Things I wish I knew before I got engaged
1. Engagement periods can take over your life
At first the engagement period is the most exciting time, and it should be! (celebrate it), but pretty soon depending on how soon you decide you want your wedding this beautiful period of time can just become one big wedding conversation- with literally everybody (and anybody). It’s really important to carve time out for yourself and for you and your partner to have wedding free time.
2. Fight to keep your wedding your own
Everyone thinks they’re a wedding planner when you get engaged. There’s plenty of people who are trying to do a nice thing and help you out with suggestions but its very easy to quickly get overwhelmed. Especially when weddings can bring out the “I know everything” mentality. Be select in who you allow to have an influence in your wedding and make sure you don’t allow yourself to get swallowed in their ideas of what your wedding should be rather than your ideas for your wedding.
3. Communication is key
The part that makes wedding planning the most difficult is communication. Because depending on your partner’s and your family dynamics there’s often a bunch of people who have very differing opinions and expectations. Chronic people pleases need to find a way to have hard conversations about their expectations for their wedding and family member’s roles in the lead up- the earlier the better, there’s nothing worse then ending up with a wedding that you don’t feel is your own at all.
4. Research will make your budget happy
This one’s a balance. Some people will blow their budgets out with a longer time, because the idea they started with for their wedding was before they saw all the amazing glamorous weddings out there. And to a degree a shorter engagement period can help with that. But also research will save you a tonne of money. Finding the best vendor for your price point and style will take time. There’s no shame in going on some vendor stalking from some friends (if they’re happy to share) or hunting down the corners of the internet so you can find that great photographer no one has ever found before. And sometimes this can take a tonne of time. if you time poor perhaps event organisers are going to be your saving grace.
5. DIY - be ready for some pinterest fails
Lets be real, the internet is full of some beautiful do it yourself wedding décor. And while that’s great there’s a level of these that are really making these things professional. What says it may only take 20 minutes may eventually take 3 hours, because well maybe you’re not as much the arty type as you would like to believe. DIY can be time consuming and painful and can sometimes completely fail, be prepared for your idea to go sideways a few times, and make sure that you do a few practice ones. After practice ones assemble and army, make a day of it and hang out with the girls to get it done. And dear lord absolutely do NOT leave it last minute – there is absolutely nothing that will make you more stressed then fiddling with craft and a hot glue gun while you cry at 11pm one week before your wedding. Be prepared and do it beforehand!
