slord12]

Lovely Ladies I need some advice.

 

I had my heart set on a fall wedding (September) and have given close friends and family a heads up when asked about my date. The problem that I am running into is that this does not seem to be a very convenient time of year for lots of people.

 

The 2 main complaints that I have gotten are...

 

1. September is the start of Football season (pre-season but whatever)

 

2. Lots of people will have children in school at the time.

 

 

 

My questions for you all are... did you run into to any scheduling conflicts when setting your date? Did this effect the number of people who attended your wedding or did they simply attend as a non-sailing guest? Did the length of your cruise effect the number of guests in attendance

 

 

 

I was originally getting hitched Sept 2016 but with a fiancé who is less than enthused by the thought of wedding planning and no wedding party ( our decision, just seems simpler) the planning is pretty much left to my mother and I. I work full time, entering my second year of grad school and starting a 20 hr/wk internship in a few weeks so we decided to push the wedding back to September 2017 to give me more time to plan and actually enjoy the process.

 

 

We chose a shorter cruise because we figured more guests would be willing/could get time off. We also planned our cruise for summer break. The prices are higher that time of year but it really worked out better for everyone being able to plan to attend - most used it as a vacation!

[Tajuania82]

Lovely Ladies I need some advice.

I had my heart set on a fall wedding (September) and have given close friends and family a heads up when asked about my date. The problem that I am running into is that this does not seem to be a very convenient time of year for lots of people.

The 2 main complaints that I have gotten are...

1. September is the start of Football season (pre-season but whatever)

2. Lots of people will have children in school at the time.

 

My questions for you all are... did you run into to any scheduling conflicts when setting your date? Did this effect the number of people who attended your wedding or did they simply attend as a non-sailing guest? Did the length of your cruise effect the number of guests in attendance

 

I was originally getting hitched Sept 2016 but with a fiancé who is less than enthused by the thought of wedding planning and no wedding party ( our decision, just seems simpler) the planning is pretty much left to my mother and I. I work full time, entering my second year of grad school and starting a 20 hr/wk internship in a few weeks so we decided to push the wedding back to September 2017 to give me more time to plan and actually enjoy the process.

 

 

Yes, to all of your questions. We tried to accommodate everyone before thinking about ourselves. It gave me a headache. I thought about my sister with four kids, my unemployed best friend, and my grandmother who refuses transportation outside of a car. BUT we wanted our destination wedding and that's what we were going to get. I set it up in my mind whoever is supposed to be there will be there. (This remains our motto). We picked the date and sent out the invitations to over 100 people. We heard so many excuses but we knew we had to accommodate our family and what we dreamed of on out wedding day.

[Miss Kellybean]

We took a lot of things into account. My future step-son's school schedule, pricing, weather as well as giving everyone plenty of time to make arrangements if they chose to go with us. After some thinking we chose our date about 14 months out. It was during many Easter/spring breaks (the Thursday prior to Easter) and it just made sense.

 

We have always shared that we completely understand if some can't make it for whatever reason. We haven't had any push back on our date at all. To be honest, if the date doesn't work for our invited guests, we will see them when we return. Essentially we are having an announced elopement. :)

[ImaginationCruiseBride]

We are an older couple and each have one daughter and one SIL. Our only criteria was that we would not get married without our daughters being present. Our two girls are in their mid 20s and are both working on their PhDs in different states (mine is where we live, his is in Illinois) mine teaches high school, his teaches at a jr. college, so when we announced our engagement we asked our daughters to provide their availability and it turned out they had one week August and one week at Christmas available that overlapped, since we didn't want to do Christmas we chose August. It turned out that we could get married either August 3, which was my parent's 55th wedding anniversary or August 4, both were just 5 day cruises, since the kids are so busy. So we chose to go with my parent's anniversary. His daughter and SIL sailed with us as did my daughter and her college roommate, who was also our minister, my SIL made it for the wedding but not the cruise. Everybody else came as non sailing guests. We had a total of 20 guests, my parents and siblings were unable to attend (my mom has health issues and my sister didn't want to leave town and leave them alone and my brother couldn't get off work). Anyway, to us, having our children at our wedding was more important than the date. So to make a short story long.....figure out what is most important to you, who attends? the date? set your date based on the answer to those questions, and realize a destination wedding will have fewer guests and that's ok too.

Edited August 11, 2015 by ImaginationCruiseBride

[gymbomb]

We checked with those closest/most important to us before booking and picked a date that worked for them (so my parents, his parents, and his sister's family). Beyond that we knew not many people would come anyway and were fine with that. We did choose to do an embarkation day wedding for several reasons, but one big one was to allow the option of being a non sailing guest. We ended up with 6 non sailing guests and 15 sailing guests plus us. It was perfect for us and I can't think of anything I would have changed :)

 

 

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[Carnival_Brides]

We set our date based on the local school calendar, my wife's grad school schedule, and when the VIPs (parents and siblings) could get away. It was difficult at first, but it really narrowed down our options to a week in October or a week in January--January won because the rates were much lower.

[wakeupinanewland]

We chose based on the desired length of engagement, avoiding hotter summer months, and an available vacation weekend to minimize the number of days guests would have to take off. We decided on January.