In the Long Island wedding world, the this time of year signals the beginning of engagement season—that time of year between November and February when engagements spike and your social media feed is inundated with announcements accompanied by engagement rings and smiling couples.
According to Wedding Wire’s 2019 Newlywed Report, 19 percent of engagements occur during the month of December, with Christmas Day seeing the most engagements. But all in all, the stretch from Thanksgiving to February sees the most engagements compared to any other time of year.
Your wedding engagement is one of the most exciting times of your life, even if you know the question is going to be popped imminently. Sure, a surprise engagement is exhilarating, but if you’re the type of person that wants to know a proposal is coming, there are signs you can look for to prepare for that big moment.
Whether you know a proposal is coming or you just got engaged during this joyous engagement season, there are immediately important things for you to set your sights on as soon as your partner slips that ring onto your finger.
Have An Intimate Celebration
Before you blast your engagement news on social media, and even before you call your closest family and friends, remember to take more than a moment to celebrate with your partner in the privacy of your shared affection. Grab a bottle of champagne or order a few of your favorite drinks at the bar and toast to your future. Soak in the romance-filled tranquility of the moment because once the wedding planning starts in earnest, you’ll wish you could recapture that peaceful serenity.
Share The Love
Now that you’ve had a private moment with your soon-to-be partner in matrimony, it’s time to let the world in on your engagement secret. Depending on your age, your first instinct might be to immediately grab your phone, take a selfie with the ring—and your partner—and plaster it across all social media platforms. While that’s a fine instinct to have in this day and age, take a breath and actually use the call feature on your phone to contact your closest family and friends. People like your parents, grandparents, siblings, and best friends should get a head’s up on the upcoming nuptials before that girl that sat three rows behind you in art class 10 years ago. Once you make all the necessary calls, feel free to post that ring selfie and hashtag it to your heart’s content.
Time To Party
As mentioned earlier, wedding planning can be a stressful experience with lots of talk about budgets and wedding venues and catering halls and dress sizes. Before you dive head first into planning, throw an engagement party to celebrate with the people most important to you. Usually engagement parties are thrown by you or your partner’s parents or friends, but you could switch it up and throw a surprise engagement party to announce the news to unsuspecting loved ones. And if the season calls for it, disguise your engagement party as a Halloween party for an extra laugh, as for years your engagement party photos will feature people dressed in ridiculous costumes.
Rough Draft A Guest List
Compiling a finalized guest list is one of the most crucial aspects of planning a successful wedding, but you can get a head start on this monumental task by sitting down with your partner and drafting a sketch of people you definitely want in attendance—perhaps with a sidebar of people you’d rather not receive an invite. This can be a fun exercise in remembering the most important people in your life as you and your partner compete for the longest friend list.
- Big Picture Stuff
- And finally—when the cat’s out of the bag and you’ve sufficiently celebrated the engagement, it’s time to organize yourselves and devise a plan of attack for the next few months. Where do you want to hold your wedding and reception? Exactly how many people will you officially invite? Will the ceremony be held at a house of worship or on the grounds of the Long Island event venue? And, oh yeah, have you set a date for the wedding? All these questions and more will require answers in the very short term. So get yourself a wedding planning book or create a wedding file on your computer and jump into the planning process!
