Now what??
My boyfriend and I got engaged over the weekend! Yay!! Such a happy time! So much love!
All my friends have been married at least once, and I've been in a ton of weddings. I've been a bridesmaid and a flower girl and a reader. It's such a pink flowery gooey happy experience - you'd think I'd know what to do. But I'm a little lost.
What are you supposed to do next?
So far I've been asked: When are you getting married? Will it be this year? Have you picked a date? Where did you register? Are you going to invite (insert name of 3rd cousin here) to the wedding?
What was the first thing you did after you got engaged - or wish you'd done?
Cheers, Lara!
Comments
CONGRATS!!!!! Don't worry about what's next for a minute. Just ENJOY!
Congratulations and Best Wishes, Lara!
I wish we'd eloped right away. BEING married is a whole lot more fun than GETTING married, in my book. I realize I'm probably in the minority on this! It sure would save a lot of planning and stuff, and you could just have a big party after.
Congrats! First rule: post pictures of the ring! (OK, that's just my Nosy McNoserton rule.)
Congratulations!!
Please post a pic of your ring, I am looking for ideas for my own.
yeah - what up with the bad cheesy clip art? Give us ring!
(hey -did the blogging world know before I did???????)
Wow, thanks for all the nice messages! I'll post a pic of the actual ring as soon as I can, my digital camera is broken. It looks EXACTLY like the Lucida ring from Tiffany - it's GORGEOUS!
And Heidi, one of my closest dearest friends - some day I'll know how to make this up to you!
Take Anne's advice. Elope. We did and I've never regretted it. I'm just not into weddings and the whole nighmarish planning. I am more into the marriage.
I got married three months ago saturday, all the planning was done in 5 months and while it was all a blur, it was SO nice to get it all just done and now BE married. I agree with Anne - being married is much better than planning the wedding.
As for advice on what to do though, here's mine:
1. pick a general date (month/year)
2. book the most important things - reception hall, wedding location, DJ/Band, caterer, photographer... or whatever is most important to you... especially if there is a specific one of those you want, you may have to work around THEIR schedule to get the date down.
3. relax, once those things are done the rest will fall into place. To get people to stop asking questions, or not asking but suspiciously wondering, figure out what you're doing for the guests (invite everyone, or not) and start guest list AND pick out and ask your attendants and other people involved.
OR Elope!! We toyed with that idea, but it meant a lot to have all our family and friends there
Husband and I weren't into planning a big wedding either so we had short ceremony with just my parents in attendance (his are deceased). It only took 4 weeks to plan. About a month later we hosted a BBQ to celebrate our marriage with friends. No regrets from us on skipping the big, stressful wedding, and we saved A LOT of money!
Congratulations!
I'm with Anne - elope - being married is much, much better than planning a wedding.
If eloping is out, then pick a date and start trying to see if the big stuff is available - reception hall, church (or equivalent), person to conduct ceremony, etc. Also, talk with SO and decide how large you want it and how you're paying for the wedding (always a biggy).
Good Luck!
Congrats! I'm getting married in April '07. After yelling my engagement to the world (my blog & phone), I explored www.theknot.com. There are all sorts of handy & helpful stuff on there!
(I'm an 'older' bride so I didn't want the craziness...but seemed to have found it anyway!)
The first thing that I did was register. Then I argued with my mother inlaw about where to STOP the invitation list. Here is a clue. You don't invite your third cousin twice removed. By the way, if you are wanting a wedding in the spring or summer, book the photographer FIRST. Congrats. I have been married for three years myself.
Destination wedding. It rocked. I got everything I wanted out of a wedding/honeymoon without breaking my bank. We just got married Sept. 23 It was beautiful. Dad was the youngest of 14, needless to say I had a lot of people I had to invite. They all got invited, no one's feelings were hurt and I could afford to have a honeymoon, which I wouldn't have if I'd gotten married at home. I've posted some of my wedding pictures on flicker, http://flickr.com/photos/carrie72/, Talk about a no-stress wedding!
Okay, I'm going to make myself sound really old though I'm not. I've unfortunately been married 3 times, and the first wedding was HUGE, with all the bells & whistles, and STRESS! The second one was a small one with just parents and like 2 friends each. Very last minute planned. Then fate had something else in mind for me and almost 5 years ago, I met the man of my dreams. He's the half that makes me whole, and because of my past, I didn't want a big wedding, but it was his first, so I agreed. It was beautiful, and romantic, fun and a blur! There's alot of planning to do, but there are great websites and iternaries to follow to keep you on track. Photographer is definitely priority, and location, as those are the 2 things that seem to book up first. Pick a month or 2 and then start narrowing it down with the bookings you have to do.
We've now been married almost 4 years, and have a 2 year old daughter (my first child), the memories, no matter what you chose to do, will be MEMORABLE!
Best of luck!
Lara- Get your dress first everything else won't matter if you get the perfect dress. Make sure you understand from day one that it might not be "your" day. There are so many other people to cater to. Your honeymoon will make all the stress disappear so if you want big foofy glitter and romance do it--it will all be worth it in the end. My Hub and I did a lot of things ourselves (flowers etc) and we ended up with a reasonably cheap wedding and wonderful memories. Remember bridesmaids dresses don't necessarily have to be "bridesmaid dresses". I got mine on clearance at nordstom.com and they look nice in the pix. Keep us updated on your progress :) Oohh ohh and check flickr for ideas. I searched on there and looked at other people's wedding pix and found a ton of ideas. Here is my link if anyone wants to look www.flickr.com/photos/hillarysanders
My Mother in-law is making me want to run away and forget the wedding...everything is an issue: who is marrying us, who SHE wants there,...we agreed on a small wedding so she invites twice as much as my family...i dodn't think so! my Parents and me and my boyfriend are paying for it! the Wording on the invitations the fact that i am not their Religion...Everyhting is goin wrong>I liked her before this but now i do not even want to be part of her family she is a control freak...what should I do .. i wish we could run away..!
