Congratulations! The fact that you’ve landed here means that you probably just got engaged and are super excited! This is such a special and exciting time for you and we wanted to make sure it stays that way by providing you with a detailed list of what to do next! Below we’ve given you a step by step guide to everything you need to do now that you’re engaged to make sure everything runs smoothly before your special day.
Reach out to your closest family and friends
After your engagement and before you spread the news to everyone you know, now is the best time to tell your family members and close friends of your exciting engagement! Many times it helps to contact these people before the news hits social media so they feel included and part of your special moment! After that, feel free to share it out to the masses and let everyone know about your special engagement.
Start thinking about your wedding vibe and colors
Now the fun part begins! Start thinking about the overall vibe of your wedding and what you want your day to look like. Use tools like Pinterest or Canva to create a mood board and come up with ideas for details. Maybe even take a wedding quiz to find out your ideal style and start scouring wedding magazines. All of these avenues will help you figure out your color scheme and your overall vision will start coming to life!
Create a budget
This may not be the most fun part of a wedding, but it is super important when starting to plan a wedding! Sit down together and flesh out a realistic budget. There are many budget tools like this one that you can use for planning your special day as well. You can also scour the web for articles to help you stay on budget, help you figure out where to save, and help you determine where hidden expenses may arise.
Create a guest list
Once you’ve created your budget you now need to figure out who you want at your wedding. It’s time to create your guest list! This will be a must-have before you start meeting with vendors or venues mainly because it will help determine what venue your wedding guests will fit in. Our advice is to create a list of everyone you can think of to invite and then go through and try to cut down the list down. If you didn’t think of the person off the top of your head in the beginning, they might be someone you could cut out. Here’s a great resource to help you narrow down your list.
Get your engagement photos taken
Now is the time to start thinking about your save the dates and determining if you want engagement photos for those save the dates. Not everyone gets engagement photos taken, but many couples think it’s fun to have these photos of them right after their engagement for years to come. If you do decide to get them, try doing it earlier rather than later to allow time for editing and developing your save the date’s.
Get a wedding planner
If you’re a bride and groom looking for a wedding planner, this is a good time to pick one out. Here are some of our tips for hiring the best wedding planner. You can also hire one earlier in the process to help you with the above steps, but hiring one now will help you create a timeline, help you solidify your budget and will help turn your vision into a reality. Many couples get overwhelmed by all of the decisions that they must make for their wedding like flowers, DJ, linens, food and cutlery that they can’t even focus on the fact that they are getting married. Having a good wedding planner will help relieve this stress up to the event and on the day of your wedding. If you’re looking for a wedding planner, visit Sprout Design Wedding for more information and offerings.
Choose a venue and set a date
Many times your wedding planner will help with this, but if you don’t have a wedding planner, this is when you’ll want to start figuring out where you want to get married. We recommend setting up a few appointments over a few days to view venues and walk through them in person. See how the layout can be transformed and if it plays along to the overall wedding vision you have. Find out how friendly the staff is and how easy they will be to work with. Also determine what is included and what isn’t. The most important part is to do this as early as you can because some venues book up well over a year in advance. If you have your perfect venue, you'll want to make sure it is free on the dates you’d like to get married.
Get organized for the big day
Now is the time to get organized and determine the timeline leading up to your wedding. Again, your wedding planner will help with this, but if you’re doing it alone there are many guides and templates online that will help you create a plan. Next steps include finding a wedding dress, determining your bridesmaids and groomsmen, sending out save the dates and determining all of the details of the actual wedding event.
This is just the start of your wonderful life together and your magical wedding! We hope you the best and if you ever need assistance don’t hesitate to reach out to us at sam@sproutdesignwedding.com for a quote or head over to our website or instagram for more blogs posts, inspiration, pricing and tips!