Thoughts on being engaged

The lovely girls from Oh Darling, Let’s Celebrate asked me a while ago if I wanted to write a wedding-themed post for them. While I’m no expert in weddings (yet!), I was excited to venture into new categories. Head over to Oh Darling, Let’s Celebrate if you would like to read my thoughts and experiences as a bride-to-be in German or keep reading for the English version.

It has almost been a year since my love fell down one knee and popped the question. Since then we have taken our time. I would like to say that we took the time to plan our wedding, but to be honest we have just enjoyed being engaged and have only recently started to plan how we imagine our big day.
I’m Vicki, chaotic, but love writing to-do-lists and a completely atypical bride. Before a beautiful piece of jewelry adorned my ring finger, I have never pondered about the topic of weddings. An amusing fact: In my first week of being engaged, I even wore my engagement ring on the wrong hand! That is how clueless I was and I had no idea what lay ahead of me.

Your engagement story is perfect 
Chances are that you weren’t prepared when he popped the question and that you didn’t wear the chic, new dress you had saved for a special occasion, but like me, a ripped vintage jeans and t-shirt. My sweetheart surprised me after we had moved furniture into our new apartment. I was lying on our just moved in couch, tired and sweaty when he fell down on one knee with a blue box and asked me. I was shocked and overjoyed. After all this time together he had still managed to surprise me and swept me off my feet. To be honest, I always thought that I would notice if he had planned something. Does our engagement story sound perfect? Probably not to an outsider, but for me, it was the perfect proposal at the perfect moment and that is the only thing that matters!

You should definitely be prepared to tell your engagement story over and over again! And not only friends and family will want to hear it, be prepared to tell it, as soon as the word „fiancé“ is mentioned!

Let the questioning begin
So, he popped the question and the sparkling, new addition on your left ring finger (Ha, I know that now!) feels fantastic, now it is time to share the incredible news with everyone. Maybe some of you may find it odd, but I didn’t want to share the news right away. I wanted to cherish that special moment and keep it for myself, at least for one night. Before you will even have the time to catch your breath and think about anything wedding-related, people will start questioning you. They will want to know every little detail about the date, location, color theme?! and the dress! I didn’t even know what I was having for dinner that night and was already close to having a panic attack.

You will get to know lots of wedding experts
After being overwhelmed with congratulations, you will get to know the first „wedding experts“. It doesn’t matter if you plan a civil ceremony or church wedding, an intimate or big wedding, everyone will have advice and an opinion and won’t be shy to share it with you. The good thing is that it doesn’t matter because your big day should only be about you! I have practiced to nod, smile and don’t allow myself to be impressed by it.

The term fiancé
Sometimes it still makes me giggle to introduce my love as my fiancé. I still haven’t got used to the word, but I guess by the time it will become natural for me, I will have to switch again to a new word, „husband“.

Wedding shows 
When you start planning your big day, wedding shows can be an entertaining and relaxing way to take a break from planning or simply for inspiration. „Say Yes to the Dress“ will become your guilty pleasure and you will watch wedding movies differently. „Is the dress of the actress adorned with Spanish or French lace?“ Enjoy it! :)

The dreaded budget
We still haven’t determined a budget. I have put it on the list of the unpleasant things to do, together with establishing the guest list ;)
Weddings are expensive, everybody knows that, but I had no idea how costly they truly are!
When you begin to research how much the dress, location, catering, cake, flowers, etc. will cost, it will give you a good idea of all the expenses that will arise. As a simple rule-of-thumb, you can multiply everything by two, as soon as the words „bride“ or „wedding“ are mentioned! Apparently, a wedding cake with a price of € 5 per slice is considered „cheap“ and flower arrangements for the venue for € 2.000 are a „bargain“. It will be seen which DIY projects I will tackle myself and I’m already toying with the idea of baking my own wedding cake, not really to save money but more for the challenge of it! But this is another story… ;)

Being engaged is a wonderful and emotional time. The best tip that I can give you, is to celebrate and enjoy the time together and don’t take the planning too serious, it will all come together beautifully. And always keep your eyes on the prize!

Stay tuned for more wedding-related content and check out the girls from Oh Darling, Let’s Celebrate for lots of great wedding inspirations!

Xo Vicki