How Do You Measure a Year?

In checklists, obviously.  (I've been on a big musicals kick lately, and so of course Rent).

I can't believe this is the end of 2013.  It's been a crazy, busy year and it absolutely flew by.  Doesn't everyone always say that?  Maybe we should ajust our perception of how long a year is.  Still, even more amazing is that tomorrow is 2014.  It will be the year that we get married.  Holy cow.

With the wedding in May, we essentially have a semester to finish off everything for the big day - I've done more than this in that period of time before, right?  In honor of the completion of a year and the start of a new one, I want to take a look at some of the things that we've gottten done and when.

New Years Eve 2012 Fireworks Shenanigans- BM/FSIL Dino shooting her magic wand, and Sphinx being Sphinx.  Because why not?

If you're a newly-engaged Bee fresh out of a Christmas-season engagement, hello, welcome, and you should say hi in the comments!  The most overwhelming time for me was at the beginning, trying to figure out what to address first, so I hope this can give you some idea of what we prioritized.

I started out with lists on Wedding Wire to use as a guideline, mainly to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything.  I adjusted all the timing to fit our needs, since the app doesn't have you start doing anything until one year out.  Yea, my venue would have been booked up if I had waited that long!  So do what works for you, and make sure you realize the decisions that are depended on other decisions.  Like if you're getting married in a church, don't buy your dress (or the bridesmaids) until you've talked with them about the dress code.

Here's a rundown of what the Pyramids finalized every month in this engagement.


December 2012: 
Got engaged! - did some reserach but no definite decisions at this point.

January 2013: 
Rough draft of the guest list/budget
Picked a date
Booked the church
Booked the reception venue

February 2013: 
Booked the wedding photographer, florist, makeup artist
Chose a color scheme and general theme

March 2013: 
Bought my wedding dress
Booked the reception band, engagement shoot photographer, and videographer
Asked my girls to be my bridesmaids
Started buying candles/glassware/decorations

April 2013: 
Bought some other white dresses (shower, bachelorette, rehearsal dinner, etc.)

May 2013: 
Bought my shoes and engagement picture dress in NYC

June 2013: 
Booked hotel blocks, ceremony cantor, and organist.
Started our registry.

July 2013: 
Booked wedding day limos
Completed e-pic props
Bought my coveted chandeliers!

August 2013: 
Took engagement pictures

September 2013: 
Booked our linens/rentals guy

October 2013: 
Submitted my application to the Bee and got accepted!
Booked rehearsal dinner and welcome party venues
Booked hair stylist
Purchased bridesmaids gowns (reveal coming soon!)

November 2013: 
Mostly finalized guest list.

December 2013: 
Initial meeting with the priest
Day for the Engaged class
Makeup trial
Finished the wedding website
Completed and sent out Save the Dates

Yikes, looking at it like that, it seems like some months nothing got done (and really, sometimes they didn't).  But a lot of those months had research or prep work going on before something was officially finalized, and sometimes real life actually requried some of my attention.  I want to kick myself for not getting more done in April and May, but when I remember that I had some important projects to prepare and present at work, I can cut myself some slack.  Also, the natural progression is to start to develop more ideas as you go and some of these things just couldn't be done back then.

I told Sphinx that we need to kick it in gear from here on out - every week we should be attempting to get at least something on the checklist done - I'll let you know how that works out.  We've got lots of things going on right at the beginning of the year here: catering and cake tasting, the FOCCUS test, photobooth reservations, booking the honeymoon, and deciding on the guys' attire.  When it gets overwhelming, I try to to balance out tedious tasks with fun ones.  Spent some time trying to fight with the website layout, so I go add some goodies to the registry.  Reviewed the guest list and updated addresses, so we look up honeymoon activities and daydream.  It helps to keep me excited and not annoyed (mostly).  And don't forget to seek out your partner's help - I was totally overwhelmed trying to pick dishes for our tasting, but I sat down with Sphinx and it was fun to go over it together and went by much more quickly!

And when all else fails - wine a little.  Or champagne in honor of 2014 heading our way!

Apparently I don't have a picture with champagne, so here's a cider toast with BM Dino (she's on fire today)

Cheers to a new year from the Pyramids!

Are you an already married/more experienced bee? Any advice on how to handle the home stretch here?  What did you wish you had gotten done sooner?