As most people will tell you, your engagement goes by fast, and seems even faster when you’ve been entrenched in wedding details for most of it. It’s a magical time when your friends and family seem to be more loving and are around more to help you plan and to celebrate at the various events leading up to your wedding day. But so many of us forget to enjoy the time that we’ve looked forward to for so long, that precious time in between dating and being married. It’s a time to just enjoy being in love, and getting to be, at least for a time, the center of attention from everyone you know. So, in order to help you to make the most out of enjoying your engagement before you become an official legally married couple, I’ve put together 10 tips to make sure it doesn’t all fly by in a blink without you getting to really enjoy being engaged.
At least once a day, make each other laugh, and I don’t mean a little chuckle. I mean a full on “helpless with laughter” kind of burst of laughter.
Find your happy “Going to the Chapel” music that lights you up inside and makes you want to show off your ring and your new fiancé to everyone! And then sing along with the radio or your iPod, whether you’re in the car, shower, or even just doing your morning jog.
Give yourself time to rest. Being that pretty and that happy all the time takes work. Give yourself time to be at home, lounging together in your pajamas watching bad kung-fu movies, or whatever makes you two happy. Just remember to get enough sleep and to take care of yourselves.
Don’t stress over the wedding every time you are together. Remember that the wedding is one day compared to the life you are building together. Don’t allow the one day to take away from your happy couple status.
Do little celebrations and surprises for one another. Leave little love notes for each other on the bathroom mirror or in their lunch bag. Have flowers sent to their office. They’ll be the belle of the ball all week with their co-workers!
Take time to enjoy the time with your families. You will soon all be “in-lawed” and will form one big family, for better or worse. Find ways to enjoy the time with your new mother-in-law and father-in-law. If you each have siblings that you are close to, make sure that you spend time as a couple with them as well. Family will be both a source of supreme happiness and incredible tension in some cases, just remember to enjoy the happy and let go of the rest.
Enjoy the time you have with your friends. You might not be the “single lady” that a bachelorette party weekend might try to portray, but you are still a girl who needs girl time. Maybe do a girl’s sleepover or just a pajama party where you gather round to watch both Magic Mike movies and eat junk food while you paint each other’s toes.
Your engagement photoshoot should be fun and all about the two of you. Many people will tell you that it needs to be classic poses of the two of you perhaps sitting side by side on a stoop. And if that’s your thing, go for it. However, if your dream engagement session is filled with shots of the two of you fighting with lightsabers Jedi style or sailing off into the sunset in your own kayaks and then hiking up the canyon to the ridge where he proposed, then absolutely do that!
Remember to be kind, loving, and thoughtful. Yes, your engagement is about the two of you, but if someone brings a cake with yellow frosting instead of champagne colored frosting to your bridal shower, do not, under any circumstances, make a scene. If they are doing something nice to celebrate you, there is no reason to ever be rude or ungrateful about their kind gesture. Remember that these people who are offering to help or to give you gifts are there because they love you and want to celebrate your love.
Never again in your life will you have the overwhelming joy, the unconditional love, and the mountain of free loot! Enjoy every gift, every hug, and every photo opportunity you can. After your engagement is over, life will get back to “normal” and sometimes that’s hard to deal with after such a whirlwind of excitement. Remember to send out thank you cards, but also, remember to cherish each moment you can of your engagement. Nothing else in life is quite like it.