The holiday season is by far the most popular time for couples to get engaged – with some 30% of global engagements happening in or around Christmas week.
But once you’ve popped the question and - hopefully - gotten the right answer, what next?
On Late Breakfast with Stephanie Preissner this morning, Sara Kennedy from the Irish Wedding Blog set out all the dos and don’ts for any couple planning to tie the knot in 2024.
She said the first thing newly engaged couples should remember is to enjoy the moment, noting that it is, “one of those really unique times in your life where you actually get to just be together as a couple and celebrate that”.
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After that, her number one tip is simple – get your plan together before talking to anyone else about it.
“One of the key things and one of the main areas that people trip up a little bit is they start saying too much, too early to a lot of other people,” she said.
“‘Oh, we're thinking of this, we're thinking of that’ and straight away, people are throwing opinions at you when you haven't established what you want to do in your own mind.
“So, what I would say is, the two of you, bunker down and get on the same page.”
Planning
She said it is often helpful to pick one “non-negotiable” each and build your plan around that.
“For example, one part of the couple might say, ‘Look, I've always wanted this type of band’ and one might say, ‘I've always dreamed of the dress.’
“So that might be your one thing you know and just go with that – but the big thing is try and get those ideas down together before you start going out and telling everybody because the opinions that people throw at you …
"Some can be good, but some can be generally ill-advised and they can completely derail you, demotivate you and send you into complete quandary of stress.”
Money
Once a couple has agreed on what type of wedding they want, the money question raises its head.
“For a lot of couples, they may not have lived together yet and look, they could be renting together, but they may not have come together properly financially at this point,” said Ms Kennedy.
“What you may find is somebody has no savings and somebody may have squirrelled away their communion money – but still, even though they have good savings, don't want to spend it all on a wedding party, you know?
“So you start to get into this value around money and how you're going to show up.
“Also realistically, at this moment in time, people are saying, the average wedding cost is between €30,000 and €40,000 – how are you going to save that in a year?
“So you have to look at right, realistically, what's going to happen? For us, what can we physically do that's going to get us over the line here?”
Anyone looking for help planning their wedding can find Ms Kennedy at IrishWeddingBlog.ie.
She is also hosting a question and answer session on Instagram this evening.
