So You're Engaged...Now What?

So You're Engaged. Hooray! Congratulations! It's so exciting! But literally the next thing out of people's mouths is 'have you set a date?' I mean, even within the first 24 hours. And yes, I know they mean well! They want details, they want to know what's going on, they want to celebrate and be excited with you and maybe don't know what else to ask, but let's be real. In those last 24 hours you were not calling venues and photographers and caterers or really even looking at your calendar. You were looking at your ring and basking in the glory that the love of your life just asked you to marry him! 

But then your mind gets rolling (at least mine did) and you want to do ALL OF THE THINGS and get them all done and it's overwhelming and where do you even start?! At least that's where my mind went.

First things first, pick a time of year. If you have a specific date in mind, that's great too, although it make things harder if you have no flexibilty. For Joe and I, we decided a fall time frame of next year so it wasn't so hot here in Virginia.  That narrowed it down to September, October, or November.

I've been in the wedding industry long enough to know what things booked up the fastest, so that's where I started: the venue and the photographer. A third vendor to book at this time would be that specific vendor that you just have to have. My 'have-to-have' vendor was the photographer, so I only had two. 

A few days after the proposal and the excitement died down a little bit, I contacted a few the photographer (my have-to-have vendor) to get some available dates. 

Let me tell you, things book up FAST. I am not saying that to scare you by any means, but more to encourage you to not wait too long before you contacting these vendors. Just for a bit of a reference here, I got engaged at the end of June, contacted the photographer within a week and had a Skype session the first of July. As I said before, we are looking at the Fall of 2018. By the time we talked to the photographer, she already had all of October booked and a few dates in September. And that's more than a year out. 

Once I had a list of dates from my photographer, I got a list of dates from the potential venue and matched them up to see which dates they had in common. I took those dates to Joe to chat about what dates he preferred, and then placed soft holds with the photographer and venue while I finalize a few details (particularly, the guest list and how many people we are inviting, but that's for another blog!).

So to recap, here's your first to-dos:

1. Pick a time of year
2. Tour venues
3. Chat with photographers
4. Match up dates between your favorite venue and photographer
5. Book that date!

But most importantly, ENJOY IT. This is your time! Make sure to take a deep breath and take it all in as this time will fly right by! Cheers!