Seriously, LIVE IN THE NOW, PEOPLE! lol

I am starting to have the same thing too. I was going to have my wedding at my parent's church and have my parent's and FH's brother do the catering. Now I have fallen in love with a site and their caterer, so the buget has to almost double. I am in the Seattle area, so the fee for the site alone is $1600. The place is so much prettier than my parent's chirch though (which was going to cost about $600) so I will be cutting down on flower and decor costs.

Seriously going crazy with all of this planning though, I am getting married in May, and all I have is my dress and favors. So much to do, so little time and money.

I'm beginning to think that I'm doing the right thing planning almost 3 years ahead of time lol. Not that we have anything booked yet, but we're 100% sure on where we're having it and I'd say 85% sure on which caterer we're going with. Not really sure on which companies we're going with for each thing, but at least I pretty much have set plans on everything. Planning a wedding is fun but stressful.

Yeah, I just went to a Bridal Fair this weekend and everyone was shocked that I was already planning my wedding for Feb/Mar 2009. I was shocked that anyone would wait until the last minute to book people. I guess I'm playing it way safe by requesting to book my venue, caterer, florist, hairdresser, etc. ahead. I just figure, what could it hurt to have everything in place? But they kind of acted like I was a waste of time to deal with since the wedding was still a ways off. It was annoying. So I commend you for planning ahead. Just remember, us early planners are the ones that get first pick! lol.

Haha no kidding. I kinda got a few looks at the expo I went to this weekend also. A few vendors were even like, "2010?! wow." Like, ok...what's the big deal? lol I guess in their experience, most brides these days wanna have the wedding as soon as they're engaged. I would've liked to have it a little sooner, like 10/2009. But fiance' wants to leave it at 2010 because one, that's what we've told everyone already and two, it gives us plenty of time to plan and save. Which I know he's right, I'm just excited about getting things going lol. These bridal expos are nice but kinda suck too. We weren't eligible for alot of prizes because our wedding was so far off. I guess we'll have to go to another one in 2010 lol.

This is such a common dilemma. A friend of mine solved it by having a separate celebration after the actual wedding at a restaurant with those they could not afford to invite to the wedding itself.

They sent out the invites and stated that each had to buy their own dinner, but they purchased a few bottles of wine for the tables.

It was a good idea, and those they couldn't invite were happy they were still able to celebrate with them. The fact that guests had to pay for their own meals didn't seem to be an issue at all.

Another idea could be to host a small byob at your home before or after the wedding. It would be quite inexpensive as you're only really buying some munchies or finger foods and everyone feels like they are a part of your wedding.

Regarding who to invite and who not to invite I answered my own question while discussing with my Mother.

Will this person's attendance "make my day"?
will I even notice if this person(s) shows up?
If this person doesn't come, would it upset me?
I have 83 cousins- & an entire "Step family" I can't possibly invite them all. I had to draw the line somewhere and the answers to these questions helped my cut down my list.
Hope it helps.