The Ultimate Wedding Planning Checklist

If you’ve found your way here, you’re likely on your way to getting married. Congratulations! Being newly engaged is such an exciting time, especially at the start of the New Year. I love beginnings. The beginning of a relationship, the beginning of the year, the beginning of a marriage. I think starts are the best!

I hope you’re deep in the starry-eyed phase of your engagement. I love to encourage couples to enjoy this phase. Take all the time you want to celebrate your engagement with family, friends, and each other before jumping into all the wedding details.

If you’re like most newly engaged couples, the second you tell others you’re engaged it’s a tsunami of questions such as,

“Let me see the ring!”

“When are you getting married?”

“Where are you getting married?”

“Are you having a big wedding?”

So it’s okay to keep it to yourself for a bit and savor the moment. Need inspiration? Example of starry-eyed lovers below:

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Now once you are ready to start your wedding planning, it can feel a bit overwhelming. With so many details to consider, it’s easy to wonder, “Where do I even start?” That’s exactly where I come in!

As a former DIY bride myself, I know how stressful it is to sit amongst piles of wedding magazines and how-to articles trying to decipher what the plan should be for you and your partner’s wedding. If you don’t know where you’re going, it’s easy to get lost.

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To help make the beginning of your wedding planning easier, I created the Ultimate Wedding Planning Checklist. This guide provides an easy timeline to reference along your wedding planning journey. From 12 months out to the month before your big day, I’ve detailed it all for you and your fiancé in an effort to spare you both from hours and hours of wasted time scouring the internet for this info.

Once you download the checklist, you can go back to enjoying your newly engaged love bubble because you’ll know exactly what wedding planning tasks to focus on at what time in your wedding planning journey.

Wishing you a joyful engagement and a Happy New Year🥂

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The holidays are here & so are the proposals

Some of you might be counting down to the holiday season or eagerly awaiting the upcoming Super Bowl. Personally, I count down to something a little different…but with 100% the same enthusiasm - I countdown to engagement season!

November through February is what is referred to as “engagement season” or “proposal season” in the wedding industry. Basically from Thanksgiving through Valentine’s Day, proposals spread faster than a red wine stain on a white wedding dress. I LOVE engagement season and yes, I talk about it every year. See here for last year’s post about engagement season.

Around 40% of proposals in the US happen during this season. Now you might be wondering…

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Why winter for proposals?

So why is winter the prime time for proposals? From my perspective, the season is basically tailor-made for romance. As Frank Sinatra croons, “It’s that time of year when the world falls in love…”

The Christmas Waltz - Frank Sinatra

With holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and Valentine’s Day all packed into a few short months, there are endless opportunities for couples to pop the question in a setting that’s naturally festive and intimate. Between cozy gatherings with family, fireside cups of cocoa, and snow-dusted backdrops, winter has a way of adding magic to any moment—and what better a moment to propose? It’s also a good 6-10 months out from “wedding season”(more on wedding season here), giving couples plenty of time to plan their special day before those peak warm weather months.

The role family & friends in proposals

In addition to the festive atmosphere, family and friend involvement has become part of engagements. Since the holiday season is also a time when families and friends gather together, it provides plenty of opportunity for couples to share this milestone with those who mean the most to them. Not to be a cliche, but I too said “Yes!” during engagement season in January of 2010 (see here for more on that story).

According to industry surveys, nearly 2/3 of people proposing involve their parents/family/friends in their proposal in some way. Whether it’s asking for them to capture the moment on video (you can always just tie a video camera to a tree in the woods like my partner did) or planning a family-filled celebration afterward - the more the merrier!

Most popular engagement dates

Thinking of an engagement season proposal? Here are the most engagement season days for proposals:

Christmas Day (12/25) – Christmas magic is in the air, and so are proposals! A true favorite.

Valentine’s Day (2/14) – The ultimate day of love, making it a classic for popping the question.

Christmas Eve (12/24) – Nothing like an early Christmas present!

New Year’s Day (1/1) – A perfect time to pop the question and celebrate new beginnings.

New Year’s Eve (12/31) – The excitement of midnight creates a beautiful moment for a proposal and the ultimate New Year’s Eve kiss.

Day before Valentine’s Day (2/13) – For those who want to celebrate Valentine’s as a newly engaged couple.

December 17th – The Saturday before Christmas Eve is ideal for a family and/or friend -filled proposal.

December 10th – Two Saturdays before Christmas, giving couples time to savor the engagement without being over shadowed by the holiday bustle.

December 23rd – For couples wanting to celebrate Christmas as a newly engaged couple

Personally, I think it’s a bit odd November dates didn’t make the list. I would think more couples would want to enjoy the whole holiday season as newly engaged humans. Then again, trying to split the holidays amongst families BEFORE you’re officially married can definitely pose a challenge.

What to do after the proposal?

So what happens after you say yes or after you pop the question? First things first - CELEBRATE!!! This is such a special time for you and your partner. Take a moment to enjoy it. Don’t let anyone push you into planning faster than you are ready. Chat with your partner and agree to how long you want to just soak in the engagement without discussing wedding plans. That way you’ll both be on the same page, when friends and family inundate you with “When’s the big day?” questions. Trust me, they’ll ask literally the moment after you tell them you’re engaged.

Once you’ve ridden the engagement high for as long as you agreed to, you might want some help with getting into wedding planning - that’s where I come in! Later this month, I’ll be launching my Engaged 2 Planning mini-course. This mini course will help guide you through the 3 key decisions you need to make in order to get your wedding planning off on the right foot.

The course will include slides, videos, and PDFs to help make your wedding planning journey easy. Know someone who is newly engaged? Be sure to share this post with them! They can sign up for the course waitlist through this link.

With so many moments designed to bring people together in the coming months, engagement season has become a beautiful reminder of how family, friends, and love come together to create unforgettable memories.

So, get ready for love to be in the air and social media to be full of engagement announcements because Engagement season has arrived, and with it, all the magic, excitement, and sparkle that comes with celebrating love.

Happy Engagement Season!!!