I hear your pain! I've got to do most of the major planning before I leave for Scotland in September. We've set a november 08 wedding date as well b/c of my master's program.
My best advice is to BUY A PLANNING BOOK. My brother's fiance gave me a planner from Target that is 3 ring, is already separated into things like "Guest List", "vendors" "calendar" "seating chart", etc. I'm trying to use that to plan the big stuff out of the way before I leave.
You've mentioned the bad months, but what about an April wedding, or a November wedding? My SO and I first had our hearts set on a summer wedding, but we began to realize that we'd have more to choose from if we did a wedding "out of season". There's just not as many girls getting married in November in Pittsburgh, so we've got our pick of venues, photographers, etc. Bonus: Things are also significantly less expensive b/c we're doing it out of season.
Good luck, I'm beginning to realize more and more how stressful it is! I keep thinking that it's not about the wedding, it's about the marriage
