So, You're Engaged?
- Catherine Cantu
- Apr 7, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 14, 2023
Has your life partner recently popped the question? If so, CONGRATULATIONS! I recently got engaged myself. Now, you may be at a loss of where to begin with your wedding planning or have no idea what you should be doing! Many brides get stuck with the brunt of the planning and become overwhelmed quickly. I am a hyper-organized person who loves to-do lists, mainly because crossing items off of a list is so satisfying to me, so I have not experienced too much stress throughout my process. However, I am still quite early into my own planning.
I am no expert, but I do love to share tips, tricks, and recommendations with my friends and readers from my own personal experiences. My partner and I got engaged on Saturday, December 17, 2022 in Hot Springs National Park, and we are getting married on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Fredericksburg, Texas. In my opinion, this is a great amount of time between the engagement & wedding. So much goes into planning a wedding, & having enough time to hash out all of the details and secure your vendors is absolutely necessary! You can fast track a wedding if that’s your wish, but I would plan for an added layer of stress and urgency to overshadow your day. Being engaged is so fun, and there are other events you can have leading up to the big day! Soak it all in - you don’t experience times like these often, and some people only go through it one time.
The first thing I will share is that I designed my own ring, and I knew the proposal would be happening soon. What I did not know was when, where, or how my now fiancé was going to propose because I still wanted a surprise element to our engagement. I love to travel and visit national and state parks. My future husband knocked his proposal to me out of the park (pun intended). Obviously, I said YES!
Photo by Natalie Phillips Photography
Ring from Dianna Rae Jewelry in Lafayette, Louisiana
We’d been seriously discussing marriage and knew we wanted to get married in Fredericksburg. Alex's job is quite demanding during certain parts of the month and year, so we wanted to pick a time when he wouldn’t be overly stressed and it also wouldn’t be too hot in Texas yet, which is how we landed on March. We also chose the location because the majority of our family and friends were going to have to travel no matter where we got married, so we chose our favorite place. When we lived in San Antonio, we often visited the Hill Country for wine tastings and hiking, and we want to share our love of this area with all of our guests who are able to make the trip.
Enchanted Rock State Natural Area in Fredericksburg, Texas
Signor Vineyards in Fredericksburg, Texas
For preliminary planning, my advice is: Have an idea of when you want to get married, and once you know, try to lock in a date as soon as possible. Our exact date was somewhat flexible because we wanted to be sure our chosen venue had availability. Venues are getting trickier to secure because so many people book weddings far in advance. If you think it’s too early to reach out to one, it isn’t.
I have an entire notebook that I dedicated to wedding planning. I take notes from calls with all of our vendors in it so all of my info is in one place. It will also be a fun keepsake for after the wedding!
The first thing you need is a contract signed with a wedding venue. We then went on to sign a contract with my dream wedding planner!! We had exchanged a few consultation e-mails back and forth with our planner before we secured our venue. She guided us in the right direction, but we couldn’t officially hire her until we had a signed contract with our venue because of her policy. Not every planner will be the same or have the same policy, so just be sure to read through their contracts or ask plenty of questions. We did these two steps before we were officially engaged. I won’t lie. I did stress some about how that would look to other people, but at the end of the day, I get to have my dream wedding venue and planner because we were so ahead of the game. We booked both our venue and planner in October of 2022 for a March 2024 wedding for example.
I cannot stress enough that this is YOUR day, so the people that need to be happy about your plans are you and your partner. We have been considering the needs and wants of people financially contributing to our day, but we are making final decisions based on what we want our wedding to look like. This is the one time in your life where you get to be selfish and unapologetic, so embrace it with everything you have!
I will share my planning experiences here! Check back for links to new posts as I go through this crazy ride that is the wedding planning process.
-So, You’re Engaged? Engagement Photos Edition
-So, You’re Engaged? Wedding Party Proposals Edition
-So, You’re Engaged? Engagement Party Edition
Coming Soon
-So, You’re Engaged? Dress Shopping Edition
Coming Soon
-So, You're Engaged? Save The Dates & Wedding Website Edition
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