- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee Blog
Without fail, I get sick every fall. And then for good measure, I get sick again every January/February. It’s not that I don’t take care of myself; rather, I work in close quarters with other people (shout out to my fellow cube-dwelling bees). Getting sick usually isn’t a problem, just more of a seasonal annoyance. I know that by next June, most of the ickyness of cold and flu season will be long gone (thankfully!) so I won’t have to worry about sniffling my way down the aisle because of a cold (because I’m crying is a totes different reason!). But there is the small issue of using up my precious paid time off at work when I do get sick this winter. It’s inevitable.
You see, the wedding is cutting into a large chunk of our PTO time next year.
Mr. French Fries and I aren’t taking a ridiculously long honeymoon, but we’ll both need to take our actual wedding day as a day of PTO (since it’s not on the weekend) and I’ll want to take a day or two beforehand for last minute projects/prep/errands. Couple this with our honeymoon and you’re looking at a somewhat significant chunk of time off. Adding in a few sick days on top of that to deal with aches and stuffy noses and fevers doesn’t leave a lot of time left in the (PTO) year!
In an attempt to head off a lack of days for next year, I’ve been trying to bank as much time as possible this year (I can carry over my unused time) but it’s hard. Mr. French Fries is planning on taking off on my birthday so that we can relax and celebrate together, which is so sweet. He’s gone around 12 hours each day at work, so naturally I’m taking my birthday off, too (side note: I think it should be a law that nobody has to work on their birthday. Vote for me for president in 2032!).
Also, since my birthday is pretty late in the year, the holidays are just around the corner. I’m not going to even get started on how the day after Halloween they start the Christmas music around here – it’s just another reminder of the downhill slide to the end of the year. I’m not planning on taking any extra time around Thanksgiving this year, but I would like to take some time around Christmas and New Year’s. So, with everything factored in, as it stands right now I’m looking at carrying over 3 days. That’s not a lot of time, but every little bit helps, I guess! In the meantime, you’ll find me in the cold & flu section of our drugstore, stocking up on Zicam.
How have you managed your work schedule with your wedding schedule? Have you had to juggle days around to take time off?
I had similar concerns. I tried to save up time for my January wedding, but by the end of the year last year I was so worn out from not taking needed days off that I was a stressed mess! Luckily my office has the option to take some unpaid days off so that combined with some vacation time really helped (my sanity-not my wallet). I still had to use up enough vacation time that I’m spread thin again as we headinto the end of the year, so hopefuly 2010 will priove much more vacation and rest friendly! In your Presidential campaign will you include a minimum two weeks of Wedding Time Off as well? I think that would be rad.
Oh, seriously - I’ve taken EVERY single birthday off of work because I HATE working on my birthday…
When I worked full time, I was super lucky and had three weeks vacation + 2 floating holidays + 5 sick days, so I just had to take less vacation earlier in the year. Now I work from home, and own my business, so taking time off isn’t a big deal.
But my fiance is already limiting his days off so we can maximize honey moon time - and our wedding isn’t till next October!
my vacation time rolls over as well, and lucky for me, i’ve been hoarding PTO like nobody’s business!
i planned back in september to have next week off to do nothing and relax (and avoid sitting in miles of traffic because salem in october is horrendous), but since the bf proposed last friday (squee), i know now that my days off and any future days off, will be filled with google searches galore!
I feel you. I was in the hole on vacation time after our wedding (I took 4 days off). I get 12 days of vacation and 12 days of sick, per year. It’s frowned upon (read: NOT ALLOWED) to take sick time when you’re really on vacay. I wish we got PTO for all of it instead- I’d be sittin’ pretty, as I rarely get sick.
I completely know how that feels! I however did not have a huge amount of PTO roll over from my first year with the company into this year however, I did try to keep as much of my PTO hoarded as possible. It has been a bit difficult though…Mainly because of the 1 hour different in time zones, planning a wedding on eastern time living in central time and being at work from 730am-6pm pretty much every day takes a huge chunk of time!
Which means, most of the phone calls-conference calls with the people/contractors involved with our wedding required an hour here or hour there during the week if I couldn’t arrange a conversation on a weekend….add to that the bridal store I bought my dress at is a 2 hour drive from my office and they only do alterations on Wednesdays from noon to 3–added a couple of extra half days taken for 2-3 dress fittings…needless to say with the official 10 days I am taking for the trip to orlando 2 days prior to leaving for the cruise, the 4 days cruise Sun-Thurs and then the day after our “mini moon” in orlando I will have about 4 days which will roll over…here’s hoping sickness doesnt catch me before/after the wedding!!
I know how you feel with the sick time. I inevitably get sick every change of season. This would be a HUGE issue for me, except my firm is super generous and gives us 5 weeks, and since we can roll over unused tiem, I’m hoping to have 6 weeks next year. I’ve been super good with my time this year, I have a little over two weeks left until the end of the year, and no planned dys off, I saved the week to carry and some days in case I get sick.
My brother got married in the Caribbean earlier in this year, so we took a week for that. Our wedding was in another province so I took time off beforehand to make sure all the ducks were in a row…then we left for 4 weeks on an amazingly long honeymoon during which we were able to forget that we atually had jobs.
So we’re tapped out for vacation time, and although we won’t have any extra for the holidays I still think it was totally worth it. We both get paid sick leave separate from our paid vacation though, so we don’t have to worry about time off for that.
I pretty much can’t take time off during our print cycle, so our main concern was finding a date that worked around my busy time at work and Mr Spin’s graduation/upcoming boards. Thankfully, it worked out pretty well, so other than that, my vacay doesn’t roll over (booo) but I do get to start hoarding it as of my start date (which is coming up soon) which is good, because I’m 100% out of vacay for this year anways. 
I wonder if I get bumped up to more vacay for being here 3 years…hmmm. 
I’m totally with you on not working on your birthday! I always take off - and mine is just before Christmas so that usually means a week off.
Thankfully, my job has a pretty good vacation policy (3 weeks plus 5 “floaters”) and we can roll most of it over year to year so I will be okay. FI can’t take quite as much time off, but I expect most of my off days will be spent running errands, doing projects, etc, which he couldn’t be bothered with
Zicam— what a lifesaver! Yes– be sure to stock up in advance!
I’m a non-profiteer, and we get comp time (yay!) plus sick and vacation. Because of the structure of my job, I have a t-o-n of comp time saved up, so I’m in the clear for wedding week + honeymoon It’s pretty sweet.
i’m one of the lucky few (i think) that gets almost two weeks off of work for christmas and new years. our entire plant shuts down from like the 23rd/24th til the monday following january 1st. since we’re getting married on new year’s eve, i’ll have about a week and a half off leading up to the wedding and then i can use my floating holidays (we get 5 days to use them whenever we want) to take like another week off for the honeymoon! i’m well aware of the fact that i totally lucked out with this one, and am oh-so-incredibley thankful.
I totally had to do that. I carried a lot of comp time too when I needed to take a day here and there. We also have a floating holiday that can be used for b-days and other stuff - so this year it was used for wedding time off. It sucks when you sit there and have to “budget” your time off.
This is pretty much why the fi and I are thinking we’ll have to do a mini moon after the wedding & then the honeymoon in winter 2011. We have a wedding of great friends in Thailand in Feb that we’re going to have to take 7 (work) days off for because it’s so far away and the wedding is in the middle of the week. So that doesn’t leave us much time off left for our own wedding… and all the other out of town/country weddings we already have on the calendar for next year. We might have to look into Unpaid time off… ekkkk!
I wish we had PTO at my job, but it’s part vacation and part sick time…just a bummer because I almost never call in sick. I’ll vote for you in 2032! No one should have to work on their birthday and every bride should get 2 weeks off for their wedding…it’s stressful stuff and there are many sleepless days before the wedding so we need our beauty sleep!
I had the same issue…and told my boss that I was going to try and make it work, but if I couldn’t, to take unpaid time off. It would suck to have a smaller paycheck, but I’d rather lose a bit and have a couple extra days before to take off.
I didn’t end up having to take anything unpaid, though - here’s to staying healthy!
I got really sick back in June/July and was gone for nearly 2 weeks. Since my wedding was coming up in October, I started to work longer days and occassionally not taking lunch since my extra hours go to PTO rather than overtime. I had gotten down to 16 hours, but by the beginning of the month, I was up to about 100 PTO hours. I took off 8 days (2 days before, the Friday of, and the week after) so I now have 50 hours available. I am in my first week back to work after the wedding now…
thankfully my job has a pretty generous pto policy. it’s pretty easy to gain hours. and since i’m apparently a workaholic, i’m more often being told to take time off or else i won’t be able to bank more hours. LOL.
@future.mrs.v: we get that time off too! i love it!
If you tend to get sinus infections or bad colds, while you’re stocking up on Zicam, also get a Neti pot. It’s a freakin’ life saver. It flushes all the gunk out of your sinuses so that a cold doesn’t turn into a sinus infection.
Go buy one - and save those PTO days!
Im having to bank my PTO for next June as well! Its sooooooooo hard. We can only carry over 5 days, coupled with 17 from next year…. I should be able to wed, honeymoon and still get sick for a day or two. there just wont be anymore i-dont-feel-like-it going-to-the-cubs-game days.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Mrs. French Fries, Milwaukee Age and Occupation: 27, Paralegal Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Investments Advisor Engagement Date: September 20, 2008 Wedding Date: June 2010 Venue: Ceremony: Catholic Church, Reception: Hotel Ballroom About Me: I'm a Midwestern girl who longs to live in a warmer climate (my feet would be happy in flip flops any day!). I love travel, impromptu napping, grilled cheese sandwiches, my iPhone, singing with reckless abandon in my car, and Mr. French Fries.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
Latest Gallery Pics