Three Things to do After You Get Engaged

  Ok, so youve just answered a pretty important question and you are excited for the many months of planning and celebrating that await you. There is going to be a lot of both, but before you dive into all the festivities considering concentrating on a few important first steps that will make everything else easier.   Pick a Date I know its really tempting to immediately head for inspiration and ideas online and in magazines, but try to peel yourself away from pretty gowns and pick a date first. Your date influences so many other decisions including, to a degree, the dress youll wear. The date influences where you can logically have your wedding and who will be able to attend. The time of year and date can help you with your flowers and your colors and your bridesmaids dresses. Even if you cant pick an exact date, if you can narrow it down to a month and a year then youre almost there.     Prioritize Before you even talk budget, its good to talk priorities. You probably cant do everything you want to for your wedding, but what are the absolute musts? Are they the same for both of you? This will help you when you create your budget because youll already know the areas that need more money and the areas that need less. These priorities will also help you when it comes to the tone and theme of your wedding. Maybe for you the most important thing is making sure the food is amazing, and so youll dig deep on the catering. Or maybe the most important thing is that you get a chance to talk to every single guest at the reception in which case maybe you want to focus on a smaller gathering. Whatever your priorities are, pick them and stick to them.     Pick Your Bridal Party You dont have to send out monogrammed wine bottles to all your bridesmaids the day after you get engaged, but its still a good idea to pick them. For one thing you need to know how the numbers work out. Is the bridal party even? Do you care if it isnt? Better yet, do you actually want a bridal party? You can quickly see how these questions and their answers will influence your wedding planning. In this same vein you can start brainstorming ways that you can include other important people in your big day in ways other than walking down the aisle.   Once you've taken these steps there are about a million other tasks left for you to complete, but at least you'll have a good foundation.   {Lindsey}