Military Brides

Our wedding was in April and we decided to have my dad officiate and take professional photos at a later date. Always an option for you if you can give up a big celebration. My husband is on restricted movement and on July 2nd is when he has the permission to get to his new duty station which is 2500 miles away. He also is deploying in November and with that comes weeks in the field leading up to their leave date. So we had to think about logistics. We have a virus going on and they keep changing things, we need to establish a home in a new state, we have no set training schedule yet, so that is why we just did the deed and got hitched. I am not sure what advice to give besides I know this really stinks and many people don't understand how much harder it is when you have a spouse who is under a pretty significant contract with no wiggle room. I think you need to decide what will work best for you if the ban does not get lifted. Will you elope or will you postpone until a possible deployment is complete? It might be good to have some options in the back of your mind just in case.

Can you do a small ceremony now and maybe do the big one when you’re able to travel and after his deployment? We are scheduled to get married in November and our state is still in phase one and our base is pretty locked down. My FH isn’t allowed to travel outside the immediate area so we aren’t sure what we are going to do. We’ve discussed that worse case we will have a small ceremony this year on our original date and do the big reception and honeymoon hopefully next year for our anniversary. We live an hour from his parents but as things stand right now, they cannot even visit because they’re from a different state and all of my family is across country. We joked that we can’t even elope to Vegas because he can’t leave the immediate area.

View Quoted Comment For sure! The only problem is that we'd lose over $18,000 if we cancel and do something smaller... It is a very difficult situation for sure! I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that 😓

View Quoted Comment Ughhh this is the worst isn't it Marabethco?? If set postpone, it'd have to be to 2022 at this point 😓

We are in this boat. Thankfully our wedding is close to our home, however all of our family is traveling in. More than half of our already diminished list (we are down to 14 from 22, due to international restrictions) are military and we don't yet know if they will be able to come. We are going to proceed regardless at this point, since it is in just over a month (7/28) and do a live stream. We are looking at the possibility of a huge celebration next year, but even then I won't be making it "wedding-y". We are also canceling our honeymoon to Japan (which was completely booked and paid for). I wanted to do a mini-weekend somewhere... but since we can't leave, so far we can't do that either. I completely understand your frustration!

Have you talked to your vendors? Most would be understanding that the DoD has restrictions that would impact your ability to even go there.

I’m in a similar situation! We were planning to get married in October but my fiancé got quarantined at his new base. Now he’ll miss his start date for his last school and we aren’t sure when the next class will start. So we have no idea when his leave is now and it’s important that we get married then because he’s getting shipped overseas. I honestly have no clue what to do other than just going to the courthouse and having the wedding party later on.

View Quoted Comment Thanks Gwendolyn... It helps to know you're not alone! I really hope it all works out and all of your guests can attend!... They all know we're military, but there's no other options we really have except to postpone far out. We won't get out money back from our caterer or venue if we cancel, and it's a lot of money to lose 😓😓

View Quoted Comment Ughhh I'm sorry Lucy! I hope you guys get his leave figured out so that you know when it is and can work around it!

So sorry to hear that you are going through this. I, also, live in NC and my FH is stationed up in MD. We haven't been able to see each other for 3 months now. We were supposed to get married in NC in November, but we have pushed that out until next year. However, we still want to get married now so with our families blessing I am traveling up to him so we can elope in 10 days time! I researched our different options in MD, VA and DC and the DC one is the most flexible so that is what we have decided to do. Luckily, he isn't being deployed, but once he is married he should be able to move out of the barracks which will make it easier for me to visit him.

I saw mentioned that if you postponed it would have to be until 2022. Is there no way you can move it to next year (vendors may be more flexible) and travel back for the wedding? My dad was stationed in Europe and flew back so that my parents could get married in the U.S. and then she went back with him to his duty station. Just a thought.

View Quoted Comment Awww that's great!! I'm glad you guys figured out how to make it work and that you're getting married soon! So exciting!... Sooo he would be on rapid deployment next year and not able to go outside of a two hour drive. Orrr he will get into a training in MO that would last a year and from which he cannot take any leave. So next year just wouldn't be a possibility for us in either scenario 😓 Thank you so much for the advice and encouragement though!

View Quoted Comment That is certainly tough. I hope the travel restrictions ease up soon!

View Quoted Comment Me too!! Keeping fingers crossed very tightly!