Grad School and Planning

I was finishing up my degree during wedding planning, and finished submitting everything the week before the wedding. It was A LOT but I made sure to tell every person I was getting married and tried to stay on top of it all and get ahead to avoid stress. I ended up being able to get a graduation date on my diploma as the day before the wedding! When there's a will, theres a way, you know? You got this!

I started student teaching 3 weeks before my wedding. It was a lot especially since I was also working 2 jobs while planning. I spent a little time focusing on each thing. Homework breaks were filled with wedding planning of some type. I had very little actually down time.
My big suggestion would be to get stuff planned and vendors booked early so that by the time school starts you’ve already done the big stuff.

Hey there! It looks like you have about a year and a half until your wedding, which is plenty of time to get it planned and organized. If you're starting school this fall, that should give you a full year to get settled into your program, figure out what works for you, and make a plan on how to best approach the wedding so you can take time away from your studies to enjoy yourself.

Is it possible to schedule more classes in different semesters so you have a lighter load when you'll be getting married? You could also try to schedule less rigorous courses that semester as well. Totally depends on the flexibility of the program of course, but might be something to consider.

I'd suggest knocking out things that require you to physically go someplace (like venue tours or dress shopping) over the summer so you're not trying to drive all over the place while you're in classes or have assignments due. Another idea would be to book your vendors early so that way you're not trying to juggle your school work, schedule phone calls around your classes/ their work day, etc. Finding guestbooks or jewelry is a lot easier because you can browse around the internet, put it down if you need to focus on something else or be somewhere, and then you can pick it back up whenever it's convenient.

I had a friend in law school plan an entire wedding during our first year (typically the hardest), so it's definitely possible!

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Thanks! And congrats!

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Oh wow student teaching sounds so hard. I do have most of my vendors booked, I'm mostly worried about the month of. Everyone one here seems so stressed close to their wedding.

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Haha I don't think my program will be as rigorous as law school. Most of my vendors are luckily already booked! Easier classes/lighter load next fall is a good idea. I'll see what I can do.

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I wish you all the luck!

A month-of coordinator may also help just so you don't have to worry about finalizing all the details and can just hand it off to someone else.

View Quoted Comment Yeah, the last 2 weeks before were especially hard. It’s doable. I did it at least. I couldn’t take anytime off. If you can I suggest at least the day before.

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Luckily my job is pretty lenient so I should be able to get time off.

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A month of coordinator is a great idea! I'll look into that.

I got married after I started a doctoral program. We purposefully chose a summer date since I would be on summer break from classes. This made planning much easier. I did a lot of planning before I started the program, with most vendors booked before the fall (we got engaged in March of 2018 and married July 2019). Then school breaks (winter break/spring break) were helpful as well. I also have friends that got married further along in the program, where we also had clinical training hours, and they were able to make it work by taking advantage of breaks as well.

Hi! I’m getting married in July and started my graduate program Fall 2020. This year I had a full time job, school, and an internship. Our wedding is fairly large as well which influenced my decision. I cannot stress this enough HIRE A MONTH OF COORDINATOR. Seriously. This is my biggest regret. I tried to find one last month and everyone was booked. Cut from other areas of the budget if you have to, just please do it. I was similar to you in that I had booked all our vendors well in advance. But the last minute coordination stuff is just so much when you’re already busy.

Hi Kelly,

We're also in the same boat, but reversed! My FH is in an MBA program as well as doing an internship so his schedule and ability to take time off is almost non existent. Once he knows his final fall schedule and professors he is going to let them know up front he will be absent on the Friday before the wedding and Monday after. I would just take things slow, plan what you can in advance, and see if your bridesmaids, parents, and anyone else can support you on the little details that may arise last minute. A DOC doesn't hurt as well if the budget allows, best of luck!

To those of you who were in grad school while getting married, how involved in the planning were your partners? My FH feels confident he could pick up my slack the month of, so we'd only need a day of coordinator.

View Quoted Comment While I had to delegate a bit, my husband would do whatever I asked him to do. I did a lot of the planning ahead of time during school breaks and did not do a bunch of DIY projects, so honestly, there wasn't a ton to do month of except really the table assignments, which we did together. We wrote all couples on index cards and just arranged them in piles with other people who were in those social groups. It really didn't take more than an hour to do the seating arrangements (we had 115 guests).

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I keep hearing that the month of is going to be super busy, but even with my DIY, I expect everything to be finalized beforehand. Like you said, RSVPs and seating arrangements are about the only thing I imagine I'll have to do.

View Quoted Comment Yeah, I heard that to but....that really wasn't my experience. We provided a shot list to the photographer (like who we wanted photos with-there are tons of lists online), finalized our day of timeline (which was mostly done by our vendors anyway), and picked our spotlight songs (walking down the aisle, 1st dance, etc., and we didn't do bridal/garter toss). If you're organized and knock things out early, there's not much to do the month of, as a lot of those things can be done earlier. They aren't major things, so if you have an hour here or there, you can do some things. And others are just emails to vendors. You don't need to go and sit down and go over shot lists or anything. If you have more DIY and have a venue where you need to order tables, chairs, linens, etc. I imagine it's more intensive. So it depends on if your venue is more inclusive or not.