Congratulations, you're engaged! Now what?!
First of all congratulations on your engagement! This is a very exciting time in your life! But it can also be a very stressful time. So here are some tips to get you started in your wedding planning journey:
Take a couple days or weeks to relax and enjoy your new status. Take in all the congratulations and well wishes. Let it all sink in before you really start planning.
Set a budget. This will determine everything from the type of venue you can choose to the # of guests you can invite and much more. Also talk about where this money will come from - yourselves, parents, other?
Start a guest list (or four!) to determine the # of guests you'll be inviting. This, in correlation with the budget, will help determine the venue. You and your fiance will both have lists as well as each family (hence the four lists).
Pick a date. Determine what is more important to you - a particular date or the perfect venue. If you're flexible with the date you will have many more options.
This step is the most missed - once you either pick a date or approximate time for your wedding, before you book the perfect venue, check with the important people in your lives that you want to be at your wedding to make sure they don't have something already scheduled. I recently knew of someone who picked their date and put a deposit (non refundable) on the venue without telling anyone. He then found out that his own brother would be out of the country and could not make his wedding.
These are just the beginning steps to start planning your wedding. This is also the perfect time to interview wedding planners. A good wedding planner will help you with your budget (yes you can find a generic budget on different websites like The Knot but they don't take into account the vendor costs in your area). They'll also make sure you stick to your budget. A wedding planner will put together a wedding timeline (again you can get a generic one but those all seem to be based on 12 months, they're not customized to you). They'll keep you on track with the timeline. A good wedding planner will help you find the perfect vendors that fit both your budget and style as well as personality, and much more. Basically they will save you tons of time as well as money!
Thanks for stopping by our site. I hope these tips help you. I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments.
Congratulations again and Happy Planning!