Romantic Travel Concierge

Book With Someone Who's Been There!

  • About
  • Caribbean
  • Hawaii
  • Contact

BOOK WITH SOMEONE WHO’s BEEN THERE!

You are here: Home / Bridal Show Season / Newly Engaged? Top Ten Things To Do Now

Newly Engaged? Top Ten Things To Do Now

January 2, 2023 By Linda Leave a Comment

Congratulations on being one of the many couples that got engaged throughout the Holiday Engagement Season! It is the perfect time to take the first step towards your happily ever after while being surrounded by family and friends.

However, once the first few hours and days of excitement, tweeting, Instagram ring selfies, status change on Facebook and touching base with all your besties has passed the stress of planning a wedding quickly sets in and can overwhelm you if you aren’t careful.

Ten tips to help newly engaged couples manage the stress of planning your wedding and honeymoon:

1. The first thing you should do before you start planning your wedding is have a conversation with your fiancé about the type of wedding you want to have. So many families have all kinds of family dramas, religious or other expectations that need to be addressed, you may have had your wedding scrapbook put together since you were a little girl, so before your feelings get hurt because your fiancé wedding plan ideas do not fit into the wedding video that has played in your head forever, remember to be kind and flexible, think before you verbally discount his/her thoughts and remember you designed your perfect wedding scrapbook before you ever met and fell in love with your fiancé.

2. You must discuss a target budget, are you paying for everything yourself? If your parents are helping with the cost of your wedding, before you spend their money get a ballpark of how much money they have put aside for their children’s wedding, so many of my clients assume their parents have much deeper pockets than they really do. These conversations need to be had before you discuss venues, guests list and so forth. Is your honeymoon more important than your wedding? If so, have discussions with an experienced honeymoon planner, know what your dream honeymoon will realistically cost you and this will help you stay disciplined with your wedding expense budget and help you make those tough decisions of where to cut cost so that you do not have to forfeit your dream honeymoon.

3. January to March is traditionally bridal show season, so it would be worth your time to attend a couple of shows to learn more about current trends, gather contact information for top vendors in your area- don’t feel pressured to make any decisions quickly just think of it as a learning exercise, and for many of my brides, a great way to spend time with your future mother in law and she will be touched by you including her.

4. One exercise I have many of my couples do as they start the search for a venue and to get a ballpark budget is for the bride and the groom to each choose a venue and all the components needed to have a wedding at that venue, this exercise helps to quickly understand the need to really think about your guest lists and the cost associated with a larger guest count.  Other things to consider as you look to choosing a date and venue are weather – if you are considering an outside venue, flowers in season, availability of your venue, favorite photographer and other wedding professionals – I suggest you hire a professional wedding planner to take away some of the stress if you are getting married locally – they know venues, which vendors are the best to work, the ins and outs of vendor contracts, and have amazing connections with local wedding professionals.

5. Once you have chosen your wedding date and venue, set up a wedding website such as with TheKnot or Weddingwire, these are pretty simple templated websites that you just drop your information into. This is a great way to share all your wedding information and keep everyone informed of upcoming events.

6. Start to think about your bridal party as soon as possible so that they can budget for their attire, make travel plans if needed – and you will able to share fun events like gown-hunting, checking out vendors, creating decor if doing a lot of DIY projects, lots of my brides/grooms are hosting Pinterest sip and search research parties, scrolling through blogs, wedding boards and helping brides/grooms plan by creating his/her dream wedding Pinterest boards to help him/her stay focused.

7. If you are not hiring a professional wedding planner – create a to do list for both the bride and groom, there are lots of helpful on-line tools to help you manage your budget, timeline, keep track of payment due dates and cancellation penalties for vendors. Having a plan and staying organized will prevent you from being overwhelmed, stressing out and taking it out on each other, and the reality of it is that you probably have a full-time job that requires attention, so you don’t have the time and energy for a part time job of all consuming wedding planning

8. Don’t become a bridezilla, those closest to you including your fiancé are so excited for you, remember the marriage and your relationships are more important than the wedding itself, no matter how hard you plan, something unexpected will happen, but the key to happiness is to be able to roll with it.  Chances are if you budgeted for a wedding planner, you will not even know about it until after the wedding.

