After getting engaged it’s all about picking a date for the main event. Ron and I settled on a date fairly quickly. Some people choose to go for symbolism–the month and day you met or started dating or a loved one’s anniversary, etc. We started dating in March, and I knew I wanted a year to plan, so that spring was out the window. The day we got engaged was also tossed out because I knew I wanted an outdoor wedding and August is just too hot for that. That ties into a second thing people consider when choosing a date–the season. I’m not a cold weather girl, so I knew I didn’t want a winter wedding. I would have been okay with the next spring, which would have lengthened the engagement period, or fall.  That moved us into September. With the first weekend in September being Labor Day, and several members of my family employed in the hospitality industry, that crossed out the first Saturday in the month. The second Saturday was Sept. 11 which I didn’t want, which brought us to Sept. 18, the third Saturday of the month. It gave us 13 months to plan and would likely be okay temperature-wise for an outdoor wedding, although with Virginia, you never know. Looking back, I’m glad we chose to have a September wedding and if I had to go back in time, I’d likely choose it all over again, although there is something about those October leaves that draw me in.