You're Engaged, Now What?

So you're engaged, now what?

After the whirlwind of your engagement settles down it’s time to start planning. For me I had a little bit of a break- I got engaged on a trip to Scotland and had 10 days to let it settle in and just enjoy being engaged. As I returned to the states fresh off a trip I was ready and started planning, it came natural to me- I knew where to start and everything just seemed to fall into place. Recently a few of my friends got engaged and questions started rolling in, where do I start? How do I contact vendors? HELP!!!

If you feel lost it’s ok! This isn’t like planning a vacation or planning your next meal. For most people it doesn’t come naturally and quite honestly it’s a lot of responsibility. I decided to share some of my tips so that hopefully the process isn’t as overwhelming and you use these as a guide to help you plan your perfect day.

1. You don’t have to rush! The first thing I did was choose a season I wanted to get married in. As a teacher I knew I had three weeks off in August and that was the ideal time for me. I was able to have a few days off before the wedding and then immediately take my honeymoon two days after I got married. After I nailed a season I started to contact vendors.
2. Contacting Vendors: I did all of my research on WeddingWire. I spoke with my fiancé we both agreed we wanted a place that had both outdoor space and indoor space (August in NY could be tricky) and we narrowed down locations to search. In: NJ, Westchester, Hudson Out: Long Island (summer Sunday= heavy beach traffic). I set up a separate email just for my wedding and started to email vendors.

What to ask-

Be specific, do you need any accommodations? List them when you email!

Below is a mock up of the email I sent to vendors.

Hi

Just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself, my name is ______________ and I am recently engaged. I am starting to plan my wedding and looking at dates in August for my ceremony & reception of about 200 guests. I can across your venue and would love to hear more in terms of pricing and possible set up a time to visit.

In addition I will be having a kosher wedding and wanted to know if a. You have a kosher caterer on site or b. I am able to bring in a kosher caterer.

Thank you for your time and looking forward to connecting further.

 3. Narrowing it down! I saw two venues on my own- one was a rooftop in Manhattan & one was a loft in Brooklyn. The third location & the one we decided to have our wedding at my fiancé came with me. Why did I do it this way? My schedule is more flexible than my husbands. I figured if I saw something and loved it he would come back with me but the two I saw on my own weren’t the right fit. The one we went to together was about 1.5 hours from the city. We had gone to our friends wedding that weekend nearby, rented a car and booked a visit after their wedding. We penciled in a date during our visit, confirmed that date with our parents and booked it two weeks later.

Once the initial steps towards securing a place and date were finalized the real fun began! Decorations, invitations, wedding dress, tuxes & everything in between! Stay tuned for part 2 of the wedding process where I will be sharing all of the details of picking out my save-the-dates, finding my dress, booking a florist, picking my music & sending out the invitations!