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VIP January 2013

Planning Around a Marine's Schedule

Marilyn, on July 13, 2012 at 10:28 PM Posted in Planning 0 5

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My FH is planning on going into the Marine's Officer's Program. He is applying for a January OCC. Previously he thought that he would have a long time before TBS and we picked a July wedding date. And now he found out he will have a littlw over a week.

Anyone been in this situation before? What we are trying to decide is do we do a Dec wedding (and only 5 mo for planning), or a March wedding between OCS and TBS (but then I am planning the last 3 months alone)?

Another issue is our dream venue, is on the beach in OR. In the winter it will be really rainy and windy. So, another option is to do it this year, but only have 3 months planning and have 3/4ths of our out-of-state family not come.

We can't really push it off a year, because a) we don't want to and b) once he is in TBS he will be at different schools for almost a year and his schedule will be even more hectic!

Anyone been in this situation before? Any advice? What do you guys think?

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5 Comments

Latest activity by Robin A., on July 14, 2012 at 2:10 PM

Expert June 2013
Soon to be mr K · on July 14, 2012 at 10:19 AM
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Check around to see what is available. You may not even be able to do the wedding in 3 months. If that is not possible, and you still don't want to wait to get married, you could always do something really small, such as a JP and small reception dinner. Otherwise, even though you don't want to, you may have to push it back, maybe even until after he finishes TBS.
As for putting it between OCS and TBS, you will probably be doing most of the planning alone anyway.
I'm not a military wife or wife to be, but I have a friend who had to move her wedding TWICE from when she originally planned it because it wouldn't work with Air Force training schedules the first time, and because of deployment the second time.
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Expert June 2013
Soon to be mr K · on July 14, 2012 at 10:20 AM
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She dreamed of a spring wedding, and ended up having it in December, a month after he got back from deployment.
The best advice I can give you is, if you plan to have it after he leaves for OTS, make sure you check with your vendors about what their date change policy is.
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Master March 2012
Pan · on July 14, 2012 at 1:20 PM
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You need to accept now that you will need to be super flexible with planning, and may need to change your date a few times before it's done. We had to move ours 4 times. Started off with a November 2011 date, that didn't work out so we moved it to Christmas because we thought he'd get leave since they usually do.....that didn't work out either so it got moved to February.....we ended up getting married JOP style in March 2 weeks before he deployed. Flexibility.

Since he is not even in yet, I would suggest holding off on picking a date. You don't know what his schedule looks like yet. You may also wanna get used to the idea of planning alone. The only way you can have everything you want, date, venue, planning together is maybe if you wait until he is done with both OCS and TBS. The military doesn't care about your schedule. She's kinda a b**ch.
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Master March 2012
Pan · on July 14, 2012 at 1:31 PM
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Make sure you get a military clause in your contracts with vendors in case you do have to change the date or something. It could save you a lot of money.
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Master July 2012
Robin A. · on July 14, 2012 at 2:10 PM
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I have a friend who had to move her wedding date up 6 months so her husband could be there because he was going into the army. I think it was tough, but they were able to pull it off.

They are actually both going to make our wedding although her husband is currently in Afghanistan. (He's coming home Monday)

Working around a military schedule is never easy. I think Pan has it right that you will need to be super flexible.
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