At a bit of a standstill

I don't have any good advise at all.....but I know EXACTLY how you feel. We can't decide if we want to stay and have a local wedding or do a destination wedding. How the heck am I supposed to do ANYTHING if we don't have this very basic decision made? It is tough to be patient when I'm so excited......we've agreed to make our decision by April 1st so that we can either get busy making arrangements locally or we give our friends and family a year and a half to save up if they are interested in coming. I've got 19 more days of being stalled.

You have to set for a budget and date first otherwise you can plan anything else arkund that... other than that plan a theme or a color theme for the wedding and maybe your bridal party people to be...

I feel stuck right now as well. It'll happen more than once through the planning process it seems. I literally have EVERYTHING booked that I can possibly book right now. You'll find little things to look at though and little things to narrow down. On my night shifts I will look up different types of jewelry that I would like to wear and save the websites, small little details for the wedding like seating cards, etc. There are so many little things you can do

Yes! Guest list!!!! I forgot to mention that. Great point. We actually had our guest list pretty much done before we even got engaged.

I found it hard to plan anything before booking a venue. It sets the tone for the event even if you already have a theme or style in mind. If you haven't already you should nail down your guest list because that will affect your choice of venue and your budget in every way (but it sounds like you've done enough research to know that), and start to collect people's mailing addresses that you will for sure be inviting. And if you're sure there's nothing else you can work then grab some magazines and relax and enjoy yourself because you may not get a chance to later on!

I would just say that getting all your research done can be the biggest help and won't let you feel idle. Maybe get together a mock up of everything you think you want your wedding to be and then, once you and your FH have time to get together, you can lay out a basic plan which can be a jumping off point for the actual planning. Also looking to DIYs if you want to do any can take up a lot of time so maybe look at some of those.

How about gathering ideas for DIY? You can also make a scrapbook with your inspirations! It can be a great keepsake idea!

Already working on getting quotes from caterers, and already spoke to officiants lol

You could start getting quotes on menu and officiants... We interviewed officiants before we had a set date... We told them our ideal date with the understanding that it might change... Finding a caterer was the hardest task for us there was not alot of choice and our first menus (our ideas) were prohibitively expensive.

Well that's the thing; I have researched since September, then hardcore for the past 2.5 months, so I know what we can and cannot afford, and it's now a matter of visiting those few places we could afford, and booking. We've come up with the guest list and our total budget, I've allocated budget to various aspects, but until we have the venue and date settled, I feel a bit stuck. Oh well, seems I'll just have to be patient until we settle on a place and date, then I can do more. Thanks!!

I agree with Jennifer and focus on research. It's hard to narrow anything down until you have a date. I would research various options so that you know what you can afford at different levels. This could also be a time to work on this you might want to do for your wedding. For example, I loved calligraphy when I was a tween so I'm getting back into it for the invites.
This is also a good time to come up with a savings plan and prospective guest lists because those things take time!

LOL I have so many Pinterest boards, some made well before we were engaged hehehe

Thanks for your comment, pretty much confirms my feeling!

Make a Pinterest board! That was the very first thing I did. It helps give you an overall feeling about how you want your special day to look. It's hard to do much else without a date set. Wait on buying a dress and anything expensive until you have a date and a budget set out. Enjoy being engaged until you can both sit down together to figure these details out