Hi all

So I am sending all of the papers out at the end of the week and sending them to the CSC at the end of the week when I get my fiancé's papers in the mail. From what I have been reading, getting approved will take a good 6-8 months.

I want to know what you couples have done that have already been through the process to plan for a wedding!

I mean, it's our wedding! I know in 90 days of planning I can't get all of the bells and whistles that a big blowout would entail, but how did you guys who planned a wedding do things? How is anyone supposed to send out invites when you don't have a clear date set? And event planning? Arrgh....

Thanks in advance guys,
Heather

What a lot of people do is once they have the K1 they just do the courthouse thing and then plan a big celebratuion later down the road.

That's exactly my plan. We're going to do a courthouse wedding as soon as he moves here, then we'll send in our AOS/EAD app. We're planning for a big wedding on May 16th, 2009. I've already talked to my priest, who is willing to do it that way. We'll go through all of the standard pre-wedding stuff with him once Dennis lives here. I live about 5 hours from Vegas, so we're talking about getting married in Vegas. Before we had sent in our petition we used to joke every time he visited "Well...Vegas is only 5 hours away!" and the other one would say "We are NOT getting married in Vegas." So it just seems appropriate

o.k. take a deep breath, everything is going to work out just fine. Trust me!!

I'll tell you a little bit about my situation and if you have any questions you can PM me.

I'm in your exact situation and my finacee and I have decided to plan a ceramony pretty close to me crossing the boarder, rather than do a legal marriage and wait till later to plan the ceremony. The reason for this is we have been apart going on three years and we just want to finally get on with life. We also don't want to live together before marriage.

We sent in our paperwork in October and got our NOA1 on Nov 6. So far the process has taken about 6 months and by the end of it, it will be closer to 7 months. You may get through faster because a lot of the backlog has been finished from last summer, but planning for 6-8 months for a K1 visa is a good conservative timeframe.

Google is a powerful tool for planning a wedding long distance, So far I've managed to take care of the catering, tent and equipment rental (we are having a garden wedding at his parents acerage) and have lists made of other providers that i willl chose from once I have the visa in my hot little hands. I have booked everything I can that has a 30 day cancellation policy, so for if any reason I am not granted my visa on my interview date (May 13) I can still have time to move back the booking to another date. Our planned wedding date is July 12 and we have notified our friends and family of that date, but told them not to buy plane tickets until after my interview. I'd recommend setting a wedding date at least a month (preferably two) after your estimated interview date, but you can juggle that depending on your personal situation. I'll be taking my invitations with me to the interview and popping them in the mail as soon as I have the visa in my hot little hands.

It really is a bit of a juggling match to figure out what dates will work, but it is possible to have a well planned, beautiful wedding while wading through all this visa burocracy. And yes I've had a few meltdowns already, but realized that things do work out in the end, you will get your visa. (just be honest and follow the rules and ask lots of questions on this site).

Perhaps the biggest stress has not been the wedding planning or getting ready to move, but trying to explain to family and friends how the process works and that I can't just walk across the boarder and get married. It takes time to help your friends and family understand the consequences of that and the process you must go through.

The whole wedding planning process requires a little creativity and you need to stay flexable with stuff, but there is no reason why you can't begin your wedding planning now and confirm things as your timeline moves along. I have been having a lot of fun with it and hey, it gives you something really nice to think about while you wait for your hubby. Some would say it is a big mistake making comitted plans before you have the visa and I would agree, but you can make plans and arrangements and just inform the businesses that you book with that you will confirm with them their services a month or two out from your wedding date, you can have almost everything in place before you cross the boarder (or your hubby crosses the boarder). Most providers are happy to do that. (I've had no problems so far).

Good luck and try to not let it stress you out, this IS an exciting and special time in your life!

Don't forget that you have up to 6 months to enter using the visa, then 90 days to get married once there so you have some time to work with after receiving the visa.

We are having a tiny and I mean tiny ceremony with just close family and friends, a simple ceremony in a park somewhere and dinner out afterwards.

That's not for everyone though.

I wish you all the luck in your wedding plans.

If you are stressed out about wedding stuff, remember:

--you have 6 months to activate the visa
--you can do as others have suggested and do the civil wedding first, big frou-frou wedding later
--you can start planning now!

What Jerry and I did was make all the decisions ahead of time and have everything set to go, so once we had a good idea of when we could have our wedding, we just set things in motion. Oh, and we did something then (which we could kind of get away with then) that I wouldn't reccommend doing now -- we set the wedding date before I had my visa in hand. And we scaled way back on what we wanted our wedding to be like -- instead of having tons of people and worrying about catering and all that kind of stuff, we focused on having a special intimate wedding at an amazing location with a few family and friends on that day, and we had a couple big parties for everyone else later. It was wonderful.

