From The Beginning

I'm coming up on 1 year of wedded bliss. And it is great. Unless I talk to someone about the stress of planning my wedding, I've mostly forgotten all the things that made me want to cancel the whole damn thing (nothing to do with my husband, by the way. ALL in the planning).

I've still got my head swimming with information and advice so, I'm going to spill it out from my head to my finger tips from time to time. I've blogged about the wedding thing a bit before, but this time, with a clearer head, I'm starting from the beginning.

You just got engaged! Congrats!
Once you've made all of your phone calls, texts and emails announcing your engagement and the dust has settled, you now realize... "where the hell do i start? there's so much to do!".

The first 2-3 weeks of engagement:

Step 1
Grab a calendar and X out all of the dates you'll be on your period. No matter what the occasion, and especially your wedding to honeymoon time, the LAST thing you want to deal with is The Curse Of Eve. So, mark away as far in the future as you can. This will help in the planning process.

Step 2
You'll want to worry about the date, location, the guest list (esp since you just told everyone you're engaged - shit! Do they all think they're invited?). Relax. Deep breath in... and out. Good. Now, if you're one of those modern-day independent gals, like me, you haven't actually pictured your dream wedding day. So, take this first week or two of being engaged to enjoy being engaged, grab some bridal and wedding magazines, and not just the ones with dresses. Grab ones that show different table settings and decor ideas. Look through them with your hubby-to-be casually and mark the things either of you like. This will help get you both in the frame of mind and help you figure out what each other wants at their wedding.

After I got engaged, my husband knew I would want to jump right in planning, but I was surprised when he would pipe in with his own ideas of what he really wanted. I had no idea he cared what the colors of our wedding were or that he'd hate all of the cake toppers out there. Don't worry about making your decisions right now, just get inspired and have fun looking around. Together.

Step 3
There are a lot of great resources available on the internet. Signing up at TheKnot.com was very helpful to me. You can plug in your budget, guest list, wedding date and it will help list all the things needed to do in time for your big day. This is another great place to get inspired. They have suggestions and photos on all things wedding related, so grab a few images to your desktop to sift through later.

It's important to take these first few weeks to just be and let your imagination go wild. Don't look at dollar signs right now, just get your creative juices flowing and find inspiration in everything.