If you’re visiting this blog, chances are you have recently popped the question or said “yes” to your best friend. Love wins once again! Once the emotion mellows out and you flaunt your engagement ring to absolutely anyone and everyone you interact with- even the barista who is making your daily latte- it’s time to get to business and begin planning your wedding. There are so many resources available from Pinterest, magazines, wedding blogs to help you in the chaos and help you from not becoming overwhelmed.
The average engagement lasts roughly a year and a half, so spread the crazy over time and utilize our tips to help streamline that chaos so you can enjoy this major milestone that flies by way too quickly!
Instagram A Picture Of The Proposal
You’ll want to group text your family with a picture of the new bling on your hand so they can hear the news first, but you will quickly curate the perfect close- up shot to post to your Instagram or post the video of your proposal to your Insta Stories. Maybe you’ll share your engagement on all social media channels simply because you are so ecstatic to be engaged! You deserve to brag and share your news!
Create a Pinterest Board
After the excitement of the proposal mellows down, you and your partner will begin envisioning what you want your wedding to look like. Grab your laptop and start creating vision boards on Pinterest, immediately! This will help you stay organized and help you to create easy to understand dialogue for any member in the planning process. Dempag Photography has a board for wedding inspiration, engagement photos, wedding decor, color palettes, destination weddings, the list goes on.
Determine A Budget
Okay, determining a budget probably isn’t your favorite part of planning a wedding. However, you don’t want to set yourself, or your families up for a ton of debt. Sit down with your partner, and have a serious discussion about what type of wedding you can afford. Thankfully, there are a ton of do-it-yourself resources available to decrease your costs, as well as finding a wedding planner, like Dempag Photography, who is able to help in multiple facets of the wedding process. Junebug Weddings created an awesome Budget Tool that will help you keep your finances organized.
Choose Your Length of Engagement
Although there is no preferred length of time to be engaged, the average length of engagement is approximately 1.5 years. Many brides will have a dream date that they have imagined since you began dating, or even since she was a young girl. Some brides don’t have a preference on the date, and it depends on the availability of the venue. Don’t feel pressured by what society says you should do. Decide what feels best for you and your fiance, and establish a timeline that won’t have you running your heels into the ground because you have so much to do and not enough time! If you are fine with being engaged for six months, or five years, then do it! Let your closest friends know what your timeline is looking like, then begin your wedding checklist from there. You do you.
Take Engagement Photos
Taking engagement photos are one of the simplest tasks to check off of your wedding checklist, and one of the most fun! You’ll want to add a couple engagement photos to your save the date cards, so you’ll want to find a photographer shortly after becoming engaged. At Dempag Photography, we love having fun connecting with couples as they are in the early wedding phases. Check out our Engagement Photo Inspiration board, and we will curate an engagement session that will truly highlight what makes your relationship so special!
Book A Wedding & Save The Date
Your wedding reception will become the backdrop to your fairytale, and set the tone for your guests. This will also become your quickest budget expense once you factor the number of guests, decor, catering, the venue itself. Scout a couple different locations, and book early in order to secure the date you want. Dempag Photography has captured enough weddings in Central Texas and the American Midwest, that we can determine the perfect venue based on your dreams and preferences.
Propose To Your Best Friends
The main proposal has now become a reality, and now it’s time to pay it forward and propose to your best friends. Long before the question is popped, both parties generally have an idea of who they want to be their best man and maid of honor. This is the opportunity to get creative and truly show your best friends how much of VIPs they are in your life. Plan a weekend guys/girl trip, pop the champagne, and celebrate how excited you are to enlist the help of your closest friends. They will dedicate an enormous amount of their time and energy towards helping you streamline your wedding, so they deserve to be treated like kings and queens with appreciation.
Create A Wedding Website
Your go-to knowledge base for all wedding inquiries and announcements. The website is used to inform guests of location, times, gift registry, and any other announcements. It’s a chance for families and friends to see a firsthand glance of what the bride and groom will be like as a duo. It’ll provide a one-stop location for attendees to be on the same page for accommodations, transportation, dress codes, and anything else you may need to relay. Guests will want to know about any discounts they can receive and what to do nearby. Provide a simple source for them so they can have peace of mind planning their trip to your wedding.
Have The Lifetime Warranty On Your ring? Get It Insured Too
Alright, alright, this probably isn’t what you were expecting to be on the list, but it could save you money in the long run. If a stone falls out or your ring needs to be resized, you want to ensure you have a warranty to repair it. Your ring is symbolic of your marriage, and it is a significant investment that you will cherish for years. It’s a simple warranty you can purchase from the Jeweler. Helzberg Diamonds has a fantastic lifetime warranty program where they will provide a Lifetime Care Plan and you simply have to go in every six months for inspection. Now that the ring is officially on your hand, it’s time to get it insured. Just as you would get a car insured as soon as you purchase it. Same concept. In fact, many of the same providers you get your car insurance or your homeowner's rent, you also have the option to add it on as an extension. No matter what life throws towards your hand, make sure you are covered!
Have Fun!
Your engagement experience is a milestone that only you can experience and cherish. Don’t spend too much time focusing on the end product that you end up not embracing the emotions of being newly engaged. Celebrate the growth of you and your partner, embrace in close friendships as you continue to a new chapter, and simply laugh- as much as possible. We can’t truly stress enough about how important it is love deeply and laugh, no matter what gets thrown your way. We know that not every moment will have fireworks, but laughter and understanding will help you and your partner to overcome all the mishappenings that are bound to happen during your wedding planning, and you can laugh about how much of a whirlwind it has been!
Congratulations on your engagement, and remember, Dempag Photography offers more than simply wedding photography. We offer total wedding packages. Our clients choose us because of the unique care to detail we provide with undivided individualized attention. We genuinely love weddings. The joy, chaos, tears, love, family- all of it. We are so blessed every time a couple chooses me to help make their wedding day amazing for them. It is an honor I cherish, and we put all of our passion and expertise into each and every wedding.
Pin it!
