Wedding Blog

I’m one of those people who really needs a deadline in order to get anything done. Unless I do something immediately, I’ll let it slide indefinitely until someone tells me that it needs to get done. I’ve learned this about myself over time and have found that creating my own due-dates is the best way to deal with it. I tell myself that X must be done by a certain date, and I stick to it. I’m a procrastinator, but I do get things done.

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If you recall, back in April I posted about how we were less than 5 months out and still had a big “to-do” list to tackle.

Well… guess what! With around 100 days until our wedding, we still have most of that on our plates! To be honest, I really haven’t made much of a wedding effort in the past six weeks.

We bought a house. We had finals. I just let it slide. But now it’s time to get serious. So I made some deadlines.

Item: Wedding ring
Due Date: June 30
What Needs Doing: Mr. Mary Jane needs to decide on a wedding ring style. Then, we need to speak with our jeweler to find out a price and time line for ordering, receiving and engraving it.

Item: Location of ceremony
Due Date: June 30
What Needs Doing: We uh… should probably figure out which county seat (and which state!) we’re getting married in. Then, if it’s within the allowable timeframe, we can get our marriage license!

Item: Dessert for our dinner on the day-of
Due Date: July 31
What Needs Doing: We’ve pretty much decided to get our dessert from the local grocery store, but I need to go in and speak with their bakery to be sure that everything will be good to go that day. We’re only getting either a very small cake or cupcakes; nothing elaborate.

Item: Barbecue invitations
Due Date: July 31
What Needs Doing: I need to sit down with FMIL and discuss how much of my help (if any) she wants. I’d really like to design the invitations for the picnic the FILs are going to have, but I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes either. If FMIL wants my help, I’d like to have the expectations and a pretty finalized design for this DIY project down by the end of July.

Item: Clothes for Mr. Mary Jane
Due Date: July 31
What Needs Doing: We’re trying to decide on a look for Mr. Mary Jane. Nothing too formal of course; it’ll probably amount to him buying a business suit that can also be worn for interviews and other important career events. I had originally thought brown, but I’ve all but forgotten it in favor of something more re-wearable such as basic black or charcoal gray. He needs shoes too. I have a Macy’s cash card that expires before the end of June, so we may get this item at least partially done early!

Item: An embellishment for my dress
Due Date: August 5
What Needs Doing: I want to cut off the “shoestring”-type tie that’s currently on the bust of my dress and replace it with something a little fancier. I just need to find that something.

Item: Something for my hair
Due Date: August 5
What Needs Doing: I need to figure out what kind of barrette or hair-thingy I will be wearing. Bonus points if it semi-matches the dress embellishment.

Item: Flower trial
Due Date: August 5
What Needs Doing: I want to buy a bouquet of flowers and wrap them. (It’s probably a good idea to test my skillz before the big day, don’t you think?!)

Item: Wedding announcements
Due Date: August 15
What Needs Doing: I want to create our wedding announcements, which will be sent the day we’re married. More on this soon! The due date is weeks before our wedding, but that’s because school starts in late August and I’m sure I’ll be busy with that.

Item: Restaurant reservations
Due Date: 2 days before the wedding
What Needs Doing: We need to decide on a restaurant to eat at with our parents and siblings after the ceremony. Then, we’ll call them to be sure they’ll have room to accommodate us.

Item: Thank you cards
Due Date: Sept 20
What Needs Doing: Another fun DIY! I’d like to have the design for these finalized and printed so we can start sending them out!

Item: Decide on a honeymoon destination
Due Date: October 31
What Needs Doing: Mr. Mary Jane and I are planning to honeymoon in May or June of 2010. It’d be good to figure out what we’re going to do so that we’ll have time to plan and save for it.

I feel so much better now that I have all of these dates written down. Looking at this list, there are only a few things that need to be done each month. That makes me feel a lot more sane and confident that I can accomplish them.

Do you set deadlines for yourself? Are you pretty good about getting things done in a timely manner?