Just Engaged💕

Congratulations!!!

I would say to take a couple of weeks to enjoy all the new excitement. It's so easy to get overwhelmed with planning and thinking of the end goal being the wedding, that the engagement period tends to get rushed and you feel like you missed it. Include your fiancee in everything he wants to be included in so that you feel like you're truly in this together & making memories! Remember to still go on dates and spend quality time together where you can talk about the marriage, but not the wedding! You can definitely start looking at Pinterest and getting a vibe for what you like in all things wedding related. Establishing a budget & rough estimate of a guest list is crucial before you actually dive into planning.

My best advice is to choose a venue before you choose a date. We didn't do that originally and it made things really confusing and stressful. Once we let go of trying to find a date first, we found the perfect venue that we loved and choosing a date was easier! I would first choose a season or two you would like to get married in so you have it narrowed down, check a list of dates in the following years to see where holidays fall, then discuss with your fiancee and see if there's any special dates you'd like to stick with. For example, we're getting married December 5, 2020 because our dating anniversary is December 7th and we got engaged on December 31st so we wanted to keep it within the month and as close to our anniversary as we could! Once you find the perfect place to start your forever and have a season in mind the date will come!

Welcome to WW and congratulations!!
I agree with your friends, enjoy the engagement for at least a couple of weeks. Let that feeling sink in because once planning starts is full on wedding mode and at least for me the butterflies from the engagement started disappearing.
Unless you want a short engagement then enjoy it for now! Once ready set a budget and pick a date. If you have an idea in mind for the date you can start planning 1 to 2 years in advance but as soon as 3 to 6 months. Good luck!

Congrats! Enjoy for a few weeks. When you’re ready start with 1) set a budget, 2) estimate a guest list, 3) choose a venue.


If you want to choose a theme (fairytale, modern, Lord of the Rings), that’ll help you choose a venue that fits your theme.

Congrats! I picked a season and knee I didn’t want hot weather so spring. I had to work around a few things like graduations, etc. but I waited quite a it-starting saving money and talking real numbers on budget and vision. Who to invite, work friends, people whose wedding I’d been to, etc. we had an idea and budget and started planning. Some stuff has gone out the door due to logistics (I wanted feet on a beach in Chicago but granny can’t walk on beach) and some things have evolved out of budget constraints but still the vision is similar. Found a venue, set a firm date on e we signed contract. I was looking for dresses when I wasn’t looking for venues. I waited to buy dress until I had venue. Enjoy, dream and get ideas here.

Congratulations and welcome to WW! The PP all had great suggestions for you in regards to enjoying this moment for a little. When you are ready to start planning, begin first with your budget. I was told that the best way to decide a budget was to figure out how much you can realistically set aside each month while still paying your bills, savings account, etc. and then multiplying that amount times the length of time you’re engaged, in months. For example, say that you and your fiancé want a January 2021 wedding and combined, you can save $1000 per month. January 2021 is about 13 months away (for the sake of argument), so 13x1000 would give you a budget of 13k, excluding anything you may have previously saved up. Knowing that number will help dictate everything about your wedding. Remember, the amount of guests you have is the easiest way to stay within or derail a budget. Check out some of the boards on here and please ask if you have any questions! Welcome and congratulations again!

Congrats!!!

Welcome and congrats!!! As far as a date goes, we went with something that kind of fit the timeline of when we wanted to be married - we didn't want a long engagement and yet wanted long enough to plan properly, so we went with a quicker timeline. But like pps have said, you want to make sure you take the season and the budget into account! Have fun with planning - let us know if you have questions or concerns, and we can definitely offer advice!

Enjoy it..take a few weeks or months to take it in if not a year then talk about it I got engaged June 9 2018 when I was still pregnant with our son I started planning a whole year and a half ahead I started maybe in June of this year for planning and won’t get married until sept 2020 but my FH and I knew when we wanted to get married even before we were engaged...we will be getting married on our 6 year anniversary

Congratulations and welcome to WW!

Taking some time to enjoy your engagement is definitely good advice, but how long that is and what it entails will be a little different for everyone.

I'm someone who started a dreamy Pinterest board when I was single, and then didn't look at it for years. (Which turned out to be a good thing - don't spend too much time on there lol.)

