If you'd been given 6 months extra to plan, how would you have used it and what do you wish you did?

I had 7 months extra. I saved extra money to spend on vacation so we could do multiple activities everyday if we chose. We also brought back a lot of souvenirs.


I was able to spend more on my bachelorette trip and I had more time to assemble some decor and pay for little things I didn’t think of before.

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Those are good ideas! We want to go on a helicopter flight for lunch on our honeymoon, but we're nervous about booking it in case we can't travel interstate by Feb! But, we figure it's unlikely private helicopter flights will book out completely for the entire length of our trip, so we are leaving that until closer to the time, haha!

I was unfortunately given an extra 18 months due to 2 postponements. In the time I did think about my wedding I got anxious about my gown and bought another. I do not recommend this-it was a budget buster (although I love my new gown so much more). We completely forgot about our wedding for about a year to be honest because it was too upsetting, and we had a lot of health and house issues to deal with in the meantime. It’s only in the past few weeks I’ve allowed myself to get slightly excited.

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Wow that really is an awfully long time! Forgetting about it seems like a good idea when you have as long as that to wait. That must have been hard - I'm sorry!

I hear you on the dress - I LOVE mine but had it altered to add sleeves and now we'll be getting married in summer instead of early spring so I'm worried I'll be way too hot, but having the sleeves removed after my seamstress literally just added them is going to cost me a bunch, sigh.

I wish I had taken notes on when my bridal party would walk down the aisle! Day of, it worked out perfectly, but only due to the text I sent at 2am with the timing 🤣 my rehearsal felt so stressful! I just assumed the timing with the song would flow how I envisioned it but not the case in real life.


Best advice I got was writing a very detailed timeline and thought out all the little logistics of the day. Examples from my wedding were: time linens will be on the tables, who will hand me my toss bouquet, who will put my soft dancing shoes under the sweetheart table, who will return the water fountain under my cake back to the florist that had to be returned within 48 hours, who is responsible for tear down, etc. Looking back, I’d say 95% went smoothly and largely due to the timeline 👍 ❤️❤️❤️

I got an extra two years, since we postponed from 2020 to 2022, and we decided to make a few small changes to our wedding. So far, we saved up and booked a videographer and day-of coordinator (neither of which we had for our original date), decided to write our own vows, worked on assembling our centerpieces and perfecting them, organizing everything into boxes to make it easier to transport/setup at our venue, and decided to do a second photo engagement session. Otherwise, we've set our wedding stuff into a closet until time gets a little closer. We've also been just planning date nights and celebrating our relationship without any connection to our wedding.

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Oh damn now that is a specific and detailed timeline! I LOVE IT!

I'm definitely going to delegate certain things to certain people - I did this for my sister on her wedding day so she's up for mine!

Our venue is about 1.5 hours away, where my parents live, so I do want to have a full checklist of everything I want to take with us, and what is in which box.

Things like

- all the stuff for the venue (cake topper, table numbers, decor items)

- all the little details to have ready for the wedding photographer when he arrives (rings, ring box, blue and borrowed items, jewellery, perfume)

- all the things for the bridesmaids (the little gifts I got them, but also robes, wraps, heel shields/blister packs that I want to leave in their rooms)

- all the things for me (getting ready robe, shoes, undies, wrap for my dress if it gets cold, comfortable shoes for later) and then all the things for my husband and his groomsmen (shirts, ties, pocket squares, socks)

- the paper stuff (cards for our reader, mc, my parents, his parents, our bridal party etc)

of course, at the moment, all of this is jammed tetris-style into boxes without any sensible order, just what actually fits sensibly in our spare room since it needs to live there for the next 6 months!. But having a full list to check will be useful closer to the time.

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Awww, those are lovely things to do! I agree with you about the boxes. Several of the comments have been about that so I think it will be a good thing to put on my list!

Also, I'm sorry you've had to wait so long. Having to push by 6 months really sucked, so I know how you must feel. We've really earned our lovely days when they come!

Having had a pre-COVID wedding, I can tell you - nope, if I'd had an extra 6 months to plan, I would have hated it.