9. Remember you can always elope or have a destination wedding in a tropical location-I have helped many stressed-out couples over the years, escape the craziness, drama and expense of planning a wedding at home by planning their tropical elopement or Destination at Sandals & Beaches Resorts, as well as other popular all-inclusive resorts and then they come home and have a party and show the video.

10. Once you have the wedding details ironed out – then it is time to focus on planning the honeymoon – again you need to have conversations about budget, how long you can be away, if you both have or can get passports, are vaccinations required?  An experienced romance travel specialist, has great working relationships with the most popular resorts to make sure their clients receive honeymoon and bespoke amenities.

Congratulations again on your engagement, after planning honeymoons and destination weddings for almost thirty years and listening to many stressed out brides/grooms , I hope you find some of these points helpful and you will be able to enjoy yourselves throughout the wedding planning process.

Email  [email protected] or Direct Line 931-337-0770 or Website www.LindaDancer.com

Connect on Instagram

 

 

Filed Under: Bridal Show Season, Caribbean Honeymoon, Destination Wedding Planner, Help Planning Your Wedding, Honeymoon Planning, Sandals Resorts Wedding Specialist Tagged With: #LindaDancerhmi, #nashvillebrides, #newlyengaged, destination wedding planner, Elopements, Engaged, Sandals Resorts Specialist

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect With Me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Certifications and Awards

book
book
HDS
HDS
Vendor Badges
Vendor Badges
The Pink Bride Featured Vendor
ldbow15
ldbow15
The Knot Best of Weddings Hall of Fame Inductee
one love photo
one love photo
What an honor to be one of the Jamaica Tourist Board Top 50 Agents
1e5574c676d7d9dd72417f8babec433c
1e5574c676d7d9dd72417f8babec433c
Autism Travel Certified Agent
Couples Resorts Specialist
Couples Resorts Specialist
Couples Resorts Ambassador
SLPA_Logo_Final-04 (1)
SLPA_Logo_Final-04 (1)
St Lucia Expert
Chairman 2020
Chairman 2020
Sandals Chairman's Royal Club Specialist
amr-master-agent-logo
amr-master-agent-logo
AmResorts Master Agent
SWSLogos_Silver_2016 (2)
SWSLogos_Silver_2016 (2)
Sandals Platinum Wedding Specialist
04567DE3-2F20-4F7B-B2CB-C3195C68C8D7
04567DE3-2F20-4F7B-B2CB-C3195C68C8D7
Weddingwire Couples Choice Awards
44684D36-80D0-48D0-A06F-49885E0F7BE9
44684D36-80D0-48D0-A06F-49885E0F7BE9
887ACB2F-98C6-40C1-BCB4-27858F3CB2C9
887ACB2F-98C6-40C1-BCB4-27858F3CB2C9
C7550371-B940-4310-9734-311E31036EAB
C7550371-B940-4310-9734-311E31036EAB
CSS-Logo1-color
CSS-Logo1-color
dwhsa_3
dwhsa_3
SWS-Logo-PINK-(March-2013)
SWS-Logo-PINK-(March-2013)
BOOK WITH SOMEONE WHO’s BEEN THERE
To Receive Your Caribbean updates now, Subscribe Here

My Top Ten Reasons to visit Grenada

Grenada’s popularity is growing as an exotic, friendly destination, but remains a mystery to many who visit the Caribbean regularly, these are a few of the reasons this island should be moved to the top of your must visit list. Located in the southeastern Caribbean, just north of South American and Trinidad the destination of […]

Are you a movie buff or just like to explore?

