Episode 3

Plan Your Wedding - Episode 3 Holiday Engagements

Can you believe that Christmas was 5 days ago? Did your partner pop the question? You know, the “will you marry me” question?

I’m Brandy Blackford, an award-winning wedding planner with Sweet I Do’s and the producer of the Arizona Online Wedding Show. You’re in the right place if you’re ready to plan your wedding!

Let’s get started!

Intro

Getting engaged is so very exciting! And that moment and the excitement following it can be so amazing and sometimes it tends to overwhelm everything else that is happening.

How can you keep the excitement and still celebrate the holidays?

Here are a few tips.

Don’t spend the entire holiday talking about the wedding. Enjoy being engaged and enjoy celebrating the holidays with your family and friends. I know, it’s hard. You’re excited, but those holidays won’t come again, and you have the entire rest of your engagement to talk about and plan your wedding.

I recommend that you be the one to set the boundaries. Ask your family to keep wedding talk to a minimum, they’ll be plenty of time in the new year.

Of course, this is aside from the initial “we’re engaged” conversation. This you need to have as soon after the ask as possible. I talk about why in the episode “I’m engaged! Now What??”

Your mileage may vary. If your family isn’t a big celebrator of the holidays, then enjoy talking all about your engagement and wedding!

Continue to be part of your community and family gatherings. You may want to hunker down and start all the research. Resist the urge. Holidays and family can be stressful all on their own. Add in trying to start planning your wedding and you’ll end up frustrated and stressed.

Venues and event pros are either working holiday events, holiday weddings or taking some time off before the season starts again, celebrating with their families and friends. Couple this with reduced staffing in general because of post-pandemic staffing issues and response times will be long. Why put yourself through that stress and drama during the holiday season?

Finally, be aware that talking about money and family invites during the holidays may cause stress. Studies have shown that holidays can bring out the bad in some family relationships – old grudges, new grudges, blame for past mistakes, relatives that pressure family for future commitments, anxiety over money and even the beginnings of the whole whose family do we spend which holiday with issues. 

All this being said, only you know your family. If your engagement needs to be the talk of the town, then talk it up! Grab a bottle of champagne, get the manicure and take all the ring pics!

There are a ton of steps and decisions to make after this, but for now, enjoy being engaged and I’ll see you next week!

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