The First 5 Things You Should Do Immediately When You Get Engaged

May 30, 2017

Y'all, it's engagement season and as a newly engaged bride-to-be I figured what better time to share a few tips I picked up from my own engagement! I plan on doing a lot of engagement and wedding related posts over the next year and a half (who's excited?) so I hope we're all excited to build a community around this topic! Feel free to share your advice in the comments down below (I'll definitely be reading).

Getting engaged is one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced and so is everything that comes with it. Over the past few weeks, I've rounded up 5 things that I believe everyone should do after getting engaged. Getting engaged can be such a whirlwind moment that it feels almost as if it flashes by in an instant and you can get easily overwhelmed. My hope is that these tips help you to enjoy the moment a little more and stress a little less!

Breathe

Stop what you’re doing and take a deep breath. I mean it. Soak up the moment and enjoy the fact that the love of your life just asked you to spend the rest of your life with them. Once you get engaged, it can seem like you have a million things to do, not enough time to do it, and you don’t want to miss out on taking a few moments just for yourself. J and I told our parents within an hour of getting engaged, but we waited awhile before announcing it to the world. By doing this, we were able to enjoy a celebratory dinner at Parm (highly recommend) and just take in the moment. In an instant, it feels like so much time has passed once you’re engaged so don’t forget to cherish the moment for yourselves a little bit.

Call Mom and Dad

Or whoever is most important to you. Do this before you post anything on social media. If you’re one of those people who is thinking, “why not kill two birds with one stone,” put yourselves in their shoes. Getting engaged is one of the biggest milestones in life and not sharing that news in person or via phone call with those most important to the two of you can make them feel, well, unimportant. Trust me, mom doesn’t want to get on Facebook after dinner and see that her daughter just got engaged. Take five minutes (and another deep breath) and make some calls. You could even do something super fun and exciting like a group skype call! We didn’t actually get to speak to J’s parents right after because they were tied up in other things but we still took the time to personally tell them. Trust me.

Plan a Social Media Post

Now for the hard part: announcing your engagement to the world. J isn’t a big social media guy, so he chose to simply change our relationship status on Facebook while I took the time to write out the Instagram post below. (Pro tip: If your proposal is in a public location, ask some nice strangers to snap a pic afterwards). I decided to keep it short and sweet (mostly because I was too excited to type) and I think you can see by the picture how happy we are. If you post your picture to Instagram first, simply link your Facebook to share on both platforms (also…. Have you followed me on Instagram yet?). Also, be prepared for the flood of comments, likes, etc. I turned off Push notifications for quite a while until I was able to sit down and respond to everyone (you also don’t need to do this, I’m just actually crazy). I chose our ride back on the train from the city (with a giant cup of hot tea) to answer everyone’s comments.

Start your Guest List

I didn’t understand why everyone was immediately telling me to start my guest list until we went and looked at our first venue. If you want to get a jump start on planning immediately, your guest list is the perfect place to start. J and I created a Google Doc which has two sections, a list for the Bride and a list for the Groom. Having a Google Doc allows us to easily edit and work on the guest list anytime we randomly remember someone to add to it. So why is starting your guest list so important right away? It’s going to determine a lot about your venues and budget. I know that most people say you should set a budget first but I think starting a “rough list” (your initial guest list) is really the first step in the planning process. In the Rough List, include everyone you could ever want to invite to your wedding: roommates from college, your 2nd grade teacher, etc. You can always pair this list down more and more as you determine your venue and budget size.

Insure Your Ring

Don’t wait three weeks like I did. Guys, if you’re reading this: insure the ring BEFORE you propose. Trust me, it will make everyone’s life a lot easier. A lot of people are under the misconception that jewelry is included under your standard renter’s or home insurance but it isn’t. Generally speaking, you have to get the ring added to an existing policy or start a new one. Ladies, if you want to avoid having to get the ring appraised two days after getting engaged (trust me, no one wants that) have your guy insure the ring. Getting your engagement ring insured is extremely important, especially for those of you getting engaged around the holidays. You don’t want to be traveling somewhere and have your engagement ring get lost, stolen, etc.

What was the first thing that you did after getting engaged? J and I snapped a pic and then immediately called our parents. We chose social media as a way to tell most people since our families are so geographically distant from us. I hope you found this post mildly helpful and CONGRATS if you're a newly engaged bride (or groom). It's been almost 6 months since we got engaged and I'm still reeling from it. Make sure to subscribe for more wedding posts, we just hit the one year mark and y'all know I'm going to be all over the wedding planning posts this next year. And if you're looking for more tips and wedding planning tricks, be sure to check out my YouTube Channel! I've linkingmy Wedding Planning Playlist below and it's full of useful videos for my fellow brides!

What to ACTUALLY Expect when Planning a Wedding

One Month Wedding Planning Update

5 Wedding Traditions We're Ditching in 2018

Top Tips for Creating your Wedding Registry

HEY THERE GIRLFRIEND!

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