We planned in 7 1/2 months (more like 6 with him getting mono and me getting the flu), and while that wasn't easy... ugh. I hated planning and got decision fatigue super quickly.

MAYBE we would have been able to talk to the priest about the fiasco that was pre-Cana, but I don't think that would have changed the outcome of him refusing to marry us in the Church. (I was ... not happy with pre-Cana.)

I was “gifted” with an additional year of planning when we rescheduled from 2020 to 2021. And have now been given the same gift twice, as we have decided to postpone from 2021 to 2022 🤦🏼‍♀️ The only positive about the extra time was the additional money we would be able to save. I would caution about thinking too hard about things you can change, add, tweak, etc. It quickly turns into a rabbit hole you don’t realize you’ve fallen down. I have now completely redone our wedding, from the bottom up, TWICE! I don’t even want to think about all the time and money I have lost on this! 😩 I would just ensure you have a detailed timeline written out. What helped me was listing each vendor and every detail I needed about them (cost, tip, when they would arrive/depart, Who would be tearing down/cleaning up after them if required, when any sort of rental they provided would need to be returned, etc.). Once that was done, I went through the entire day, step-by-step, from the perspective of our wedding party (and their significant others), then the perspective of our guests. It was really helpful in ensuring no one was being inconvenienced and everyone had a enjoyable experience on the day!

I wouldn't have wanted an extra six months.

I am indecisive, and I needed the very strict timeline of planning to keep from changing everything.

The only thing I could maybe have seen is that I'd have had a little more money and would have hired a videographer (my biggest regret).

I had a year to plan but honestly i probably "wasted" half of it not planning? haha i went thru periods of like 2-3 months where i just didn't do anything. so i think what i should have really done is thought through some stuff more such as do i really need this, etc because there were things for my wedding i kind of felt like i rushed into thinking about doing and could have used more time to think about it

I would've used that extra time to save more money definitely. This has been such a stressful experience but that's more so because of our bridal party so I wouldn't necessarily WANT extra time but I would've used it to add more funds.

View Quoted Comment If you’re indoors or if it’s later in the evening you should be okay!

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Haha, I hear you! I would have done this shiz in 6 months if it hadn't have been for covid! I don't want any more time either, but here we are, and there's not much to do but make the best of it! Thanks covid!

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We have spreadsheets up the wazoo too, so that part is sorted, but your timeline idea definitely sounds like a fun lockdown activity to undertake! I'll get on that for sure!

We gained an extra year due to postponing, and I spent most of that year saving money and taking a break from wedding planning.

If I had used the extra time, I would have worked on two things:

1) The ceremony-- that was probably the only weak point in our wedding. Granted this was a small wedding and we didn't have a rehearsal, so I should have gone through the details with a fine tooth comb. There were a few awkward moments and the officiant had a mic but we did not, so most people did not hear our vows. There was also no "you may kiss the bride," so we completely forgot to kiss until we had walked down the aisle!

2) Dealing with excess/leftovers. I wish we had formed a plan beforehand. We had a lot of food, and we were able to freeze or eat most of it but I would have preferred to donate some. We also had a LOT of flowers which just sat around our house because it took too long to arrange a donation to the local hospital.

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All good thoughts! definitely going to run through the timeline and practicalities of the day after reading all these comments.

And aww, that's cute about the kiss! I was quite picky about the word choice. I don't really like when they say 'you may kiss each other' or even when they use the names (Jack, you may now kiss Diane)! I wanted good old fashioned, watched a million times in the movies, "you may now kiss the bride"!

I wouldn't have wanted an extra 6 months. our engagement was 12 months and I already felt like I could have done everything in a lot shorter period of time! I would say just have fun planning and preparing for your honeymoon (save some money for fun activities, souvenirs to splurge on, etc.!)

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Yes, I suppose the saving is the only really good point, plus the extra time to get a bit fitter.

I am not sure if we'll be able to have our honeymoon. Currently we're not allowed further than 5k from our own homes, and we do have another 5 months to go so a lot could change and restrictions might ease, but it might end up being a Staycation and the souvenirs will be groceries from our local supermarket!