From Elvis Presley’s  Blue Hawaii  to George Clooney’s  The Descendants – the island of  Kauai has so many opportunities to explore famous movie locations.  This fun filled 6-hour tour is complete with lunch, air conditioned mini-bus complete with TV viewing of  famous movie clips  so that when you are driving from one site to the next you can […]

Categories

What Linda’s Clients Say…

Just returned from Hawaii ( Maui) for our wedding and honeymoon. Or as Linda put it "weddingmoon".

Everything was perfect. Linda's attention to detail was exceptional. I was a little hesitant using an agent over the internet. She kept in close contact via phone and email. I couldn't have ask for more from a local travel agent.

I had dates and hotel in mind when I contacted her. Not only did she make my itinerary reality... she beat the price of a popular travel company.

After working with her, she mentioned she books for "non wedding" vacations as well. And is an expert in Caribbean as well as Hawaii. So we will be using her for our next Caribbean vacation as well. I highly recommend her. When planning a trip of such magnitude, you want peace of mind. Linda will provide this and so much more.

Sincerely,
Patty & Dell

LINDA DANCER is BY FAR the BEST travel agent and wedding coordinator out there!

I originally stumbled upon Linda while googling for some wedding help to plan a wedding in Kauai Hawaii and boy did I luck out! I got a hold of Linda and from day 1 she was nothing but helpful, kind, understanding, and patient! Linda first asked me what I had pictured for my dream wedding and I gave her an idea that was all over the map because I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted yet. My only requirement was somewhere grassy near the beach. I was worried because I am a full time student again, and my now husband had an emergency surgery that stole nearly our entire wedding budget, so I wasn't sure if our dream wedding in Kauai could even happen on such a small budget.

Linda told me anything was possible and immediately came back with many affordable suggestions, pictures, ideas, and options. Linda went above and beyond....not only did she suggest a bunch of places, but she contacted ALL of the places I was interested in to see if my wedding on a tight budget could even happen.  She worked with all of them, and COMPLETELY took the stress off of me having to do it all! Once we decided on a place, I posted Linda's information on our wedding website for all of my guests to use for travel accommodations. Linda took care of it all, and EVERY single one of my guests had wonderful things to say about Linda. I will use Linda for LIFE!

Although her specialty is weddings and honeymoons, she is the best travel agent out there in my opinion for anything you want to do or anywhere you want to go. Linda doesn't even cost anything to you as the customer...which is unheard of so what more could you possibly ask for!??  Thanks to Linda my wedding was WAY MORE than I thought it would be, and my vision and dream had certainly come true.  I have the most beautiful pictures of any wedding I've ever seen thanks to Linda and her expertise in knowing exactly what I had pictured!  I cannot thank Linda enough, and I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING negative to say about Linda...

she truly is perfect at her job and you will not be disappointed in using Linda Dancer!!  Thank You Linda!! XOXO

Love,
Eric & AJ Cooper

DSC06236
DSC06236
photo
photo
DSC07608
DSC07608
photo 2
photo 2
DSC07349
DSC07349
DSC05388
DSC05388
DSC05381
DSC05381
Shoreline at Spouting Horn Park
DSC03158
DSC03158
new_RCKPALU_00210_121676
new_RCKPALU_00210_121676
By photographer Martin Wyand
DSC03157
DSC03157
KAUAI Destination Specialist 038
KAUAI Destination Specialist 038
_JOM0756-Edit
_JOM0756-Edit
donnakenwed547
donnakenwed547
DSC06672
DSC06672
DSC03340
DSC03340
Zipline with Kapalua Adventures
DSC01821
DSC01821
What are you waiting for ?
DSC03201
"Reception setup"
566514067_xJoLy-L
Hawaii Honeymoon Planning Testimonial
Hawaii Honeymoon Planning Testimonial

Plan your trip today

February 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Jan    

Connect With Me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

© 2023 Romantic Travel Concierge. All Rights Reserved.

Built Masterfully on WordPress and Maintained by the Blogging Experts

Cleantalk Pixel
BOOK WITH SOMEONE WHO’s BEEN THERE
+
My Latest Photos & Updates
×
To receive your Caribbean updates now subscribe here