Wedding planning while in nursing school

Glimmer · Apr 5, 2005

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Given that my mother makes wedding cakes we hear a lot of the scheduling conflicts and horror stories that go along with it. Here are some of the thing that I would say that you take into consideration.

1. How big is your wedding going to be? A big wedding is certainly harder to plan than a smaller one.

2. Do you already have a place for the wedding/reception? If so, does it come with catering? How much does the staff do? What will you be responsible for?

3. When is your last day of class? And is your soon-to-be taking summer classes? If so, how soon before they start? Does he have any assigned work during the "off" time that he will have to accomplish?

4. No matter what anyone tells you or the horror stories you hear about 99% of the time everything works out great! Take a deep breath... and if you can make it through nursing school you can make it through this as well. Sure it is stressful and the added stress may drive you to the point of insanity but it will be worth it :) Try to get friends and family as involved as you can. A lot of them would probably really like to help but do not want to step on toes or intrude into your plans... be open for suggestions from those on the outside looking in. Often times we try to overdo ourselves or we taken the scenic route to a very simple objective... simple is easy and very pretty/elegant in many cases :)

Good Luck!

Alnee

jenrninmi, MSN, RN · Apr 5, 2005

Congratulations to you!!

No, I haven't planned a wedding during nursing school (I've been married 11 1/2 years). In my experience though, the female tends to do most of the planning anyway. We planned our wedding in ~3months. It can be done. Good luck!

seneca-BSN-student · Apr 5, 2005

Congratulations on your engagement! I got married last year (May). Please elope! If that's not an option, go to your local library and get lots of wedding books. Make up a schedule of what you need to get done...June is a very popular month. You might have to start booking vendors right away. If you're having a small wedding (great idea!), you can relax a little. I wasn't in school while planning my wedding last year, so I can't help you with that. Just working full-time and the wedding was enough for me. And that was with my husband helping out most of the time. My friend is getting married in June and she's in vet school full-time. Her husband is getting his masters. Her wedding seems a little disorganized, but it's happening. Also check out , great web-site (well it was before they re-did it) that I used all of the time. Try to have fun....

Kudra · Apr 5, 2005

if nursing teaches you nothing else, it's multi-tasking...

i planned my wedding during my last year of nursing school and it was totally manageable... for 4 months of that year i was a few thousand miles away from where the wedding was being held during my practicum, and it was really not that bad... i graduated from nursing school and got married 2 weeks later...

i did a lot of online shopping (favours, shoes, invitation supplies)... i also did a lot of stuff early (ordered my dress 11 months before the wedding, booked the photographer, church, reception place a year before)... i made invitations for 120 guests, i assembled the favours and the centrepieces... a lot of my free time, when i wasn't studying, went towards wedding stuff... i became the queen of the wedding checklist and that made it a lot easier... buy any wedding magazine and there will be a pull out wedding checklist planner to get you started...

you can do this... good luck!

allnurses Guide · Apr 5, 2005

The first day of nursing school, our instructors told us not to make any big life-changing decisions while in nursing school. Don't consider marriage or divorce or buying a house, etc.

Having said that, it looks like others have done this and succeeded so my advice would be to be flexible and don't sweat the small stuff. Focus on your committment to your future life partner and don't worry that the flowers were the wrong color.

Heck, my wedding was planned when I was a stay at home mom to two toddlers so if I could do it, I think you could too. We still laugh because my older son was in the wedding party and got bored standing up there and started picking his nose, the maid of honor kept trying to distract him with a tissue, my husband and I had NO idea what was going on behind our back but the crowd got quite a show . . .oh how I wish we had videotaped it .. .

steph

helpinghands, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2005

I got married last summer. right after second semester. We planned a destination wedding in St. Lucia. It was beautiful and so easy to plan. The resort did almost everything for us. All I did was buy a dress, show up, and pick the exact location on the resort for the ceremony. A couple months later we had a big reception for our family and showed a video of the ceremony (and I got to wear my dress twice!!). The reception took a lot more planning, but I was lucky, my mother-in-law did almost all the planning. She has 4 son's so she had a blast! Good luck and Congratulations!

collegegurl_2003 · Apr 5, 2005

Congratulations to you!!! Im getting married in September.(it will be my last year of school) I know school will be in but I know I can do it. I have the mind set that I am not going to put my life on hold because of school. But hey that is just me. I know some people that did it and they did fine. I hear that you just have to have good planning. During the summer I am going to get most of the things ready. Plus school will be in only a few weeks before I get married. That means no clinicals for the week before or after. Good luck in your planning and school. I know you can do it.

megamoo1979 · Apr 5, 2005

Congrats! :yeah:

I got married right before I started the actual nursing program. I was however working full time and going to school part time to finish up prereqs. We planned our wedding in about 9 months.

I say go for it. You have over a year to plan so I think it can definitely be done. I agree with the poster who recommended theknot.com. It's a fantastic place to get ideas and chat with other brides to be.

Best wishes to you and your hubby to be,

Megan

bigmona · Apr 6, 2005

yep!! I am graduating in December and getting married next year in April. I got engaged BEFORE I started nursing school and the program I'm in doesn't really have breaks (not even in summer). The small breaks I do get, I'm cramming in appointments to meet with vendors.

It's actually a nice distraction from school. When I first started thinking about planning, it was very overwhelming - but now I'm enjoying it b/c while both school AND wedding planning are stressful, I really like doing wedding stuff. I feel like I have more control over that than school...heh.

There's no reason it can't be done. It sounds like you guys are allowing yourself ample time. Have fun with it! And good luck :)

goddess66 · Apr 7, 2005

Is anyone else (or has anyone) tried to plan a wedding while in nursing school? How did things go for you? I graduate in May, but fiance will not finish nursing school until next May. Our wedding is scheduled (for the moment) June 3, 2006.
Did you find it was a big interruption to school or studying?
Did you have to reschedule?
Thanks-Andrea

First..congratulations on your upcoming graduation and wedding! This is all good stuff. I'm graduating my LPN program June 30th of 2005 and getting married on July 23,2005. :rotfl: What the hell was I thinking!? There are four women in my class of 13 that got engaged during school. As someone whose life has definitely taken a wonderful turn, you'd think I'd be grateful, but I'm too tired. I feel bad for the men in our lives, cause there is just nothing left to give after work fulltime and school fulltime. Thank God i have a lot of help from my soon to be in-laws and I network with other brides to be. Just take things a step at a time. My wedding is pretty much all set. I would've waited in retrospect, but it's gonna happen. SCHOOL is the priority, not my wedding. I've had to rein myself back when getting too obsessive about it. Relax, study, delegate, ask for help, and enjoy love and all the positive changes that are happening...best of luck!!!!

TifRN2B · Apr 7, 2005

I got married on the three week break inbetween my first and second semester! It really wasn't that hard to do. I do admit my mind was preoccupied alot lol...and my instructor once asked me how I did it... managed to get decent grades in school, work, and plan a wedding. Like someone else here said.... nursing teaches you to multi task! :) Good luck to you!