Getting engaged is awesome! WOOHOO!! But (yes, there’s a but) after the joyous initial stages of getting engaged fade, reality sets in. Planning a wedding is a lot of work!
Here are 3 things people don’t tell you about being engaged:
1. Not everyone will be happy for you.
This one is such a bummer! Even if you’ve been together for a long time and you think you know what people think about your relationship, there are often some surprising reactions that seem to come out of nowhere. It could be the friend you’ve confided in about all the rocky times in your relationship or the family member that likes your fiancé but not his or her career. When you get engaged, you’re telling the world that this is the person you are choosing to make a home with, manage finances with, and have children with, if that’s part of your plan. Such a strong, lasting statement of commitment suddenly jolts the people around you into looking at your partner as a permanent fixture, and not just a passing phase.
2. Money takes center stage.
Whether you are paying for your own wedding or receiving help from others, money becomes a central conversation for the duration of your wedding planning process. Money is often tied to emotions, and few things are more emotional than getting married. Getting a handle on how you talk about money, how you make spending decisions, and learning how money can influence your relationship will lay a good foundation for your future financial decisions as a married couple.
3. You will eventually want to stop talking about your wedding.
After a while, you start answering the same questions over, and over, and over again. You will encounter the same reactions to your wedding choices over, and over, and over again. Your excitement for wedding planning, and your desire to talk about it, will probably fade. The sheer number of decisions you will have to make can get overwhelming, and defending any or all of those decisions may make you want to elope. Declaring a wedding talk moratorium may be the best wedding planning decision you make.
(Photo from Flickr)
