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Just A Little Advice: Newly Engaged

Advice

February 12, 2019

While engagements happen all throughout the year, it’s no secret that the holidays (namely November-February pose a particularly popular time to pop the question, known affectionately in the industry as “Engagement Season.”

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To all the newly engaged couples out there, congratulations! Enjoy this time and relish every moment. It can be tricky to navigate, so check out a few tips we put together below to help guide you and your future spouse:

  • Be present: It’s SO easy to get swept up immediately into the planning. As a planner, my wheels were turning instantly. However, the best advice I received when I got engaged was to enjoy the moment. You’ll only be a enfianced for a short time before you become a bride and then a wife. So soak it up! Take the time to pour through wedding magazines, have an engagement party or simply be for a bit before all the necessary planning inevitably takes over. No matter if you’re engaged six months or two years before the big day, trust us it will fly!
  • Communicate: Weddings are not simply for one partner – they’re about both of you. So don’t forget to talk to each other and not just about the wedding! Make it a point to keep your normal lives – the highs, the lows, the stresses, the triumphs – a topic of conversation. You want to enjoy the planning process, not be burdened by it and if it’s all you ever talk about, trust us, it can quickly move from exciting to cumbersome.
  • Budget: Going into debt over your wedding is not worth it. I repeat. Going into debt over your wedding is not worth it. I know it’s so easy to get caught up in aesthetics and all the pretty things, but at the end of the day if you’re extending beyond your means to make something work it will cause more stress than pleasure. Build a budget and stick to it. There are no rules or proper etiquette in 2018 – more often than not both families are contributing as well as the couple themselves. So figure out your game plan of who’s contributing what and project your goals for each area so you can realistically start planning knowing what you’re working with.
  • Focus on relationship: Lastly, and most notably, realize that this whole thing – your Instagram worthy design dreams of epic cakes and dresses and flowers – is ultimately more about your marriage than the wedding. Marriage planning is the most important thing you can emphasize. After all, it’s not just about the big day – it’s about the big life the two of you have in store. So take the time to talk through issues like finances, family planning, etc. Read the books (link). Meet with a counselor (or your officiant if you’re having a religious ceremony). Take the time to invest in your relationship and it won’t matter what your wedding looks like in the end, because you’ll have the absolute best partnership to last you all of your days.

{Featured image by Kylie Martin + post image by Rachel May}