8 Things to Do After You Get Engaged

Wahoo, you’re engaged! Congrats!

Now what?

^my thoughts exactly

I can’t believe today marked 7 years since Steve and I first started dating and 478 days until we say “I Do”. I know, I know we have plenty of time but I know it will be here before we know it and I can’t wait! Plus, I’m not one to procrastinate so getting ahead of the schedule is definitely the plan since we have the time to.

It’s funny to think about when you get engaged there’s no rules, guidelines or person telling you want to do next. It’s up to you to make that first step of when is it going to be, where and what you need and all the details in between. I have to laugh now as I remember telling Steve that weekend he proposed, “let’s give it a month to enjoy the engagement and then we can start planning”. Fast forward two weeks and we already booked our venue and church. What can I say? I was too excited to get started with all the fun planning!

Now fast forward 5 months and we have a church, venue, music, photographer, our bridal party and will be booking a videographer and caterer this week. Let’s just hope this “ahead of the game” thing lasts;)

If you recently got engaged and are starting to plan your wedding, I’m sharing my top things to do first after getting engaged below.

8 Things to Do After You Get Engaged

Announce the Engagement. Tell one and tell all because you’re getting married! I was fortunate to have most of my close friends and family in town to celebrate with me immediately after but that’s not the case for everyone so be sure to snap that super cute photo, call your friends/family first and then share the exciting news on social media because everyone loves a good engagement story and pic!

Pick a date. First and foremost pick your preferred date and keep an open mind if your date is already taken at your venue or ceremony venue. Sometimes the best way to do this is pick your ideal month and then be open to any date that month. Keep holidays and big things happening in your town in mind. Steve and I both love the spring so were open to anytime in this season but after falling in love with our venue and church, we went with the date that worked best for both of them and didn’t interfere with any big city-wide events that could hinder any travel or hotel accommodations for our guests. So June 9, 2018 it is (I like the ring it has too;)).

Book a venue and church/ceremony location. As you can tell from our experience above, booking these items right away is key as these will determine everything else for your big day; the date, the location, the timeline, etc. and these are the things that book up further in advance so be sure to book this first especially if you had your eye on somewhere.

Create a timeline. Once you book your venue and ceremony location, you will have a date so can officially begin the planning. My biggest piece of advice would be creating a timeline that is catered to you. I personally use the WeddingWire app on my phone to keep me on track and I customized it to my preferred deadlines and added little things I want to do that weren’t on there. It also has a built in countdown which I love checking every so often:)

Make a budget. This is HUGE and a big eye opener because I’ll be the first to say it. Weddings are really flipping expensive. Even though it will be completely worth every second of it that day, it’s a little painful right now when I get some quotes back and have to smile as if the price isn’t completely insane. I mean $46,000 for flowers? What am I getting a personal rose garden? The best way to tackle this one is come up with your ideal total budget and then do some research for tentative costs and allocate amounts out for all the major items (florals, catering, videographer, photographer, venue, ceremony, music, cake, invites, hair/makeup, dress, etc.) and have it add up to your ideal budget.

Pick Your Top Splurges. I have another truth to tell you, you’re not going to stay 100% within your budget. The best way to stay on track for this is to pick your top three things that mean the most to you and your fiancee and be open to splurging a little more on those to get what you want and then cut back on your least important things. For us music and photos were key so we splurged a little out of our budget for these and are cutting back in other ways to try and stay close within our total budget.

Ask Your Wedding Party. One of my favorite parts! Talk it through with your fiancee about who and how many you each want to have and then get creative and ask your bridal party to be a part of your big day. This has been one of my favorite parts so far, you can find the full story of how I asked my bridesmaids here.

Do Things Outside the Box. Last but not least, have fun and do some things out of the box because you’ll only be engaged for a short time so do things you wouldn’t normally do on a date night or try a fun dance class to practice for your first dance. Steve and I took a dance lesson at Duet Dance Studio and oh my goodness did we have a blast or what? Oh and I learned that Steve’s two left feet aren’t so bad when he knows what he’s doing;) We are always looking for more fun and different things to do outside of the planning and found some great options on Gilt City aka where we found the Duet Dance offer.

Did you recently get engaged? First, CONGRATS! Second, what’s next on your to-do for the big day? Share below.