Southern California - What month should we get married in?

Hi there Jocelyn!

Welcome to the WeddingWire community

Many people choose to have short or long engagement for many reasons, the decision is totally unique to each couple.

You and your FS need to think realistically about what type of a wedding you would like (size, budget, etc) and figure out if you can save the funds for an August 2020 wedding. If this would leave you both under a lot of financial strain, it might not be a bad idea to plan for 2021.

If you’re wondering about the price differences between an August and March wedding, I would do some pricing around and figure this piece out. Perhaps speak with the venue you would like to have your wedding at as an indicator!

The month of your bachelor and bachelorette parties is dependent on where you want to go. If you would like to go somewhere which relies on nice weather, you could go in Summer. A bachelor and bachelorette party is typically held about a month before the wedding, however, if you’re wedding parties or whoever is planning them were ok with it, you could move the date to suit the location you wish to go to!

I've seen places where march would be a better price because some may consider it not yet wedding season. HOWEVER, us being in southern california, that may or may not be the best weather. usually you'd think it is. i live in the san gabriel valley and march-may have been rainy or so gloomy here and there more than i thought it would. i had my bridal shower mid march and i was lucky it landed on a time where it was sunny but the other weekends of march were gloomy and rainy. the likelihood of socal weather being nice is high compared to other locations though.
whatever you decide, think about how much you'd like to save and how much it would take you to save up to that and what time of season you'd like - i know in socal it's fairly warm so that might not be a helpful tidbit.
my groom actually chose our wedding date because it worked best for his work schedule so maybe also look at your own personal schedules to decide.

I think it totally depends on where you want to get married. In doors or out doors; early, mid day or evening ceremony time. What type of flowers would you like and when are those in season, what kind of dress.
I live in the inland empire and PP said it has been very unusual weather for SoCal so much so that we moved our February 2020 wedding to October 2020. My sister had an August wedding last year in Alhambra, ceremony was at 5 and outside, reception inside. The was beginning to go down so it was too hot, but when we did our pictures earlier it was buring up. Makeup had to keep getting retouch because she was sweating.

Also determine your budget that will also dictate when and where. On the had the mountains have some beautiful locations that would work well in August, not so much in March. People have done weddings on very small budgets and extremely large ones. At the end of the day you MARRY YOUR BESTIE, that's the really IMPORTANT part
Options are endless, you both just need to sit down and figure what you can't absolutely live without and what you are willing to compromise on.