10 Things To Do After You Get Engaged

1. Announce your engagement! 

This should be obvious, but with all of the excitement don’t forget to announce your engagement. Dont just leave it to Social Media to do the work for you either, make it personal and take the time to call or email your closest friends and family. It might sound like something so small but it will not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

2. Look at your finances and put together a reasonable budget.

A tool such as Wedding Spot can help with this. Wedding Spot, allows you to plan out your wedding day and get starting prices for rental fees, equipment, and food and beverage, which will cover approximately 70 percent of your overall wedding budget.

3. Book your venue.

The most popular venues get snatched up a year in advance so start looking early. Each venue has its own set of restrictions, amenities, options, and services available. 

4. Order a dress.

Of course you can always buy a discounted dress off the rack, but most wedding dresses are made to order. Between choosing a style, having it made, and then planning for alternations, you should give yourself at least six months to get your perfectly fitted dress.

5. Lock down a photographer. (Our personal Favorite!)

As with venues, popular photographers are always in high demand. If you know who you want, let them know as soon as you’ve set a date — waiting too long could mean that you will end up working with their assistant or are unable to book them at all. If you’re not quite sure where to start, ask family and friends for recommendations and then take a good look at the photographer’s portfolio to get a sense of their work and style.

6. Take care of the food.

This is the fun part of wedding planning — tasting the food! Make sure you do the tastings and get a good feel for the caterer’s execution abilities.  This is one of the easier elements to take care of because there are so many choices, and many of the larger catering companies can work more than one event per night.

7. Put together a guest list and send out a “Save the Date”.

You want to make sure your loved ones are able to make it to your special day so let them know ahead of time. Save the dates can be traditional or they can be fun and different. 

8. Think about who will be in your wedding party.

This is a big question so I think it is always nice to ask in-person. Start thinking about who you want your Maid of Honor and Best Man to be. At the end of the day, these individuals are the ones making those important speeches that will bring laughter and tears to the room. 

9. Set the color scheme and pick your florist.

Flowers…most of us don’t know anything about flowers but there is plenty of inspiration online. Take a look onPinterest for wedding color themes and visit your venue to get a sense of what will work. The time of the year might make a difference too as you may want to go for fall colors for an October wedding, for example.

10. Finally, send out those invitations!

Do not get too overwhelmed by all the options. Try to find a store that can spend some time with you to understand what you’re looking for. A good salesperson will suggest invitations that fit your style rather than just pointing you to a shelf with a stack of books. Then, be careful when sending out the invitations since bows and ribbons can make the envelope unusually shaped and therefore cost more than a standard letter. If you are putting postage on the invitations yourself, make sure to confirm the right postage amount with your local post office so you don’t get a bunch of returned invitations that never made it to your guests!

This might sound like a lot of moving parts. But if you give yourself enough time, and think carefully about what you want and how much you can spend, I promise you’ll be fine. This is, after all, supposed to be a joyous and celebratory occasion so don’t forget to have fun with it