Yes, you read that right… this is all about how to plan a wedding in 4 months! Most cannot believe that I did that but I promise you, it can be done and you can get a beautiful wedding out of it! Now before the the judgy people enter the chat, my now husband and I dated in a very unique way. We met in 2016 and had an instant connection and began dating. After about a year in, we realized that we were two very damaged people and needed to take time to allow God to wholeheartedly heal our hearts before we commit to anyone. During that time, we remained very close friends.

My wedding story!

In 2021, he realized he just couldn’t continue life without me in it 😉 so he officially asked me to begin dating again. When we started dating, it was with the intention to get married. We even talked about our wants for our wedding and he told me to get that trusty Pinterest board ready 🙂

In October of 2021, he surprised me with the sweetest proposal with all our close friends and family members. Of course, I said YES and so the planning began! My husband and I chose to not live together until we were married and after talk and guidance from our pastor, we decided to not have a long engagement! My slow wedding photography season was coming so we thought, why wait, let’s have us a winter wedding!

Here are 10 tips to plan a wedding in 4 months!

👉🏽 First, narrow down the 3 most important things to me and that was the venue, photographer (duh) and florals. The top 3 things are different for everyone and these where what I cared about most:

👉🏽 Set a date! We planned our wedding date around the availability of our photographer because I was set on having Jessica Lauren Photography. I mean of course as a photographer, that was very important. We also looked at a couple venue choices online. Neo on Locust was a top choice for us and their availability lined up with our photographer! We were able to have our wedding on a Sunday and did the ceremony and reception all in the Neo Room. This saved us quite a bit of money!

👉🏽 Narrow down all other vendors such as cake, DJ and catering. There’s so many great wedding vendors in STL so this was hard!

👉🏽 Kept a small, intimate guest list. I ordered an invitation template from Etsy and ordered all our invites from a professional printing company!

👉🏽 I shopped the on-rack dresses at The Bridal Shoppe and found a dress in my size (and was even on sale!) Also, My grandma is a seamstress so she did the alterations!

👉🏽 Prioritized my bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets, and backdrop for florals. I went simple with my table decor since the venue was such a vibe and this saved us a lot!

👉🏽 DIY’d what I could including wedding invites and day of signage. My brother built us the most amazing ceremony backdrop!

👉🏽 Kept decor simple yet romantic. Luckily, I had a friend (also shout out to Jessica) that recently got married and she had a few decor pieces that I was able to incorporate into my day. We DIY dyed our napkins to match our colors!

👉🏽 Skipped out on wedding favors. Your guest won’t miss them, I promise 🙂

👉🏽 Most importantly, we prioritized the marriage more than the wedding day. We spent our time in premarital counseling and knew that no matter how the wedding turned out, our marriage was what was important. So we didn’t sweat the small stuff.

These are just a few tips to take into consideration when you plan a wedding in 4 months. There was a lot of sacrifice when planning but I wouldn’t change a thing. We had all hands on deck with the wedding planning process and I cannot thank my family, friends, and vendors enough for all they did to make the most special day for me and Marquis!

St. Louis Wedding Vendors

Photographer: Jessica Lauren Photography

Venue: Neo On Locust

Dress: The Bridal Shoppe

Florals: Farm Girl Floral

DJ: Gold Star DJ

Catering: Concetta’s Catering

Cake: Simply Sweet Sensations