Your engagement will be one of the most exciting times of your life, but could also be one of the most stressful times. Here’s my engagement advice as you begin planning your wedding.
The bliss (& shock) is still setting in. Your mind has been racing of the color scheme, how the flowers will look, what songs you will dance to. As if you hadn’t been thinking of your wedding since you were a little girl, with Pinterest nowadays, you probably already have a wedding idea board, even if it’s secret. Well, first of all, Congratulations! The next phase, the engagement, will be one of the most exciting times of your life, but could also be one of the most stressful times. I know there were a few times for me, where I just broke down thinking that everything I wanted to do just wouldn’t get done. It would result in calling my mom in tears thinking I couldn’t do it. I’m not telling you this to overwhelm you, but to let you know, I’ve been there.
My engagement advice for you:
Take it one step at a time.
If you’re like me, the first thing you want to do is start decorating. Don’t put the horse before the cart though. Start collect ideas, but start by getting the big things out of the way first, like setting your wedding date.
Realize that you can’t do it all.
I knew that I wanted to have DIY wedding, which is a big task, so gather your troops! Don’t even try to take it all on yourself, or you will eventually break. I had an extremely hard time delegating when I was planning our wedding, which is one thing that I probably would do differently if I had to do it all again (which is definitely why I included it on my engagement advice).
Your friends and family are so ecstatic for you. All they want to do is be involved and help. Take advantage of that. If you are a control freak, give that up right now. Once you take a good look at your wedding checklist, go through it and star the items that you would feel comfortable giving to a trusted friend or family member. Ask them what they are interested in helping with (aka don’t give your least crafty friend a big DIY project). Most likely people will say they can help with whatever you need, have your list ready of things to delegate.
Be gracious.
As a follow up to learning to delegate, don’t forget to be grateful for your helpers. Be sure to not ask for too much from someone. If anyone helps you even in the smallest way, be sure to say thank you and let them know how much they are appreciated. Handwritten thank you notes go a long way.
It’s not going to be perfect.
Let’s face it, we will live in a Pinterest soaked, wedding blog world. This can be a lot to live up to, so don’t. Only go to the wedding blogs and Pinterest boards for inspiration. Let those be a place for you to dream and collect ideas. However, come to the realization early on that it’s just not going to be perfect, which can be hard if you are perfectionist. Let your mind focus on the facts: you’re in love and going to marry the love your life. The wedding is just a day at the beginning of your story. No matter what happens, what it looks like, what the food tastes like, what your dress looks like (you get the point) everyone will be focused on one thing: your radiant happiness as husband and wife. Don’t lose sight of that in the middle of the ribbons and lace.
Do you have any other engagement advice? We’d love to hear about it in the comments.
The next step is definitely choosing your wedding date – check out my advice for that here.
If you are ready to jump straight in to “list-making” mode – check out my ultimate wedding checklist here, which rounds up all of my wedding planning posts.
I am so excited to walk this path you with. I’ll be sharing my advice, tips, tricks, list etc. along the way. I hope you’ll follow along. Let the wedding planning begin!
