That’s how it’s supposed to start. Then you answer with “yes” or some variation of the word yes, but a yes nonetheless. If you all got engaged on a Friday then you will probably have a blissful weekend. Ignoring the phone and the animals (if you have any). Just blissfully ignoring the world and then…. Monday morning comes like it always does after Sunday and you now have a ring on your left hand on that 3rd finger. Yes that’s the one the ring finger. So if the finger was empty before EVERYONE will notice (a little trick I learned when I was 16 and started dating, I am from Louisiana the people here are weird, so yes they notice your left ring finger at 16. Hell they notice the minute you begin dating. Anyways I always wore a ring on it, my left ring finger of course. When I got engaged I was able to hide it for about 6 weeks. Because it took me 6 weeks to research and fall in love with wedding planning and plan an engagement party. Yes 6 weeks and I probably could’ve thrown my wedding but my engagement party did cost $2,657.86 and my wedding was only $6,958.36. So I learned a lot in 49 weeks. I learned the power of the budget, D.I.Y., local businesses, and newcomers. But the absolute best thing I learned was that I loved planning weddings and everything leading up to the wedding day. We were given a choice get married and have a wedding or go to the court house get married and have a small dinner party but get an all inclusive honeymoon. Of course after I had spent almost $3k on an engagement party and I never really thought I would get married I was all for taking the honeymoon. To my utter shock my then fiance now husband said he wanted a big wedding. I mean I thought the wedding would be fun and man I was excited to plan one (my baby shower was a disaster because my mom who I for some reason thought could plan parties because she planned my bday parties) did a horrific job planning it. I wanted to plan it myself but she thought that was ridiculous (she also thought registering was ridiculous. I should have known) anyways Joel wanted a big wedding so since his parents were putting $5,000.00 to the cause I started to plan our wedding. I did not realize what a true passion was until the first month of planning was done or underway. Planning weddings was my absolute passion. I fell in love with everything about weddings and I was only 6 weeks into planning but I couldn’t deny it. I realized that day in 2003 that I wanted to be a wedding planner so when someone mentioned hiring one I flipped out because no way in hell was I giving that up. I am sort of sad I have only been married once. I planned a 10 year anniversary/vow renewal but I got arrested and sentenced to 6 months 3 weeks before my vow renewal and it was going to be better than my wedding originally was. I knew so much more then I did when I originally planned our wedding and I had planned 2 other weddings besides mine 4 baby showers, 3 bridal showers, 2 wedding showers, a bachelorette party, and 2 rehearsal dinners. So yeah I was pissed but maybe we will have a 20 year anniversary party/vow renewal if we are still together and he has bought me a real 1.5 ctw diamond ring. If not well I might plan another wedding for myself someday or a very large divorce party. Any who I am sure I have left you with more questions than answers so let’s fix that. I was sentenced to 6 months in St. Tammany Parish jail because I violated my misdemeanor probation I did 70 days got put on 2 years felony probation and it has now been 7 years and I’m great. So your engaged yah.. YEAH!!!! But what do you do?
1] Plan a family dinner or meeting something so that you and your partner can tell your family’s together.
2) Find out if either family will be pitching in and how much they will be able to give? This will help you guys determine a BUDGET this is very important. It gives you an idea of what you can spend. So essentially it let’s you both know what kind of wedding you can have?
3) Call a planner. When you meet with your planner(or potential planner) have questions ready. Also have a vision or a vision board and a budget. I can do a lot with a budget and a vision. I could have you married and happily on your honeymoon in 3 weeks with a vision and a budget. But think of all the possibilities a year will give you to change your mind.
4) Set a date or if you can’t decide on an exact date yet pick a season. This is easier to do if you two have decided if your wedding will be inside or outside.
So recap 1.) Tell family then everyone else 2.) Set a budget 3.) Meet with and choose a planner 4.) Have a vision INSIDE or OUTSIDE; NIGHT or DAY; TIME of YEAR or SEASON; 5.)Set a date; or pick a month at least. Then colors and your vision will start to show. Write it all down, sketch it , draw it, or doodle it. You can also set up a website that will help you and keep you on track. Weddingwire.com is a great app and website also theknot.com.
Once you have a budget and a season at least the date, time, and colors will fall into place and until next time remember it doesn’t matter the where, how, when, or even why but it is about WHO.
liveMAJESTIClove 