You’re Engaged, Now What?

Holy cow, I can’t believe I’m engaged! That has been my thought pattern for the last couple of months. I feel like I’m finally adulting! It’s that kind of feeling that you have when you file your taxes for the first time. I admittedly shed a tear the first time I filed my taxes, mostly because I realized how little I was getting back. 

Just a few years ago, I was the self-proclaimed queen of single. I was always the first one to send messages using single girl memes. I loved dancing the night away in a packed club. And I most definitely earned my fair share of terrible dating stories.

Now that I’m engaged, only one thing has changed. I can now get away with binge watching Say Yes to the Dress because I’m doing “research”. Before we were engaged, well, actually 6 months into our relationship, my “pre-research” seemed to raise more questions than answers, as he would leave the room every time he saw me watching those shows.  Now, we watch the show together.

As we approach four months of engagement, the initial excitement surrounding the engagement has started to wear off. I have fully embraced engaged life; but with engaged life comes a few things that I am now only discovering. 

• The very first thing I discovered is that wedding advice will be plentiful. 

I received advice 30 seconds after saying yes and plans to schedule a dress appointment 60 seconds afterwards. The ring had just come out of the box and I was already expected to know my wedding date, colors, guest list, and bridesmaids.

• The second thing I discovered is that you have to be prepared to write the screenplay on how you got engaged.

Every time I tell my engagement story the snowstorm that was taking place outside seems to get a little more exaggerated. I think my engagement story will end up including me having to climb over a mountain of snow to get into my Uber while fighting off Bigfoot.

• The third thing I discovered was that you will never be prepared for what a wedding entails.

No level of Say Yes to the Dress or Bridezilla (maybe a little bit of Bridezilla) will prepare you for the amount of confusion or stress that’s about to happen. I was lucky enough to have a good friend gift me with The Knot Book of Wedding Lists written by Carley Roney a few weeks into my engagement. The book helped me to organize my thoughts and mentally prepare for the epic event that will be the Shay and Dan wedding.

Even though after four months I feel like I know as much details about my wedding as I did when I said yes, I will say that being engaged has made me feel a new level of closeness to my fiancé.

xoxo

– Shay