Said It Here

Why does a long wedding engagement take so long?

Venue availability and scheduling bottlenecks force couples into multi-year engagements that leave them feeling exhausted and over it before the wedding even happens. This endless waiting turns what should be an exciting milestone into a frustrating drag, making people wish they had done something sooner.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Having a small elopement or courthouse ceremony beforehand while planning a larger wedding celebration for later
  2. 2
    planning a destination wedding
  3. 3
    looking forward to other things in the interim
  4. 4
    taking time to enjoy being engaged without rushing
  5. 5
    considering an alternative timeline or eloping

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/weddingplanning2 people · September 2026

I’m only about 5 months in and I’m already just feeling annoyed I still have so long to wait.source ↗

Outrageous_Egg_1340 · r/weddingplanning · 3 upvotes

At times I was sick of the waiting and wish we had done something soonersource ↗

Wendythewildcat · r/weddingplanning · 1 upvotes

I feel like with the whole engagement and wedding thing I’ve just been in a constant state of waiting for so long against my will and it’s going to be even longer 😭 I’m starting to just be so over it and annoyed honestly.source ↗

I’m so sick of just waiting waiting waiting and now I have to wait nearly 2 more years.source ↗

Outrageous_Egg_1340 · r/weddingplanning

It’s looking like due to venues and availability we won’t be getting married until spring 2028. We have already been engaged for a couple months, and honestly waiting 20+ more months to get married seems like such a drag to me!source ↗

Outrageous_Egg_1340 · r/weddingplanning

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised