[ad_1]

Oh, my Gosh, you're engaged! Congratulations !!!

Now what? Wrong . Do not go to the store immediately to buy wedding books and magazines.

• First take a little bit of time and enjoy being engaged. Revel in the wonder that you and your beloved are really going to have a life together. Inhale, exhale!
• Then consider what sort of marriage you'd like to have together. Sit with a big ol 'blank sheet of paper and dream. What are your goals? What are your values? What might you promise one another?
• Consider what time of year you'd like to be married and think a little bit about what sort of place (a wedding ceremony venue and a reception venue, or one place?), How big a wedding, and whether you want a religious or civil ceremony.
• Think seriously about what kind of money you'd like to spend on your wedding. Before you talk to your parents about help, consider what looks appropriate to your goals and values.
• OK, now you can buy a magazine or two.
• Buy a big notebook with some dividers. Not all your lists can be kept on your laptop … although I admit most of mine were kept there, and it worked great for me.
• Then consider whether or not you want to talk to a Wedding Planner or Bridal Consultant to look at the process of planning a wedding. WPs are organized and they know the process from start to finish . You can read 8 books, and spend about the same amount of money you would spend on a 2 hour meeting with a WP that will fill up that notebook with assignments. I admit I sort of think of them as wedding midwives. They see a lot of weddings transform into marriages. They know how it goes.

It's a great idea to have a preliminary conversation with a wedding planner. If it's not a consultation to find out if you want to work with this person for the whole shebang, but just a meeting to plan the planning, you will pay for this. But it might be a sound investment. If you have some clarity about the kind of marriage you want, and a notice about the kind of wedding you want, a wedding planner can get you jump started with a list of "whats and how tos." They know the timing as well as the process .

If you want to work with a WP through the process, they can be as involved as you want them to be. Do you want them to execute tasks or direct? Do you want them along as you talk to vendors, or just to give you good suggestions? Do you want them to be involved with the moms or just the two of you?

And then, on your big day, your WP will make sure the vendors are where they're supposed to be, the checks are in the right hands, that you get pushed down the aisle at the right time. They know how to pin on corsages. They have the extra safety pin and bobby pin that someone is going to need. They have the photography list and the seating charts.

Some of you may want to do this all by yourself. That's great. And if you're going to use a book, find a darn good book written by a wedding planner. But consider whenever you want an extra Auntie or Uncle along to make your wedding just sparkle. By the time you're done married, you're going to have a friend for life!

[ad_2]

Source by Ann Keeler Evans