Christmas a special time of the year to so many people.  The festivities, the lights, the music, the food, the shopping – it’d be difficult to ignore the holiday spirit and bah humbug your way through the month.  It’s also a happy note to end the year on, surrounded by family and friends, and maybe even having a few days off of work!

It’s no wonder, then, that Christmas Eve and Christmas morning are among the top days to propose every year.  Both Robert and I proposed to their now-wives around this time, and if the snow is falling or the tree is trimmed, it’s a great backdrop to capture the moment on camera as well.

After showing up at family dinner with your new fiance, calling everyone you know, and updating your facebook relationship status, it’s time to begin going through the important next steps in the now-engaged process:

• Get Your Ring Sized and Insured – you definitely don’t want to have the expensive ring slip off your finger without you noticing.  It only takes a few days at most and gives you reassurance that you don’t lose it while exercising, cooking, or any other mundane task.  Additionally, if you have homeowners or renters insurance, you can have the ring appraised and added to your policy.  Talk to you insurance agent, but if it’s not already covered, it would be a very nominal fee to have that peace of mind.
• Set A Date – you’re going to get asked about a date a lot when you tell people you’re getting married.  It’s the first thing we ask couples when we meet them at Bridal Shows.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be the exact date, but getting an idea of the year or season (“We’re shooting for fall of 2018”, for example) gives you a good response.  If you can nail down a date quickly enough, even better, but a good amount of your planning will revolve around availability of venues and vendors.  Don’t be afraid to get a general idea and then start finding your must-haves for the wedding and hope that you can find a day that they’re all available.
• Set up a Website – Both WeddingWire and TheKnot offer free web pages for your wedding that you can share with people to showcase your story, photos together, and details of the wedding as they come up.  It’s an easy way to get the word out and keep people up to date on your happenings!
• Start Dreaming – between Pinterest, every wedding related website, and every bridal magazine, there’s an overwhelming amount of information available for wedding planning.  Take your time and sort through it while you come up with your preferences and your vision for your big day.  If you haven’t been planning your wedding and building mood boards since you were a child, that’s okay too.  Now’s the time to get inspired and figure out what you want and don’t want at your wedding.
• Wedding Planner – a big consideration is whether or not you want to hire a wedding planner or go at it on your own.  While a wedding planner can be a big part of your budget, they can cover a lot of ground for you, including finding and negotiating with vendors, finding your perfect venue, organizing gift bags, arranging decorations, and so much more.  Plus, they’ll help you stay within your budget by being able to tap into their huge network of vendors and find the right one for you.  If that sounds stress-relieving, then a wedding planner might be for you.  Do your shopping for them just as you would any other vendor – the good ones will have multiple great reviews and will have no problem with you contacting former clients to get an idea of what they did for them
• Budget – speaking of budgets, it’s no secret that weddings can easily blow up into tens of thousands of dollars pretty quickly.  Figure out what you’re comfortable spending, do your research on average prices of things, and then stick with it.  It would be easy to go for the lavish money-is-no-object event that you see celebrities do up, but it’s never a good idea to go into a new life together with financial worries.
• Size – another thing that will impact your costs is the size of the wedding. For most receptions, you might have to pay for every meal, every table decoration, every piece of cake, every drink (if you did an open bar) every chair cover, and on and on.  A larger guest list also means a larger venue, which can lead to needing more uplighting, more entertainment equipment (for example, our band needs to bring more speakers to cover more square footage), and even union costs depending on the venue.  However, if you’re determined on bringing in every second cousin once removed, every family friend, and that person you haven’t talked to since middle school, and the costs don’t scare you away, the more the merrier!
• Hire Fun DMC – we would be remiss if we left this out. 🙂  But seriously, we’ve been doing this for awhile, and our reviews show that we specialize in creating memories that will last a lifetime!  If you decided not to hire a planner, we’ve worked with so many amazing vendors, that we’re a great resource for recommendations.  We also offer a lot of the things you would have to normally piece out – ceremony musicians, ceremony PA equipment, DJ service, Emcee service, uplighting, monogram lighting, photo booths, and so much more.  And that’s on top of being a Best of Springfield band.  We definitely make sure you get a bang for your buck and would love to talk to you about what we can do for you.

That’s a good start and should help you get your footing as you navigate through the holidays this week and set the stage for planning the happiest day of your life.  Enjoy telling everyone, the Instagramming of the ring, and especially looking at each other knowing that you’re going to get to spend of your life together.  Merry Christmas!