When is Crunch Time?

My mom hosted my shower a few months before my wedding, that’s really dependent on your schedule though. I didn’t really do any diy, but the last week was my crunch time. That being said, no one helped other then when it came time to pick up my dress lol!


Maybe mark out on a calendar when key activities are, like final dress fitting, final counts due to your venue, etc and back into it from there.

I'd say for daughter's wedding the last two weeks were "crunch time," but not continuously, and she was really organized (also not tons of DIY). Assuming the shower is planned well in advance, it can be right after your mom arrives, perhaps a week or two before the wedding. I'd also consider things like where your mom will be staying. Especially if she'll be staying with you, how long will that be a good thing? I was EXTREMELY close to my mom. I lived geographically close when we got married, so that wasn't an issue, but I was 3000 miles away when we had our first child. I was thrilled that she was planning to come for a visit when I had the baby. However, when she told me she'd booked her flights and planned to be with us for 6 weeks, I knew that would be WAY TOO LONG for her to stay with us and our brand new baby. I had to ask her to scale it back to 3 weeks. (Even that proved challenging when baby was nearly two weeks late, so we spent two of her three weeks with her mostly staring at my belly....) I think a big part of this depends on your relationship, where she'll be staying, and whether a long visit will be helpful and enjoyable or a stressful distraction. Good luck!

We’re not doing any DIY but my mom isn’t coming in until the Thursday before my Saturday wedding. We had my bridal shower in January.

If your mom planning on staying with you for a whole month plus prior to the wedding to help? That would drive me insane! I love my mom, but I'd probably want to kill her if she was in my face and trying to help me for more than a few days at most. My mom and MOH are coming up two days prior to the wedding.

My wedding is February 20th and I think crunch time won’t happen for us until like February 13th when I pick up my dress. I’ve been doing a whole lot of projects all year though. What still needs to be done for you guys?

If your mom can come out June 4, I'd have her come out then! Typically the month out was when we did all the big things like final vendor meetings, walk through, final decisions, welcome bags, etc.

I feel like my crunch time was 1-2 weeks before the wedding.

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We're DIYing all of our decorations (except flowers), so that will be the big thing. My extended family is flying in the week before the wedding so I'd like to have everything done before they get there so I can just enjoy having them around! I'll be working full time up until the day before the wedding (I get it off thankfully because of the holiday), so even if she comes in a month early, we won't actually get much time together.

She will be staying with me, but we're pretty close so that isn't an issue. My biggest concern is that she'll be bored while I'm at work.

My extended family will also be staying with me the week before the wedding, so I'll also need her help to get the house ready. The week leading up is going to be fun, but chaotic!

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Lol yes, she'll be staying with me. So will my entire extended family for a week leading up the wedding. Thankfully we have lots of space!

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It's mostly putting together decorations, favours, and deciding how to lay out the venue (where to put tables and whatnot). I'll also need help prepping the house because my extended family is arriving a week before the wedding and staying with me.

My dress doesn't arrive until May, so I don't yet know when the alterations will be done (if I need any)

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That sounds like a good plan. I know there'll be a lot to do in that final month!

I just don't want her coming too soon and getting bored (I'll still be working full time)

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Yeah I think a month out is totally fine! My mom moved to CO from CA during our engagement (around 8 months before our wedding) but the final month was when I had my final fittings, we picked final things, she put together favors & welcome bags, etc. so she did a lot more wedding related things then.

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OMG I would go crazy. Granted we have a really tiny house but still I really like my personal space and alone time. Half of the reason I know my FH is my life partner is because he's the only human being who I can be with all day every day for weeks at a time and not get completely sick of. I'm nervous about what to do with my mom/MOH if they come more than just a couple days ahead of time!

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I assign my mother tasks or send her out shopping. She also has friends in the area which helps to occupy her! I thin there'll be enough going on/enough other people in town leading up to the wedding to keep everyone busy!

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That's awesome! I moved away from where I grew up 10 years ago and my mom and bestie have each only been here once (despite it only being a 4 hour drive) so they don't know where anything is and would be pretty useless, my mom especially because she doesn't even have a cell phone and won't be bringing up her car (and she's awful at directions anyway). My mom would have the absolute best intentions but probably get in the way more than help.

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Yeah that's a hard dynamic to balance. Hopefully it all works out okay! Will you be working leading up to your wedding? Originally I planned to, but I may end up taking half days most days for that week.

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I work at a college and we set our date for the weekend after Memorial Day and two weeks after graduation. It is usually a slow time at work and we will have the Monday off before the wedding because of the holiday, so I was planning to take at least Thursday and Friday off, but I may take off more time depending on how much still needs to be done and how much vacation I have left at that point. I worry that if I take too much time off in the week before the wedding I'll just drive myself crazy thinking about the wedding 24/7 and think a little bit of work might actually be a good distraction.

We haven't done any honeymoon planning yet, so I don't want to take too much vacation time for the wedding itself and then have to cut short honeymoon plans if we end up deciding to go shortly after. I think it will probably just be a later thing at this point though.

My wedding was in November and my showers were in mid September and early October as far as "crunch time" ours was the week of the wedding. I got there on Thursday finished up last minute things on Friday and set up the venue that afternoon and my wedding was on a Saturday. Once I finalized my DIY ideas I started working on them and made sure they were completely ready in October for my November 16th wedding

We are doing a decent amount of DIY also but getting it all done NOW. This way when we are 1-2 weeks out from wedding weekend we can focus on the detail things and enjoy the time together versus being stressed out about these things. We are all different but I say the sooner things are done, the better.