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Just Said Yes February 2023

Military Spouse sudden deployment and wedding

Amber, on July 13, 2023 at 4:40 AM Posted in Etiquette and Advice 0 6
For background, we got married in January earlier this year for financial reasons but no one knows. Close family members were talked to about the what if since we lived seperate and lets just say the conversation wasnt pretty. It was a walk into a courthouse and stamp the paper kinda thing with the plan always being to have an actual wedding because ultimately its what we wanted anyway.
Prior to any date setting he checked in with his superiors and was told his time frame to expect potential deployment was April - August with a potential extension into September if nessasary but would not be anything over that. So for example if he deployed in July then the max would be September. This was confirmed multiple times, he put his leave request in months ago and told it would be approved.

Hes suddenly being told to get ready to deploy with it being highly likely to extend into october or further. We have family that have already paid for tickets, honeymoon, venue partially paid and more. He was a week away from getting into base housing after being on the wait list and has had to cancel it / get at the end of the line on the list again. I feel like an ahole but he's told me that people are getting out of the deployment for babies on the way or medicine and I'm beside myself thinking everyone else's life events are being ok'd but ours is not even though we confirmed everything along the way to make sure we were good. Whenever he comes back from deployment he will be homeless because of the base housing thing and the end of his lease at the prior apartment with roommates plus potentially pissing off alot of family with money sunk and money that has been sunk into the wedding.
I'm understanding of deployment and I know it's part of the gig. I just don't know what to do, I'm panicking because if he's extended the honeymoon, family tickets and other things can not be moved or refunded. I feel so bad for my friends and family that have gotten tickets since we're 3 months out from the wedding. We both want this wedding and it has to take place before I move across the US because I'm planning, making and setting up stuff myself. I have everything stored at my house. There is also the factor that we were saving up for moving costs and I've already put in my final day notice with my work so they can get an overlap position for me to train the person. Now with everything going on I may have to last minute tell people the weddings canceled and cancel my final day notice but that will screw my work over with hiring my replacement since the hiring process can take 1 to 3 months.
We can potentially talk to the venue about moving the date if even available and hope they will honor their word to accommodate. But it remains that everything will come down to last second notice of the weddings happening or not. The honeymoon can not be changed and will be a complete loss so will family members plane tickets, and all the other more minor things such as rsvps. His mother has already been kinda nasty to him saying he should have expected it which we both agree but at the same time disagree since he was told several times that it was approved and they would make it happen. Even some of his immediate superiors are giving him a hard time.
Can someone please give me some advice? I plan to let everyone know it may have to be canceled or if we're lucky moved. How am I to expect several people that play a major part in the wedding that have to fly in to wait for last second notice or pay expensive ticket price for flights at the last second especially if they have non refundable tickets for the original date. Do I continue to sink money into a wedding that may not happen? We still need to book someone to "marry" us and I'll have to pay a deposit. If he's not back in October, we've agreed there is no way we can have the event in November because of Thanksgiving, veterans day, several close family members wedding anniversary where they won't be there and my neices birthday which knowing my sister she'll make a stink. That puts the potential wedding into December but we were having an outdoor ceremony under an oak, which will probably be dead by that time with decor that has small white pumpkins. Which would delay my final work day being November 30th and moving cross country December 1st.
It's a complete mess, I'm a plan for the worst person and feel so awful about the money people have already sunk into this wedding. To say the least I'm freaking out, my job in itself is a high stress position (goes with the territory) and I also have to take over all his finances while he's gone from across the country which just seems stressful to figure out making it happen when i have to sign stuff for him.
I apologize for the long post. It's just a whole ordeal.