When I got engaged last August, we set a date relatively quickly for 2 years out, and then I started casually looking at wedding stuff. I had my venue, photographer, DJ and officiant booked by the end of 2018. Then, I took a huge planning break and didn't really start up again until August of this year. This has worked really well for our timeline, and I feel like we've gotten to enjoy our longer engagement in different ways over the last year, and we still have another 11 months to go.

The first thing you want to book is a venue. However, in order to do that, you need a budget, rough guest list, and date. All of these things are heavily intertwined, so start with one and then be prepared to tweak and compromise as you go along.

We picked 10/10/2020, which I knew would be popular. I guestimated that we'd like to spend no more than $10k total, but I had no clue what that would get me - it's obviously hard to budget for something when you don't know what things cost. Then we sat down and wrote a rough guest list to get an idea of a headcount.

From there, I started researching venues and my vision changed VERY quickly because of price, logistics, and things that I just didn't think about initially. You'll have to make a lot of decisions and compromises, but it helps if you keep your priorities in mind as you go along. (For example, things that are really important to us are guest experience & convenience; so we're spending a little more on food, and scaling back on flowers.)

Enjoy it! And don't hesitate to ask the community for more advice.

Congratulations!!

We started by picking out a date, we discussed this about 2 weeks after we got engaged, a month later we picked the venue. We got engaged almost 2 years ago, so after we booked the venue, we took a break from planning for a little bit!

Congrats! Definitely enjoy being engaged before planning. We got engaged July 4 2019 and in September we viewed a venue n picked the date may 9 2020. Now since we are towards the end of the year our photographer is booked and paid for, DJ booked and paid for, wedding dress bought, honeymoon paid for. I'm such a planner I wanted everything done ASAP lol. Also depends on your finances.

Congratulations! We picked our date because it was our current anniversary. Once you pick a date, decide what type of wedding you want. Large, small, destination etc.

Agh Congrats!!!

I agree with some of the other comments that you definitely want to enjoy this time being engaged - and saying fiancé and fiancée as much as possible because before you know it, it'll be husband and wife!! Not only does taking time before planning give you a chance as a couple to glow and celebrate, but it will also make sure your FH really feels your excitement and appreciation at his amazingly thoughtful proposal and equally amazing and thoughtful ring!

It can't hurt during this time to dabble around with dates to get a feel for your timeline...are you hard set on getting married on an anniversary? specific season? For example, if you know you want to get married on your engagement anniversary, you have a year of planning. But if you want to get married on your summer dating anniversary, that could mean a 6 month or 18 month engagement - and if you land on 6 months you want to start planning sooner rather than later! Otherwise, y'all can get married whenever you choose so there's no rush if you want to think about all of these things after the holidays!

Congratulations!! We got engaged about a month ago (November 15) and agreed that we would enjoy being engaged over the holidays and no decision making until the new year. I loved the idea of that, but I’m a planner so I’ve been “information gathering” on my own. He’s well aware of that and assumed that’s what I’d do so it’s no big deal. I’m finding it pretty exciting just being engaged that I don’t want this feeling to go away once the planning starts!

I'd pick a date that's far enough where you feel you can thoroughly save up and plan for. Or choose one that's meaningful such as coinciding with your anniversary or so. My husband chose our date because it just worked best for his schedule aha

Congratulations and welcome! I got engaged in May and joined WW in July. Its a useful tool that's been super helpful and so far we've set out date, budget and booked our venue in August. We have a way to go with a 2021 date but I'm a planner and figured I would lock those things down first followed by our guest list which is growing. We plan to visit a few photographers and florists in the new year. Just taking things easy and enjoying the process. I know my mind will change but I did start a vision board of things that I like so far; brainstorming has been fun and since we're not in a rush I like that we're able to take our time. Happy Planning to you and enjoy it.

Thank you sooooo much! The gems shared have really calmed me down. Lol I think the planner in me is like start now. He's traveling and will be back in January so I'll pump my breaks till then💕💕💕 Glad to have this community ❤

View Quoted Comment ❤ very good information thanks!

View Quoted Comment Thank you!


Lol, I'm a planner too and the planner in me wants to come out.
What you shared makes a lot of sense though. Taking time to see where we're at and moving at our own pace is what I'm taking away.

View Quoted Comment Thanks Maddie! Congrats to you as well! I love that idea of just enjoying being engaged and putting dates on hold for now.