The 2 Year Engagement

We got engaged in October of 2013 and will be married in March of 2016, so about 2 1/2 years. I would recommend looking at your budget first - how much can you feasibly spend, and how much are you comfortable spending? The advantage of long engagements is that you have lots of time to save up! You can definitely look at big ticket items, like venue and photographer, because those can book up fast, but don't worry too much about the details right now.

One thing I definitely DON'T recommend doing is asking your bridal party now. FH and I made the mistake of doing that which has caused some awkwardness and a larger party than either of us wanted because we didn't want to un-ask people we had drifted further from, but we also had people that we wanted to add because we were now closer to them. So definitely wait on that until you have a date set and you're closer to that date - I would say no earlier than 1 year out, probably even less.

Another thing is just enjoy being engaged! I made the mistake of going into full planning mode when we got engaged and then got really depressed when we found out we were going to have to postpone it for another year. We ended up missing out on some of the general "we're engaged!" excitement. Don't focus too much on lots of wedding details now, just enjoy time with your now-fiance!

Congratulations on your engagement! IMHO it's never too early to plan some things. I just somewhat recently hit the one year left mark on an almost two year engagement and it's deifnitely gone by quickly! I'm now rattled with all the things I have left to do and hoping that I have enough time to do it!

Our engagement is just over two years. It has FLOWN by. An added bonus is that most of our vendors are paid off already and we were able to save a lot more (about $20,000) to have the wedding we want.

I got engaged November of 2012 and didn't get married until April 2015. Get all the big things out of the way like venue. Then just take your time with everything. One thing tho, don't keep telling yourself "Oh I've got so much time" That's how you end up rushing at the last minute!

Our engagement will be 1 year and 11 months. At first I felt the same as you, I was a little bummed because I felt like it was going to take so long. But I can tell you it was the best decision we ever made. We are just about 8 months out now and the time has absolutely flown. A longer engagement gives you more time to plan and save, time to work on DIY projects if you choose, time to spread out projects and meetings, and it usually will give you first choice on venues and vendors. Trust me when I say the time will fly and you will always find things to keep you busy. It's been nice because I go through phases where I am super involved in researching and planning and then I will go through a phase where I don't do anything, but I know it's ok because I have time! But like Jen said, don't procrastinate to the point where you're stressing at the end.

Congrats!!! Enjoy being engaged, and take your time planning... I'm still over 650 days to my wedding and started out somewhere over 700. Figure things out, start looking around. You can relax into it. :-)

I agree with others that a long engagement is not necessarily a bad thing. My engagement will be about 18 months, and I started planning right away. Here are a couple benefits that I've seen:

1) Generally, you have your pick of vendors. Yes, I had a couple vendors who weren't booking more than a year away, but I either went with someone else, or put a note on my calendar to call them back the second they were booking.

2) You can figure out what you want then watch for sales. I did this with my dress (I hit pretty much every sample sale in my area, and found a sample gown I absolutely love), my shoes (clearance sale at DSW), my Save The Dates (waited for a great deal from Vista Print), and my Thank You cards (found 2 sets of 50 on clearance at Target, only $6 each). I am also doing this with the centerpieces, and the table runners (both DIY projects, where I am watching for good deals on the individual components).

3) You can take your time, and (hopefully) enjoy the planning process without being stressed out trying to juggle wedding planning and real life!

We had an 18 month engagement, I know it's not two years but it seemed like it was so far away and now we're about 8 months away. Time goes quick make sure you start planning for the major things early, venue, dress etc. if you know your theme start picking things up now. Good luck it will be here before you know it.

We just got engaged in August and are also waiting until September of 2017 to get married. I have already started planning, having more time means getting quotes from everywhere and having the time to decide what is worth paying for. It is also extra time to save! I've set up an account with my fiance so we can both contribute as well! I agree with Jade, it's best to get all the big stuff out of the way (catering, venue, photographer, videographer) and save the small things for later. It will help in the long run to have extra time! We have also started planning an engagement party which will be small but still something fun me to use some of my pinterest ideas already! I've only been waiting 7 years for this so I knew I wanted to have an engagement party to celebrate right away and take the wedding pressure off when we decided to wait 2 years to get married. I have a feeling it'll fly by!

My FH and I have been engaged since July 2014, so it'll be a little over three years engaged but definitely worth it! I already have a lot of my planning all done and some items for the day picked up thanks to the help of my FMIL and Mother. Plan the little details that are just an added bonus of awesomeness you'll enjoy being engaged! Congrats!!!

Mine ended up almost exactly two years, but I didn't plan anything until I booked the venue, and as such I'd base your timeline on how far in advance the venues you like are typically booked.

But I crunched everything in pretty short so unless your venues have a long advance booking maybe don't listen to me.

Times will go by fast!! We got engaged in December 2014 and we aren't getting married until July 2016. Sometimes I wish that we didn't wait as long (we did because of my graduation) but it's also really nice to have time to plan! I used the long engagement to shop for sales. I also think that the long engagement time gives time for drama, unfortunately. I have someone who has looked for every reason in the world to not be at our wedding and the drama will continue until the wedding.