How to Enjoy Your Engagement - Miranda Schroeder

This post contains sponsored content. Thanks for keeping my creativity afloat.

Wedding planning is a full time job. The stress of planning and then the weight of financing is A LOT. Sometimes I have to just slow down and take a minute to enjoy my engagement and the process because this really is such a sweet time in my life.

Most of you know that this is my second engagement. The first one didn’t make it to the altar, but I did plan and pay for a good chunk of that wedding, so this is my second go round with the process. This time has been so much more enjoyable. One, because I’m marrying the man of my dreams, and two, because I’m planning our wedding EXACTLY the way I want to.

It’s easy to get stressed out from wedding planning. From all the little details to the monstrous budget spreadsheet, planning a wedding is no small task and the stress can start creeping into your relationship causing ripples..Thankfully Andrew is the most easy going optimistic person on the planet (although this gets annoying once in awhile, sorry babe. Love you).

It’s so important to get on the same page with your fiance BEFORE you hand over a dollar, choose your color pallets, or decide on food and entertainment. Think about what the two of you truly value and try to design your wedding day (and budget) to reflect that.

My Wedding Planning Guilty Pleasure

One of my guilty pleasures has been purchasing a wedding magazine when we go to the grocery store. Flipping through pages of pretty dresses and venues lets me pause and indulge, so when Artisan books and Modern Wedding wanted to partner for a giveaway of course I said yes!

As soon as the book arrived on my doorstep, I spent my evenings binging the content. It’s beautifully designed and filled with great ideas and tips that I never would have thought of.

I wish I had it before sending out my invites because Kelsey McKinnon gives a super detailed explanation on how to write and address them. She talks a lot about creating an event that truly aligns with your values, personality and desires as a couple. An event that reflects your lifestyle and relationship.

For me, I LOVE event planning and design, so I knew I wanted to carve out money in the budget for the visual elements. I also love entertaining, so I wanted my guests to have a unique, surprising and delightful experience. We are planning to have eclectic lounges, a guitarist, and a mariachi band!

If you end up planning an event this out of alignment with your core values and beliefs, you will most definitely feel more stress and discontentment throughout the process.

Hit the pause button and take time to soak in the giddiness you experienced the day of the proposal. You will never get this time of your life back, so instead of wishing it away due to wedding planning stress, sit in it. Enjoy it. Embrace it. And splurge on a hardback copy of Modern Wedding.

About Modern Wedding

The secret to planning a deeply personal and meaningful wedding has nothing to do with budget. It’s about creating a celebration that reflects a couple’s core values. Translating those values is the work of Modern Wedding, an information-filled guide with hundreds of creative ideas and beautiful, inspiring photographs for readers to look at and say, “This feels like us.”

The book unpacks every element of a wedding—stationery, attire, seating plans, flowers and tablescapes, food and drink, gifts—with examples that will appeal to couples who care about how things are made but are not overly influenced by trends. The emphasis is on natural surroundings, seasonal flowers and food, modern dresses, minimalist ceremony structures, and naked cakes.

Photographs of real weddings—“case studies” like a destination fete in Tuscany, a house party in Brooklyn, and a New Agey revel in Kauai—show how all the pieces can come together into a unique and expressive whole. Extensive practical information and resources give readers access to all the help they need for their own unique celebration.