Have you recently gotten engaged? Still relishing in that amazing feeling of saying yes to marrying your best friend and you can’t stop staring at your hand because now that pretty little ring makes everything so much more special? Congratulations!!! After telling your parents and the entire world that you are getting married the next thing to do is to figure out what comes next. Many wedding websites and magazines will give you all kinds of list of things to do but here are my top things to do after you get engaged.
No. 1 Before you go out and buy every magazine with a bride on the cover take a minute to really think about your style and what magazines will help inspire the wedding of your dreams. Are you a Martha Stewart bride? Do you love the romantic and timeless weddings that grace the pages of Utterly Engaged and Cottage Hill? There are so many wedding and bridal styles out there, so find a magazine that showcases how you feel about your wedding day and your aesthetic. And when in doubt, trust your gut! There are also some incredibly inspiring wedding blogs and websites such as Style Me Pretty, Green Wedding Shoes, 100 Layer Cake, The Black Tie Bride, Snippet & Ink, Once Wed, Wedding Sparrow, and Wedding Chicks.
No. 2 Every little girl dreams of her wedding and what it will be like. Your wedding can be anything that you want it to be. Simple, elegant, classic, timeless, fun! It’s your day so make sure it truly represents who you are. Don’t forget that it’s also your fiancé’s special day too! One thing that most brides forget about is taking her groom’s input into consideration when planning their wedding day. Do you both like small intimate gatherings? Or are big parties what you guys thrive on? Thinking about these things will help you decide if you want a big wedding, or if a destination wedding with only your closest friends and family is what your hearts want.
No. 3 Think about when you want to get married. Do you dream of a Spring wedding when everything is in bloom? Or do want to have a winter wedding with deep reds and twinkle lights? Or do you want to be married in the Summertime were the days are longer and you can dance the night away under the stars? Take time to figure out what time of year you want your wedding to take place in. This will help you to know how long you have to save up for your special day.
No. 4 Start working on your guest list. This is probably going to be the first time you and your fiance are working on something that will require help from your families and your future in laws. By knowing who you want to invite is important because that will help you determine how big or small of a wedding you want to have. It will also play a factor in the venue you choose as most have a limit on how many people they allow. Once you figure out how many people to invite and who they are, you will need to start collecting their addresses. If you can get those trickling in sooner than later, then you won’t feel stressed when the time comes for sending out your invitations. I was quite shocked by how big our families were by how many people Eli and I ended up inviting to our wedding.
* Knowing the type of wedding, when you want to have it, and for how many guests will help you to figure out where to get married. Booking a venue is one of the first things you should do. I remember when I was planning my wedding and finding out that I had waited too long to start booking a venue and a lot of them were already booked almost a year before I had even called for a date that was still 6 months away.
No. 5 Go through premarital counseling with your pastor or a marriage counselor or find a book that you can go through together. You said yes to spending the rest of your life with your best friend. You want to make sure that you are on the same page as far as values and communication goes before you tie the knot. There are so many great resources out there to help navigate your journey towards marriage and help you communicate as effectively as possible and will help you build a solid foundation for your marriage. The book, The 5 Love Languages is a great one because it helps us realize that we all give and receive love in different ways. If you haven’t heard of it, I definitely recommend it. There is even a free test on their website to tell you which love language you have. There is also a great resource coming out that I am super excited to get and start using with Eli called The Navigator’s Council by Jeremy and Audrey Roloff. Aside from their personal IG accounts, they also have one for their “Beating 50%” Community. They believe in building better than average marriages and they are such an inspiring couple. Their marriage journal is currently on pre-order and I am so excited to get my copy. The tag line is “connect, communicate, and grow in love through 6 weekly questions.” I love the idea of fostering great communication and truly caring for our spouses.
No. 6 Hire a wedding planner! Part of their job is to make sure your best day ever is everything you want it to be and more! And guess what, you’ve probably never planned a wedding before, so having a professional who can help you navigate this season as well as find the perfect vendors for you, will really help make your engagement season a little less stressful. For more info on the importance of a wedding planner, check out this interview on why you should hire one!
No. 7 Have fun and enjoy each other during this new season. Your engagement season is the first time that you are your fiance are working together in such a wonderful capacity and wedding planning can be a little stressful if you feel lost. So don’t forget that you are in this together. Try to plan date nights where you don’t talk about the wedding planning, instead talk about your marriage and how you want to live your lives as husband and wife. Remember, your wedding day is your special day, but it’s also that first day of the rest of your new life together. There is so much to look forward to in your journey, and how you choose to celebrate the first day of marriage is up to you! A lot of people will try to tell you how to plan your day, or that you shouldn’t do this, or don’t do that. But just remember that it’s your day. Even if everything goes wrong, you are marrying your best friend and that is the most important part!
I hope you find these points insightful and help you to think about things in a new light! Congrats again on getting engaged and happy wedding planning!!!
***If you are currently planning your own wedding, I have some blog posts with tips and tricks on getting the photos you want! Check them out here, here and here! To see more beautiful weddings of my wonderful couples, click here. If you are interested in having me photograph your wedding, I would love to chat about all the details! Please send me a message here!
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