I’m Engaged! Now What?
Congrats, you're engaged!
It’s important to enjoy this special time when you’re recently engaged!
Before you jump into wedding planning, remember: your wedding day is your special day to celebrate love. Plan the wedding of your dreams.
Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered.
Now that you're engaged...
- Loved ones will start asking a lot of wedding planning questions that you haven’t even pondered yourself yet.
- You’ll receive unsolicited advice from your boss to your neighbor’s Grandma.
- You have easy decisions to make (duh…you’ve known since 5th grade who your Maid of Honor will be.)
- There will be hard decisions to make (do I really need to spend my precious time wondering what shade of white the table cloths should be?)
Wait, there are multiple shades of white?!
Let the wedding planning begin!
1. Schedule some alone time with your new fiance
It’s perfectly normal to get giddy every time you say ‘fiance’ out loud!
It’s important to discuss some boundaries for the wedding planning process to avoid any unnecessary stressful situations.
How are you going to balance your life to make sure the wedding doesn’t consume all your time?
How will you handle if one of your family members try to take control?
How will you come to a conclusion when you’re not seeing eye to eye on tie patterns or cake flavors?
2. Insure your ring
Pronto! Do yourself a favor and skip your afternoon Starbucks run to make this quick phone call to your insurance agent. (You can thank me later!)
Order a cute engagement ring dish to keep it safe when you’re not wearing it.
Now’s also a great time to get your engagement ring sized, if needed.
3. Share the exciting news - yay!
Make sure you’re both ready to start getting a bajillion questions. When’s the big day? Am I invited? Can I bring my cat?
Seriously — get ready for friends and family to act weirder than they normally do. You’ll be amazed.
It’s ok if you don’t want to make a big announcement on social media and just want to tell your friends and family privately.
Remember, you’re not obligated to do anything you don’t want. And you don’t have to feel bad about the wedding decisions you make.
4. Have a wedding planning date night with your fiance
Brainstorm all your thoughts and ideas!
This is simply a brain dump of ideas to see how close (or how far off) you both are to planning the wedding of your dreams.
No decisions need to be made. Just starting talking, even if they’re pie in the sky ideas!
This conversation should be fun and can help you start to narrow some things out too!
Are you going to elope or get married in a church/court/venue?
How big do you want the wedding to be?
What time of year?
5. Create a wedding budget
It doesn’t have to be stressful! Start off by figuring out where to save and where to splurge when creating your wedding budget.
Be realistic about your budget. You won’t be able to feed 200 guests for $500.
Most important? Stick to the wedding budget!
6. Order a Bride to Be subscription box
Treat yourself to some fun engagement swag.
You can also sign up for free bridal magazine trials, and take advantage of the all of our recently engaged and wedding planning content on Pinterest!
7. Stay organized
Grab a wedding planner binder to stay uber organized!
Want to keep your wedding plans organized electronically? I created this Interactive Wedding Planner just for brides like you! Grab yours today for only $9!
8. Start talking with wedding venues
Ask for a private showing and visit several locations in person, or inquire about an online tour, so you have an idea of how different venues compare based on the space, what extras are added, and of course the price. Have with a general time frame in mind.
Authentic Bride Guide Tip: Don’t order any save the dates or wedding invitations until you have a location secured and the contract is signed. But it’s always fun to start looking at the options out there!
9. Create a wedding countdown timeline
Once you’ve locked down an official date (Yay!) is when your visions can start to finally become a reality.
Get ready to modify your wedding countdown at least once (or five hundred) times.
10. Choose your wedding bridal party
You and your fiance should decide together how big you want your bridal party to be.
Make sure that you’re both ok with everybody who is chosen and who will be there to help you throughout the planning process and will step up on your big day.
It’s ok if one side has more than the other, or if you to have a member of the opposite sex. As with all your wedding decisions, you do not have to follow old traditions.
Once you have that decided, you can put together some fun bridesmaid proposal boxes.
It’s OK if it’s not your thing.
DIY a cute gift basket, or give your girlfriends a FabFitFun box filled with lots of premium beauty products!
11. Schedule engagement photos
Research and interview a few wedding photographers before you commit or sign any contracts.
Here are some questions to ask your wedding photographer before you agree to work with them.
Your photos can be casual or elegant or anything in between! Pick some great outfits that represent your style!
Now, let's get ready for the real fun to begin!
Feeling like you’re going to be drinking some wine on the regular to stay sane through your new full time, non paying job as a recently engaged, wedding planner extraordinaire?
Don’t worry, we’re here for you!
Check out these relaxing ways to keep this entire wedding planning thing in perspective.
Authentic Bride Guide Tip: At the end of the day and all the cake is eaten and you’ve danced your little heart out, it’s just you and your new spouse.
Remember to truly enjoy this process! Don’t let it be the cause of fights with friends, family or most importantly, your fiance (It’s not worth it.)
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