Top Five Things to Do as Soon as You Get Engaged

Ooooohh henny YES you’re freakin’ engaged!!!

This is arguably one of the most exciting times in your entire life because you said yes to forever! Your mind is likely racing right now: “Who do I tell first? How fragile is this thing? Let’s have a fall wedd- NO, a spring wedding! Aunt Carol is gonna freak!”

Am I right?

Breathe, boo. I got you. After you (appropriately) freak out, tell everyone, and post on social media, here are the top five things you should do as soon as you get engaged!

1. Relax

Yeah, I said it. Take a chill pill. Your engagement may seem like it’s forever long and the wedding will never come, but I promise you, it will. And honestly? Your engagement will fly by. You can take a month or two and just enjoy showing off your new hardware. Enjoy being together. Go on fun dates or trips to places you’ve never been. Make your engagement memorable, rather than that year-long blur before you married the love of your life.

2. Talk about your budget

Money talks are SO important when it comes to wedding planning. The last thing you want is to stress over unexpected expenses as the planning period goes on. Figure out what’s important to you two. Not what’s important to your uncle you haven’t seen in three years, not what your sister deems important, but what YOU actually value.

This is also a good time to figure out how many guests you plan to invite, which will help with step 4!

Bonus Tip: guests will likely forget to take their favors home with them, and no one ever keeps the invitations. People usually keep Save the Dates because they have photos of you two on them! Spend money on what matters and what will last, rather than just get thrown away.

3. Figure out your wedding aesthetic

THE FUN PART. You get to be an interior designer for your wedding. Head over to Pinterest and start gathering ideas. What do you want your wedding to feel like? Do you want to have a black tie affair with sparkly gold as your accent color? Do you want to get married outside with your toes in the sand? Maybe you want a backyard barbecue vibe where your guests sip on White Claws and snack on appetizers all night.

OR maybe you want to elope. Just you, your person, an officiant (which could even be a friend), and your photo/video team. It could be just us on Yosemite mountain, or on the serene beaches of Hawaii, or overlooking the waters near Santorini. The possibilities are endless. Find what speaks to YOU. Make it yours. You’re only going to marry this person once, so do what you want to!

4. Pick a venue

Picking a venue automatically means picking a date! This is your new anniversary! We chose our date first, because we’re getting married on our five-year dating anniversary, but thankfully that landed on a Thursday, so our venue was a bit easier to lock down! Tour a few venues before picking one. Do your research, and don’t be afraid to contact multiple venues to get pricing and capacity quotes. Most venues book 9-15 months in advance, so it’s never too early to get your ducks in a row!

Bonus Tip: Your vendors should want to work with you. They should make you a priority as if you’re the only one contacting them. You should leave your conversation with them feeling heard and valued, not just like another paycheck.

The Grove | Las Vegas, NV

Red Rock Casino | Summerlin, NV

Waldorf Astoria | The Strip | Las Vegas, NV

5. Pick a photographer

I’m biased, but this is the best part of planning a wedding. You get to hand-pick who documents your heirloom memories. Who will be lucky enough to be in charge of the images you pass on to your kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, or your nieces and nephews? Who will you give that honor to? Your choices here are truly endless, but don’t forget – you spend a lot of time with this person on the wedding day, so it’s important that you like them and get along with them! The way I see it, find a wedding photographer that doesn’t feel like just another vendor. You should find someone who cares about you, who knows your cat’s name, who you could easily go grab coffee with on a rainy day. I’m not saying you have to be BFFs with this person, but you should feel comfy enough around them. Your relationship with your wedding photographer will show in your images. So if you don’t know them that well, you’ll be able to tell in the photos.

Welp, that’s all folks! You now have the top five things to do as soon as you get engaged, so hop to it! And as always, reach out with any questions. I’m here for ya! ❤️

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