We started getting price quotes on venues.....

and still no ring

i understand there may be reason to start looking now, but i say no ring no wedding...so it's hard to start forming any plans

but the second that ring is on my finger i will begin planning ;)

so, no...not crazy, but i would wait until the proposal is finalized by a ring until planning begins (well obvious planning, you can still be picking out your colors and looking at venues online) but i'd suggest not going to meet with a venue to go over pricing or anything

Well, you did say "we started" so if you weren't going there by yourself, that right there is less crazy. hehe Actually, a girl I know had been seriously planning her wedding for a couple months with no ring and ppl were starting to wonder what the deal was bc here she was talking about it constantly, set a date, picking venues, and no ring. Ppl were starting to think it was a joke, but she finally just got engaged earlier this week! Apparently, he had been planning the proposal the whole time and just given her the go-head to start planning pre official proposal. So maybe by him going along with looking is his way (and yours) of knowing it's coming soon. However, I would say just for the sake of the vendors wondering if you're not actually booking a date and just shopping around with no official proposal, maybe keep it to online searching right now or phone calls for pricing. That way you're not meeting face to face with the ppl and you can still get info without them wondering or trying to follow up with you if you're not seriously thinking of booking anything just yet. I know my ffi said the other day, "Let's just give the wedding talk a break until it's official, then we can talk about it all the time." haha I have a hard time containing myself sometimes! Sooo, maybe it's right around the corner for you!! :)

i had just emailed a couple of places that don't have that info readily available so I can get an idea if our budget is going to work out or not.  The place that I had originally fallen in love with (well, from pictures at least) is $7,000 just to rent.  It's a raw space so you have to bring in everything else and that's wayyyyy out of our budget.  I had checked a bunch of different sites to see comparable places for cheaper and we decided to go check one of the places out last night because it's a bar with an extensive beer list.  I had emailed the owner to get an idea of what they can accommodate because their pictures don't help at all and he ended up calling me yesterday and we decided to meet him for a drink.  When we got there he gave us a tour of the whole place and put in for a tasting!  We were like whoa this is not at all what we had anticipated doing but explained to the guy that the ring is on the way (apparently it'll be ready this month but because my sister is due, he doesn't want to take away from the baby celebration).  It was crazy that they were willing to do all of that for us when there's not even a ring on my finger and it was not at all what our intentions were.  We just wanted to get a beer and check out their pub food but it was an amazing experience.  We were there for 4 hours and sampled so many of their beers in addition to 2 appetizers 3 hors devours 2 entrees and 2 desserts.  We met the chef and both of the owners and just the fact that we were excited and they were excited was amazing.  After looking on other bride sites that are more catered to our area, I discovered that some brides booked that venue without ever tasting anything from there so the fact that we got all of that (and it was Comp-ed!) was incredible.....and very scary.

The problem is that we live in the NYC area so most people book well over a year in advance of their date and we want to make sure that we can save up for the wedding that we want since we're paying for the whole thing ourselves.  We talk freely about it with our families and I'm sure that people think we're crazy but we're both big planners so it makes me feel good knowing that we're jumping into this with full force.

I say if you know your ring is definitely on its way soon, there's no harm in seriously checking out a specific venue. Especially if it's one in high demand where if you wait too long your day will be booked up. The experience you had there sounds amazing!

If you're doing it together, its totally okay :D

XH+I started planning before the official proposal! (He was waiting for a specific vacation....)

I am in your boat. We are not visiting places, but yes i email people for price quotes all the time even though im waiting on my ring and proposal.

He is aware im doing this though and he tries to add input even though there is not official ring yet. I know from a little birdy that he is waiting until the "perfect" time. Men..what can ya say? :)

We've already booked our photographer, but now we have to change our date because we found out it's the same weekend as this huge festival in STL. I know it's coming though. I actually screwed up the proposal AGAIN last Wednesday because we found a house and put an offer on it, so Wednesday was taken up by the offer/negotiating which ruined his plans. He mentioned it while we were in line for security on Thursday. I was like..."why did you have to tell me that?!?"

I'm thinking he'll do it over Spring Break now. 

But no, it's not crazy.

haha we looked into photographers too and I was like we can't sign anything until that ring is there lol

I don't think you're crazy!

Now, sweetie if you started booking venues, I'd be a little concerned!  But it seems like you've got your head on straight!  You're just anxious! :]