You’ve gotten engaged! Congratulations! Now that you have the fiancé(e) and the ring, what do you do next? Check out our list of the 7 things you MUST do right after you get engaged.
1. Take some time to celebrate with your new fiancé(e). You two just made a lifelong commitment to one another, enjoy it. This is a once in a lifetime moment. You will be spending the next several months (or more) planning the wedding of your dreams, so take a little time to celebrate your relationship at this particular moment in time.
2. Take pictures. When you’re caught up in the moment, sometimes you forget to stop and capture it. This is something you will want to remember for the rest of your life, so take a picture (or 20!) and commemorate it. Even if you don’t share them with anyone, 50 years from now you can look back on them and relive the proposal. Oh, and don’t forget the all-important ring selfie!
3. Tell your close family and friends. Time to start making phone calls! Your family and friends are going to be excited to hear about every little detail of the proposal.
4. Announce your engagement to extended friends and family. Now that you’ve basked in your newly engaged glow and told your close family and friends, you’re ready to announce your engagement to the world. You can do this via social media (oh the thrill of changing your Facebook relationship status from “in a relationship” to “engaged”!) or by sending cards or texts, or even waiting for people to spread the news by word of mouth. However you choose to share your engagement, it will be filled with congratulations and joy.
5. Brace yourself, the questions are coming! I’m not sure why, but people expect you to know your wedding date right after you get engaged. Prepare a couple standard answers such as “we haven’t had a moment to think about it yet, but we will get back to you when we get it finalized” and use them as much as you want. Remember, there is no rush and you will communicate the information when you can.
6. Set a budget.You’d think the last thing on our list would be to start planning, right? Before you can research venues, pick out flowers and taste cakes, you need to sit down with your fiancé(e) and set a budget. This is going to be one of the most critical components to planning your wedding. Is there wiggle room? Do you want to keep the budget below $10k? Who is paying for the wedding? If the two of you don’t have a mutual understanding and agreement on the budget, it will be easy to let costs spiral out of control.
7. Get your ring resized (if needed) and insure it. You’d think the last thing on our list would be to start planning, right? Now that you have the ring, you need to make sure it fits properly and will not slide off. When a ring fits properly, you should be able to put it on and get it off with some resistance.
Getting engaged is a momentous occasion, so celebrate, laugh and enjoy it.
What did you do after you got engaged? Tell us about it on Twitter, Facebook or send us a pic on Instagram!