Based on my experience, these are my two biggest pieces of advice:

--go to your wedding vendors ahead of time and explain the situation you are in, and see how flexible they can be. Our wedding/reception site and the that da photographer/videography team were fantastic and were willing to work with us in case of delay and such, within limits. Because we were willing to be married on an "off day", this helped even more.

--cut out as many middle men (ie. wedding vendors) as you can, and do as much of the wedding yourself as you can. That way you have less people and deposits to worry about if something happens while your visa is processing.

Our wedding may not have been at the spot I always imagined it, but it turned out to be perfect and exactly what we wanted it to be.

Me and my girl planned getting legally married immeadiately when she would arrive in the U.S (so we could start the AOS process). However, we waited until after her NOA2 was approved before we really started getting things prepared (though we did preliminary research before such as where the reception would be, how big/small, etc). It was easier for us because when we saw how fast the process was going (VSC - we had our NOA2 approved in 2 months) and we knew it was best for her to finish her semester at college, we knew she would get the visa 2-3 months before she would come (and she has 6 months to enter).

So, we have already set a reception date (not real big) at a restaurant and are now just looking for a judge to marry us on that weekend (shouldn't be difficult). We have already informally invited all of our friends (formal invitations will come out closer to the event). We are so confident there will not be a problem with the visa that her parents have already bought tickets for them (not recommend this for everyone though) in the summer (prices will continue to increase due to summer travel and Delta-NW merger).

We have already decide a timeframe for our religious ceremony in her country about 6 months after our legal wedding here. That way, both sides will be able to celebrate with us. Two parties are better than one right?

Could someone elaborate to me what a courthouse wedding is?

Thanks

In a courthouse wedding you don't need to exchange rings, you can invite pretty much as many people as you want and some places even let you put up decorations and do photos, it pretty much goes how you want it to go, you can exchange vows or use the traditional ones, basically you get up in front of the judge, say your vows, sign the sheet and hey presto!.

We are going to have a courthosue wedding to get the legal side done, then having a party/reception type thing maybe in the park after!. and then have a big wedding back at my home in Scotland .

I would advise not to plan to far ahead, I have read so many times, people plan ahead and there visa is held up.

A question I have wondered about and was unsuccessful googling was what does the judge/court official say at the civil wedding? Regardless of whether it's at a courthouse, church, or home (I'm planning having my friend's dad who is retired judge do it in a church), what does that person say? "Do you ... marry ...?" Is that it or something more?

We went to Vegas. You get to have your wedding and honeymoon all rolled into one.

Thanks so much for the replies everyone

Now I know that having a planned wedding is (somewhat) doable...Vegas is more than likely the route we will take.
I am filing the I-129 on Thursday, so hopefully we can still have a winter wedding! *crosses fingers*

Teresa's family all live in California, though we will be living Kansas. We are going to have a civil wedding on the west coast, then organise with a local Pastor in our town, to either have a second wedding in front of God and Teresa's close friends, or a renewal of vows

As others say you can take up to nearly 9 months to set the wedding up - All depends how bad you need to get to America Personally I think I will pick up the visa and go straight to the airport lol

Hi!

David and I waited until we had his interview date. Then I started planning like a mad woman! We're getting married on the beach. Small group = 50 people or so.

We're doing all the legwork ourselves with the help of my family. Food and the like provided by my family. Evites instead of invitations. Drinking will be held at a bar after the wedding and food on the beach. So, no catering, etc. Paid for a pavilion at a state park. No cost for the bar, we're just showing up with a heads up to the bar for extra servers. That's it!

Another party will be held later for my friends where I live. We're going to the town where the majority of my family lives to make it easier on everyone else. Just a few of my friends are going to the wedding itself, my closest ones.

Good luck! It's definitely been challenging, but we're almost completely planned now! (See my timeline below for how long I've had to plan. We rec'd our interview date when he rec'd packets 3/4.)

I'm really excited, as to be honest, this is the dream wedding that I've always wanted anyway.

Besos, Shannon

Hi There
When my fiancee arrived we first got the marriage licenses - my state does not require blood test nor ssn for that so it went smoothly.
At city hall they also gave me us a list of people who can marry us, here they are called Justice of Peace.
I called one nice lady and she married us in my sisters garden
The ceremony was for the family and friends, we plan a bigger one once we go back to Poland since our both families leave there.