Celebrate! Before jumping straight into wedding planning, take a moment with your hunny and celebrate this monumental time in your lives. Soak it in and enjoy the moment. Perhaps this means a romantic dinner together or maybe with your friends and family by having an engagement party. The point is, don’t let this moment slip before the craziness of planning begins.

Set your budget! Although this might seem like a daunting topic to discuss, it’s important to establish your budget early on. Establishing a total amount you want to spend on your wedding helps to figure out how you want to split up your money. What is most important to you? The pictures? The flowers? Venue? Sit down with your fiancé and your family (if they will be helping out financially,) and discuss realistically what you feel is the right budget for your wedding.

Pick a venue! Picking a venue that feels right for your wedding is such an important aspect to the day. Once you have this big piece of the puzzle put together, you’ll feel a huge weight lifted off your shoulders and will be able to start putting together all the smaller pieces.

Set the date! Nailing down a wedding date, or at least a specific month, is a huge step and a really good start to the planning process. This information is helpful to vendors so they are able to make sure they will be available for your big day. It will also give you a pretty good idea of a timeline for when to begin other things on that to-do list!

Dream up your wedding! It’s never too early to start envisioning what your big day will look like. We are lucky to have resources such as Pinterest that make it so easy to explore ideas and styles that can make our wedding day stand out from the rest. Think about what color palette you love. Will you have a dessert bar? Do you want all of your bridesmaids to be matching or mix-matched? The sky is the limit when it comes to your imagination and vision for your wedding day. Get excited and inspired early on!