So you just got engaged. Congrats! This is such an exciting and wonderful time. It can also be a bit stressful if you don’t know what to do first. Here are 10 things to do when you get engaged:
1. Call family and close friends.
Share the exciting news! I recommend calling in this order: parents, other close relatives, and then best friends. You don’t want them finding out through the grapevine, or worse, on social media. Sharing your new engagement is exciting and fun. You want to enjoy your moments personally telling each and every one of your loved ones.
2. Get a manicure.
Everyone will be grabbing your hand and looking at your ring so your nails have to be on point. Do yourself a favor, and get a manicure ASAP. Knowing that your nails look nice will make you so much more comfortable displaying your new bling. It’ll also make your ring selfies to die for.
3. Get your ring insured.
This is a big one ladies. We’ve all seen the viral videos of the couples losing the ring mid-proposal. While hopefully you won’t lose it that soon, I’ve heard so many horror stories of rings getting lost or stolen before the couple even makes it down the aisle. There are a few ways to insure it. You can insure it through a jewelry insurance company or put it as a rider on your home insurance. I decided to get my ring insured through Jeweler’s Mutual since I was renting an apartment at the time. They offer pretty reasonable prices and full coverage for lost or stolen jewelry.
4. Discuss your budget.
This is arguably the most important part of wedding planning. You need to know what everyone is comfortable spending, and who’s paying for what. These conversations really should happen before you start looking at venues or dresses. And just a tip, don’t look at venues or dresses that are out of your budget. 😉
5. Choose a venue and date.
Once you have your budget secure, you can start looking at places that would work for you. A lot of times venues only have certain dates available. While it’s good to have a general idea of when you’d like to get married, you may need to be flexible in order to get the venue you desire.
6. Choose your wedding size.
How big do you want your wedding? It seems like so many brides go in saying they want a small wedding and then when they start to make the guest list, they realize that it’s just not possible. After all, you can’t not invite this cousin or that aunt or that parent’s friend from high school right? I’d make a A-list and a B-list of people you’d like to invite. If the budget and venue allows for some B-listers to make it in, then great! If not, hopefully they’ll understand.
7. Ask your wedding party.
This may be a millennial thing, but the second one of my friends gets engaged I’m waiting to see if I’m going to be asked to be in the wedding party. I also couldn’t wait to ask my girlfriends to be bridesmaids when I got engaged. Asking them early takes away any doubt, and it also provides you with some great helpers for wedding planning.
8. Choose all your vendors.
This may have been one of the more stressful parts of wedding planning for me. There’s just so much to think about and coordinate. Thankfully, my mom and hubby took some of these off my plate. I think the sooner you get started booking your vendors, the better. Here’s a quick list of some of the vendors you’ll need:
- Caterer
- Florist
- Baker
- DJ
- Officiant
- Photographer
- Videographer
- Stationer
- Makeup artist
- Hairstylist
As you can imagine, the list goes on. Wedding shows are a quick way to meet a lot of vendors. You can also check local wedding websites for reviews.
9. Create a wedding website.
I loved having a wedding website. It held all our registry and wedding day details. I made mine on The Knot and found it to be very simple to create and manage. For my bridal showers, we just sent people there to view the registry. I also had our guests RSVP on the site. They were even able to pick their dinner option when RSVPing.
10. Register for gifts.
Registering is so fun! You definitely need to register before your bridal shower invitations go out, and in my experience, registering takes a while. You have to choose where you would like to register, and then try to remember to put absolutely everything you might need for your new home on there. I was always going back and adding things. We did go into the stores to register at first, but I found it was much simpler and less time consuming to just do online.