Southern Weddings

I typed “engaged” into my phone the other day and it auto-corrected to “ENGAGED!!!”…and if that’s not a sign of engagement season, I don’t know what is! If you’re one of the sweet gals out there sporting a sparkly new ring, I’d love to be the first to give you a big welcome hug to Southern Weddings. We’re thrilled to have you here! You can learn more about us here and pick up our latest issue here, but in the meantime, I know you must be itching to get started planning your very special day.

And that’s exactly what this new series is for! The Southern Weddings team is passionate about making sure that our readers have the BEST information at their fingertips as they dive into wedding planning–our goal is to give you all the tools you need to plan a meaningful celebration while you also, first and foremost, prepare well for married life. This series will walk you through the very FIRST steps to take after getting engaged. It’s easy to get super overwhelmed by inspiration and checklists and timelines, but we’ll worry about all that later–here’s what you need to do right off the bat!

If you’re reading as a new bride-to-be, you may have already tackled this first step, so we’re backtracking for a second for any girls who are waiting on a proposal annnny day now ;) The FIRST thing to do after saying “yes” and celebrating with your brand new fiancé is to spread the good news! Start with your parents, and then move out in concentric circles to siblings, BFFs, and other close relatives (especially older ones who may particularly appreciate hearing from you directly). It’s always fun to share in person, but over the phone is great, too! A little tip: before letting loose on social media (and watching the congratulations roll in–so fun!), do a quick scroll through the contacts on your phone to make sure you didn’t accidentally forget anyone who should be called or texted first.

Moving right along to the first physical step of planning your wedding (!!), you’ll need to put an organizational system into place ASAP. Some people like creating an email account specifically for wedding planning, but a dedicated folder in your inbox works just as well. For all the physical papers, note taking, and magazine tear-outs, a wedding planning binder is a must-have–and to be honest, when I got engaged, I was a little let down by the options I found.

Thankfully, we started creating the Southern Weddings Planner just a few short months later, so along with all the information our team has gathered over a decade in the wedding industry and after working with hundreds of vendors, we included everything I personally wanted in a wedding binder as I walked through my own engagement (yes, major #jobperks :)). Since then, the Southern Weddings Planner has undergone two rounds of revisions, and the 2017 version is absolutely the best yet! You can learn all about it and pick one up for yourself in the Southern Weddings Shop.

We’ll be back with more steps to take after getting engaged next week! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss a single post of this special series–there’s lots more fun to share! As a bonus, when you sign up, you’ll receive an exclusive “Will You Be My Bridesmaid” card printable created just for Southern Weddings readers by Sage Paper Company. It is gorgeous, and will be perfect for asking your best gals to stand by you when you get to that step of planning!

See more from this engagement session by Leslie Hollingsworth on our Facebook page!

Written with love by Lisa