Being engaged is a wonderful and exciting time, filled with lots of adrenalin. Your friends and family are delighted with your news. There’s a marriage in your future and the wedding process can become an important lesson in working together toward a common goal.
The average Canadian engagement is 14-16 months and that’s a reasonable time to plan an A+ day. There are many decisions to make, items to check out and people to see. It all rolls out efficiently if you use a timetable, set a budget and get organized.
With more and more couples waiting to marry later in life, things have changed on the marriage scene. Ten years ago, only 5% of couples lived together prior to marrying; today that statistic has risen to 75%. The bride is now 30 and the groom is 32 on average.
Chalet Studio Photography, Windsor, ON.
With those numbers in mind, weddings are being paid for by the couple, with possibly some financial help from their parents. With that change, today’s grooms are becoming increasingly involved in the wedding planning; an area that has historically and traditionally been looked after by the bride and her family.
Your budget as a couple is now combined, and grooms are wanting more control in keeping the finances in line. He may well be a 50/50 player in this wedding, and oftentimes he will want involvement in all aspects of the wedding day, except for the silk and satin items. He can be a great help with all the details, and if the bride is a working woman with many responsibilities or still in school, that extra pair of hands is a welcome addition to the tasks at hand.
Even if your aren’t co-habitating, it is important to remember during your engagement to stay focused and balanced on the life you are preparing for. As the bride, don’t get so totally immersed in the planning that you distance yourself from your future partner. Remember, you two are a team, and if he is feeling overwhelmed by your emotional involvement in this wedding, and thinking you are forgetting about him; he will feel slighted. Don’t get too wedding consumed.
The life you share in the future has been molded by your relationship to date, and although the wedding is paramount to you, there are other aspects of your life together that you need to keep vibrant. Go on dates, continue to see your friends and be organized.
Fourteen months is a long time between the engagement and the “day”, so remember to stay in tune with your partner, your family and your friends. Wedding talk is not always necessary every time you are together.
Good planning makes for good decisions and together you will sow the seeds of a long and happy future. The most important thing is to have fun and enjoy planning one of the most beautiful and memorable days of your life. Happy planning!
