How To Start Wedding Planning After You’re Engaged
December 25th is the single most common day to get engaged. It makes sense for couples who celebrate Christmas. After all, what could be a better present than agreeing to spend the rest of your life with someone? Christmas Day falls in the middle of engagement season, which spans from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s day. It helps that this period of time usually involves time off from work and time spent with family, making it the perfect time to pop the question.
We bet some of you reading this are newly engaged, and in that awkward, “I’m engaged, now what?” period.
Obviously, the first thing to do after you’re engaged is just enjoy the moment. Take a few days – maybe even a few weeks – to just bask in engaged bliss without having to think about wedding planning.
As soon as you’re engaged, you’ll start to clue in on the very first step in the planning process. It will be the first thing people ask after, “Let me see the ring!”
Can you guess it? Did you experience it yourself?
It’s, “When’s the big day?”
Solidifying a date will kick off the planning process. Honestly, 2021 is going to be a little tough for newly engaged couples, as they’ll be competing against the hundreds of couples who had to postpone their 2020 weddings. As we mentioned in our 2021 wedding trends article, we expect to see a lot more weekday weddings this year than previous years – and that’s amazing!
How To Pick a Wedding Date
If you want a traditional wedding venue, then their availability will be incredibly important in picking your wedding date. If you’re opting for a backyard wedding or getting married in a public area, such as a park or a beach, you’ll have a little bit more flexibility.
Before you can pick a venue, though, you have to discuss your budget. How much can you comfortably put toward the wedding? How much can your fiancé comfortably put toward the wedding? Are either of your parents pitching in, and if so, how much? Gather all of these numbers together. Keeping in mind that average wedding costs vary by region, expect to spend anywhere between $20,000 and $50,000 for an average wedding. Of course, scaling down or going all-out can drastically change that number.
The venue itself will likely cost between 30% and 50% of your overall budget, depending on whether that price just includes the space, or if it also includes tables and chairs and other basic rentals.
Once you know how much you can spend on your venue, you can start narrowing down options. From there, reach out to your top choices to find out their availability and schedule a tour.
Once you choose a venue, you can lock in a date and plan your wedding around that date.
Of course, there are a million other tasks to follow, but they all rest in the hands of the date!
Photo credit: Lauren Rosenau Photography