Christian/Sikh Wedding

I see your dilemma and yes its going to be very high in expenses if you two are paying for it all. The parents can contribute if they wish and have the 2 ceremonies. It is done normally and just skip most of the pre party events and keeping the main Mendhi(Henna)/Sangeet evening. This event may be the one function to enjoy and look up indian décor to get quotes based on your venue from a company.

Start deciding what vendors are needed to book and ask if they can hold the date while your getting the funds together. This is something I did with the photographer, videographer and venue since I knew I was paying for it mostly. His parents will help financially too as Indians/Sikhs always do that for their kids. I'm sure your parents can help out too whoever they can.

I hope all works out and everything goes well.

Hi Kristen! Congratulations on your engagement! And welcome to the WeddingWire community! Starting to plan your wedding can be a stressful time, there seems like there is so much that needs to be done. Try not to get too stressed about it, after some time, it gets better (and more fun!). This community will always be here to support you when you need advice or just need to have a rant!

If it’s important to his family and to you that you do some Sikh ceremonies before the wedding, why is your FH saying you can’t do them? Have you two sat down and talked through it all, perhaps with a Sikh wedding celebrant, to find out what you’d be allowed to participate in? You may also want to include some VIPs from his family in these discussions if it is very important to them.

Lots of people marry interfaith and it can take some compromise and planning, but there are some beautiful options out there!

As for when to plan everything we can absolutely help you with that! Are you using a checklist? This can be really helpful if you are prone to getting stressed out. It will let you keep track of everything you have done and everything you need to do. WeddingWire has a great one that you can customize to your own wedding and plans. You can find it here - WeddingWire Checklist Tool.

You still have lots of time, so take a deep breath and take things one at a time. Your first to-dos should probably be to set a rough budget, and then figure out how many ceremonies you want to have so that you can start thinking about venues (if you’ll need a secular venue, a religious venue, or multiple venues for different ceremony types) and then come up with your rough guest list size.

You have plenty of time to plan your beautiful wedding so don't worry about getting everything done straight away. You should enjoy the planning process with your FH