Ohhhh girl. You have made it to the top tips I have got for wedding planning and I am so PUMPED to share allllll about them. This wedding planning series is going to help you step-by-step learn how you can plan your own wedding – with or without help. I planned my entire wedding on my own and loved every minute of it. I want YOU to be able to plan your wedding in the most creative way possible with a whole lot of excitement and ZERO stress. This is all about YOU, sweet bride!

Before you read further, be sure to check out my last wedding planning post here!

If you would rather watch my IGTV on this topic, click HERE!

I’m Engaged!!! What now?

OMG OMG OMG!!! You are freaking engaged so first things first – SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOF TOP!!! Girllll. this is your time to shine and to show off that BLING that your man bought just for you. I’m over here screaming with you because being engaged is one of the MOST fun experiences you will ever have! Take at least 147 photos of your ring, your man with the ring, the ring on your steering wheel, the ring holding your Chick-Fil-A milkshake. Be THAT girl. You deserve to show that new bling off and your man is going to feel DANG GOOD when you do!

Okay, so now that we know step one, let’s get to the things you might not even think about before jumping straight into planning! I know you are probably wondering where the heck to start. I sure was! I was so pumped when I was engaged that I think I jumped into like 4 different tasks without even thinking about it! Wedding planning is so much fun, but I have SIX things you NEED to do before diving head-first into buying and booking.

Okay, so maybe we already talked about the first one a little bit, and that is to CELEBRATE! Celebrating you and your man is a BIG deal. Your family and friends are so pumped for you guys and I know they are ready to celebrate you. So, my first tip is to have an Engagement Party! You need to fully enjoy every moment of being engaged, and this is one of the best ways to do it. As girls, we immediately start thinking straight to being married and sort of forget to live in the moment while being engaged. Have yourself (or have a friend throw you) an engagement party. Hunter had one planned for us immediately after we got engaged and it was so incredibly special. All of our immediate family was there and it felt so perfect. I will never forget the moments celebrating the start of a new chapter. So, live in the moment and celebrate!

The second thing you should do is create a wedding email! Girl, you don’t want to have to search through your bath and body works daily emails to find an email from your caterer, trust me! Before you sign up for, make an account for, or enter into ANYTHING, make a wedding email! This will help you to keep all your vendors’ emails in one place and they won’t get lost in your email. You can use this to sign up for wedding giveaways, promos, and things like that, as well. When everything is over, you can just log out of that email and never look at it again. Trust me, it’s worth it to have a wedding email!

The third thing you should do is look up wedding fairs! That email will come in handy at these! Wedding fairs are SO much fun, especially if you bring your mom or one of the girls. You get to go explore the wedding world of vendors, enter special giveaways, and get treated like a queen. I went to two when I was married and had a blast just looking at all the vendors and what they offered. I booked my Photo Booth through a wedding fair, so definitely plan to go to a couple, at least for the fun experience!

The fourth thing you should do is create a BUDGET! GIRL. You cannot do this without a budget. Sit down with whoever is paying for the wedding and talk $$$$. Wedding’s are a BIG investment, so you need to make sure you are staying within your budget and don’t get crazy spending! If you need help creating one, message some friends who are already married or some vendors to find out about how much each different thing costs. Decide where you want to spend and where you want to save and you will be so glad you did!

The fifth thing you should do is clean up and/or add to your Pinterest Board! My Pinterest Board held EVERY idea I wanted and I referred to it multiple times throughout wedding planning. Before I did anything though, I went and deleted hundreds of pins that I pinned back in middle and high school that were so NOT what I was going for anymore. It may be easier to delete your old one and start a new one, but I just wanted to clean my up and add to it. Trust me, if you clean it up or start fresh, there is a good chance you can have ALL your ideas instead of losing some of the good ones in the middle of the bad ones that you pinned 6 years ago. And I wanted it ALL. I would go through it daily and remind myself which ones I hadn’t bought/created yet and didn’t rest until my entire Pinterest Board was my actual wedding!

The last thing you should do is decide if you want a Wedding Planner. You don’t want to jump into wedding planning without having someone to help you from the beginning. If you are like me, you may want to plan your entire wedding on your own. Or you know you literally can’t do it without a planner. Make that decision before you jump into the nitty gritty. Once you’ve decided, you can head to my “Tools You Can Use For Wedding Planning” blog and read all about how to plan your own wedding!

Once you have done all of these things, you are ready to dive into booking your vendors! Stay tuned for that blog coming soon. You are going to rock this engagement thing. Just remember to soak in EVERY moment. It will truly fly by!

Read my next WEDDING PLANNING 101 post here to learn about choosing your vendors!