6 Comments

Latest activity by Jacks, on July 14, 2023 at 1:44 AM
  • Cece
    Master October 2023
    Cece ·
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    So sorry this is happening, it sounds like a mess. Unfortunately, the military life is a very unpredictable one. It's up to you whether you would like to try to continue on with your plans, not knowing if they will come to fruition with your husband's deployment. Personally, I would not sink any more money into an event that may not happen. And I wouldn't ask my guests to sit on plane tickets until the last minute (when they likely won't be refundable/transferable). Not to mention the financial penalties for cancelling hotels/airbnbs last minute, and not giving them time to retract their requested time off with their employers (so they don't miss out on wages for no reason). If I were in your shoes, I would cut my losses with the celebration (especially since you are already married), and just send out announcements that you were married. And I would put the saved money towards your moving expenses/future housing plans.

    If you decide you want to continue planning and paying for an event that may not happen, I would definitely let all your guests know immediately so they can decide if they want to try to get refunded for their airline tickets (or at least get a credit to use at a later time).

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  • Jacks
    Champion November 2054
    Jacks ·
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    Oh boy, yeah this is stressful. It sounds like everything is full of uncertainty. I would be concerned that no-one knows that you got married already, and I would advise being upfront about that. This is going to get harder and harder to hide with all of the shifting factors going on. I would probably postpone and/or cancel what you have and send out marriage announcements. Perhaps plan for a really amazing anniversary party when things are more settled?

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  • C
    CM ·
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    I’m sorry that your celebration is so up in the air but agree with PPs that you need to be honest with everyone that you are now married. Even if people bought nonrefundable tickets they may be able to get a flight credit. There may or may not be a change fee. At least it wouldn’t be a total loss.


    Considering there is always the possibility of imminent deployment if there’s anyone who can’t understand that you needed to get married sooner and not later, and that the celebration had to be postponed, too bad.
    One issue though. Don’t imply that a courthouse wedding is not real. That disrespects all those who consider their marriage and their wedding days to be very real. Besides, by definition it’s inaccurate.
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  • A
    Just Said Yes February 2023
    Amber ·
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    I'm not saying courthouse marriages arnt real. I am saying that our courthouse marriage was walking in and out to get a paper certified. There was no mini ceremony or anything just literally having a paper stamped, paying for copies driving 6hrs home after some really bad stuff happened. Having something special wasnt even an option unfortunately, by the time part of the bad stuff happened we were out of time to do our mini ceremony with just me and him. At the end of the day it's how the individual sees their wedding day shouldnt be based on my opinion on how my day went. I've seen plenty of really cute courthouse weddings, ours just wasn't it. We both just really want to have a small ceremony because it's what we originally wanted. Our ceremony that we were planning is very minimal. It just seems both times we try to do something special for us life gets in the way. One of the most important things to me is having the family and friends to spend time and take pictures. Alot of our older family isn't doing good and we want to have our ceremony with them present.


    My side of the family has some toxic behaviors and I've been told that if I did go through with the courthouse marriage due to reasons that several people that are close to me would cut me off / be super mad because they felt like I done them wrong by not having say a father daughter dance. It's not really an option for me to tell my family, I would break my grandparents hearts and deal with alot of hateful gaslighting comments. It's just not worth my mental health. We got married 1/13 and were hoping for 10/13. To everyone around us we would be married 10/13 and celebrate it as our wedding day, 1/13 would always be a day just the two of us where we would go and do something new together since that's what we did leading up to the 13th.
    I'll be letting everyone know in a few days after he deploys, we can't have either of the families post on Facebook about his deployment cause they 100% will and it'll cause him alot of problems. He's already gotten in some trouble because his grandpa on one side when moving to that base.
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  • P
    Devoted April 2023
    Peyton ·
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    Can you have the ceremony with the groom online? Or could he get a one or two day leave of absence so he could at least show to his own wedding? Just brainstorming….

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  • Jacks
    Champion November 2054
    Jacks ·
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    Sounds like the circumstances of your marriage weren't ideal, but I can't see any way out of this without being honest about your marital status. By the sounds of it, I'm not sure why a ceremony would be helpful to you at all.

    It's hard when you start married life trying to do the gymnastics with the truth that you're doing. I hope you stick the landing.

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