Just Engaged

First off, congrats! Depending on when you want to get married, I'd find venue first so you can have a set date. I got engaged a month ago and once we got venue, it was easier to book from there!

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I was thinking that and I want to look but it seems my partner doesn't think we need to do anything yet until later this year. Thinks its too early!! My top 2 things I need to be "perfect" is the venue and the food. I need a list of questions or a check list to ask the venue owner what's available, can and can't do. I'm going more for a non traditional wedding and focus on the fun and memorable activities.

Congrats! We got engaged this past Christmas and even though we thought it was too early to start booking for the end of 2020, as soon as we started going to venues, boy were we wrong. Every place had the date we wanted booked already so we settled on a different date. Same with the photographer and the dj. We wanted to book all of that stuff so we’re not in any rush getting closer to the wedding.

Yay congrats. Make a giant list to do and to buy. Budget, guest list and venue are the first things to hash out and then everything else are details to add and figure out after.
If you can, try to keep your wedding simple. So many brides stress or think of things like chair covers and in the end no one really notices the small stuff like that. Your wedding will be beautiful regardless of how detailed or not it is. And don't forget to take breaks whenever you need

First things first... selecting your budget, then picking a venue! Having a budget is key in all wedding planning. As far as picking a venue, they tend to book quickly, but it will also set the tone (not to mention the date) for your entire wedding. Once you have your venue booked, everything else will fall into place. Also, using the checklist on WW & The Knot has been super helpful for me.
As far as an engagement party, friends and family usually plan & host those for you. Or at least they did for us and for everyone I have known to get married. So maybe mention wanting one to yours and your FH’s family & close friends. You can obviously help plan or offer ideas of what you’d like.

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Thats true, I will need to look around for an outside/inside wedding, which might be hard since I might cost more

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At first i was starting to freak about the decorations and realize I want them to love my wedding from the ceremony and activities, not things like napkins or chairs. Not worrying about that will save me money

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Sadly it seems like my family aren't super excited about the announcement. More like brushed it off like another news. So most likely i'll be doing and paying everything myself. The venue is the 1 thing I need done asap so I know when and what I want to buy for it in the first place! But its intimidating thinking of looking and booking so soon. Maybe just do a bunch of tours first before deciding? as for budget, what sounds reasonable? I wouldn't know how much and average one is!

View Quoted Comment I’m sorry you did not get a more exciting reaction from your family. Hopefully once you really start planning, they will want to be more involved.
As far as venue costs, it all depends on the style you are interested in, what the venue includes, & your location. Start using the venue search tool on WW and The Knot. See what types of places you like and reach out to them. They will be able to send you their wedding package information with costs. Definitely tour multiple venues before making a decision. Unless you really find one you love right away that has your date available and is within your budget that you’re scared of losing.

View Quoted Comment The guy will wait until the LAST MINUTE to want to plan anything,if you let him.I am the perfect person to tell you that.There were things that I was trying to decide a year ago that he wanted to wait on...🤦🏽‍♀️...Now..everything is a last minute shuffle.Go with your gut...get started.🤣

First of all congrats!! I've been engaged since April 20th this year and it still doesn't feel real!!! Basically I wanted to keep the feeling of newly engaged to ourselves for a bit so we did not tell anyone besides immediate family that we were engaged for a week and a half. It was complete bliss. Then we had our engagement photo shoot and used those pictures to announce it on social media to the rest of our friends and family. From there we sat down with fmil and ffil and discussed our budget. Ffil is a saint and began emailing venues and weeding out the ones that fit our budget the best. We booked our venue may 11th. Since then we have sent out save the dates and have finalized our menu (which wasn't hard because its buffet style) next on my list is wedding dress shopping! It really depends on how soon your getting married, we have our date set and I've been following the checklist on here. Also I didn't want an engagement party, however fmil is insisting on a bridal shower at least. Other than that just remember to enjoy this new bliss and dont stress out to much in the beginning because you'll miss out on all the good things happening. Congrats again!!

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My fiance and I booked our venue for our July 2020 wedding last September, so I'm a firm believer of getting the big things booked early. As far as budget goes, your budget will be different than other depending on your finances. The best advice I received for a budget was to figure out how much money you could put aside each month after you pay all your bills and put money into your savings. Then multiply that by how many months you have until the wedding. For example, if you're able to set aside $500 a month from now until April 2021, your budget would be $11,000. As far as venues and catering go, you should allocate about 40% of your budget to cover those costs. So, if we're talking an $11,000 budget, $4,400 would be your budget for venue and catering. This number will dictate the amount of guests you can invite, as guest count is the quickest way to go over budget. If you need a list of questions to ask your venues as you go and tour them, you can PM me your email address and I can send over the 3 page questionnaire I created for my venue search. It has pretty much everything I found on multiple lists all put into one document that I could write on during my tours. Best of luck in your search!

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That's what I thought! I guess I can just give him a last chance moment and show him to button that says "confirm" on anything im about to buy lol

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That's great advice! Better start budgeting my own stuff than move on wedding budgeting. As for guests, its a shot in the dark as my family will definitely invite more and than probably invite more without telling me, and than chaos will happen lol And im sure even if i have a list and make a final check, more will still come > . < Thats just how hispanic families are

View Quoted Comment Haha, I’m dealing with that! My fiancé is half Mexican, so they’ve been warning me about previous weddings in the family. However, I’m pretty strong willed and opinionated, so I think they’ve got it now that there will only be enough seats for those who reply to the invitations. I’m not looking forward to hunting down those who still don’t RSVP, but that’ll be a nightmare for next year. 😉

Congratulations! So exciting! The first thing my fiancé and I did was choose a venue! Good luck on your wedding planning