You now have a beautiful ring on that left hand of yours and OMG what a great feeling it is. For some brides to be its overwhelming on what the next things to do are once you have officially gotten engaged. Your Engaged…..Now What? I don’t know about you all but I had a Pinterst board a mile long before I was even engaged to my now husband. I of course kept it private as I didn’t want people to see how I had my whole wedding already planned and just needed to insert husband here….HAHA!
Let’s be honest though, you can plan your wedding all you want on Pinterest or The Knot but when it actually comes time to “really” start planning it can be a daunting task. I know for me it was hard to see the dollar amount go up and up with each thing I wanted and at one point I had to reevaluate my want and must have list to be more realistic. So some of you may be saying well what should I do next after I get engaged- where do I begin. Below are some ideas that helped my husband and I have a unique wedding location as well as a beautiful wedding on a reasonable budget.
#1 Call your immediate family and closest friends. This is a no brainer but I feel with the world and its fast motion into social media people forget that it is the right thing to do for your mom, dad, brothers, sisters grandparents and close close friends to hear your big and exciting news directly from you not the internet.
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#2 Item number two can be all kinds of things like, get a manicure or take a Facebook or Instagram official photo but my number two was to talk about a realistic budget. My husband and I knew that marriage was going to happen so we talked a lot about costs and wants often even before we got officially engaged but it was one of the first things we readdressed when we got engaged. Setting the stage and expectation is key. Somehow even when you think you’re not going to be a bridezilla there is always a moment for every bride to be where she gets upset or “freaks out” so let’s not having this freak out be over money. Yes your wedding day is super important but it’s one day…… normally less than one day….. in fact most venues only offer you the location for 6 hours…… that’s a very short time.
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#3 Agree on where you are going to spend the “chunk” of your budget and find quality vendors in those categories. For some people food is the most important thing for the wedding while for others it is the photography. Whatever it is going to be for you and your partner to be make sure to invest time and effort into research and giving yourself time to look at multiple options. I personally did not find that bridal shows were overly helpful to me as the vendors are trying to get their name out to as many people as possible and for me (not that I have loads of money) but the quality and customer services was just as important as the price point and I feel as though I did not get the best feeling during the bridal shows. Now I’m not saying don’t go to them because you can get some great FREE stuff but don’t get your hopes up in planning your wedding while at the show.
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#4 Visit multiple venues and just like your vendors give your self LOTS of time. Go in the spring and then again in the summer or fall before your wedding. Get a feel for the care and attention you get from the venue. Most couples will spend the bulk of the money at the venue so make sure you look into all your options. Maybe a DIY wedding is more your speed- make sure to meet up with other DIY brides and get their take and feedback on how they could have made their wedding day better. I find a lot of DIY brides I work with worry last minute that they will not have enough food or who is going to replenish the food when it gets low. There are lots of small details that a venue will do and is included that you might not be able to get with a back yard wedding or DIY wedding.
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#5 Once you have picked a location, then think about dates. I know some couples go into it having a date they want and that totally works too but if a particular date is not important to you find your location first. You don’t want to be limited to locations based on a date.
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#6 Choose your bridal party. This is a big one, I put it on the list after finding a location because you will want your bridal party to help with the other vendors, like cake and dress shopping. So choosing them after you have picked a location will allow them to get some inside details of the day that you have picked with your patner to be and then help with the smaller tasks.
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#7 REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN. This is the BIGGEST one of all. Your wedding should be a fun time. Planning should come with a level of excitement and enjoyment. Yes going into it, its daunting at times and the money portion can be overwhelming and leave you sometime feeling like you don’t have enough but believe me, at the end of the very short day the small details you think matter right now will not! Have fun- remember why you want to marry your partner and don’t forget to take a little break in the middle of planning this big day and go away for the day or weekend and don’t talk about the wedding at all and just enjoy one another!
Congratulations to you both and Tucker Farms Events wishes you a happy, healthy and adventurous life together!