The holidays are such a popular time of year to get engaged. If you are newly engaged (Congrats!), and new to our website, we wanted to start January off with some tips for our newly engaged couples out there. We have some must-read advice and some general words of wisdom. Planning a wedding can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. When I was newly-engaged, I would wake up in the middle of the night with various lists and to-dos running through my head. That went on far longer than I care to admit, but it was the reality. Getting engaged is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we want you to enjoy it! Read on.

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Don’t rush into planning. We’ve said this before, but we think it’s one of our most important tips. You can easily buy into the frenzy that everything needs to happen ASAP, but we say – enjoy the moment. Use this bit of breathing time to talk with your fiance about both of your ideal plans for the wedding and make some small moves to put those plans into action. You don’t have to pick a date as soon as you get engaged.

Insure your Ring. We have an entire post about the importance of getting that baby insured here. Read our post and start making plans to get your ring insured. While nothing will probably go wrong, there is that slight chance that something might. Don’t take your chances on this one.

Focus on your relationship. It can be very easy to get so caught up in wedding planning that you begin to neglect the person you are engaged to. Don’t have everything be strictly about the wedding. Make sure you make some time for just the two of you together. Set aside date nights where you don’t even mention wedding planning. Set aside some screen-free time with just the two of you together. You are about to enter into a marriage, and we want you to continue to nurture your relationship first and foremost.

Ask for help when you need it. Maybe you don’t like to delegate (we totally get that). Maybe you feel like you have to be on top of it all. You have to delegate. If you are anything like us, you are trying to juggle your professional calendar, with your social calendar, with wedding planning. You still need to carve out some time for yourself, so delegate, delegate, delegate. Maybe you don’t want to delegate some of the larger things (picking out flowers or choosing the menu), but you can certainly dole out some of those smaller tasks (think putting stamps on envelopes, collecting relatives addresses, stuffing wedding invitations, stuffing goodie bags for your guests). Trust us – whoever you delegate these tasks out to, will do them just fine!

Don’t forget to ask your fiance’s opinion. We will admit it – guilty as charged. I assumed my fiance didn’t want to have a say on color scheme, food, etc… As it turns out – he did. Once we cleared that hurdle, I began to include him on decision making and our wedding turned out better and more personal as a result! I automatically assumed he wanted black tuxes, but he went for the gray – and we all ended up loving them. When we made the food choice together, we were able to include items we both liked. Don’t just assume your fiance won’t have an interest in making some of these decisions. Include him as little or as much as he might like to be!

Tips for cute engagement gifts: And a bonus section for those  who want to gift their newly-engaged friend with a something special. We love putting together a quick little basket. Steps below.

Start with a cute little basket like this one (it comes in multiple colors):

Add some bridal magazines or planning guide:

Last, but not least, a bottle (or two) of bubbly.

That’s it. Short, sweet and to the point.