Hi friends! This is my first time posting – just recently got engaged and am an M1 looking for tips on wedding planning!
My lovely fiancé (he is not in medicine) and I are trying to figure out when might be a good time for a wedding. Currently it's looking like either post-Step 1 (so almost exactly a year from now) or during M4 (especially in the spring, after residency interviews, when I'll have a lot more flexibility), which would turn ours into a 2.5 or 3-year-long engagement.
(I want to avoid wedding planning during M3 based on advice from my M3 friends who are currently going through clerkships and have very, very strong feelings about how hard it is to even find time to sleep and study during M3! I am also super interested in surgery, so my ability to perform well during M3 clerkships will have to take priority over wedding planning at that time, in order for me to set myself up well for a surgical residency match.)
Would a year from now be cutting it too close, especially with COVID craziness and vendors being booked up? Would any of you recommend or caution against having a post-Step 1 wedding?
Conversely, are there any pitfalls I should be aware of with a longer engagement of 2.5-3 years?
Would love any general tips from those who've gone through the process of wedding planning during medical school!