first of all you could save your weighting into maps. it is called "export weightmaps" I think. this way you can make use of them later at any time. be sure you allways have your skeleton finished before paint weighting!
so save your weights to map. then disconnect the skin or delete history and unlock transforms on your mesh. finish your skeleton by mirroring the bones from the skeleton menu. if you modeled from Z as frontview then select mirror around XY, behavior works well most times. now you can bind again your skin, import your weights for 1 side and mirror those weights to the other side. you might have to clean up weights a little since importing and mirroring them doesn´t work all times perfectly. but more or less this would be the way to go.
everything starts and ends in the right place at the right time.