You're engaged! Congrats! There is so much to do now, that you don't know where to start! Here are some helpful tips: -Take some time with your FI to just enjoy being engaged. Don't jump right into planning. -When you're ready to plan, speak with your FI and discuss what type of ceremony you want: religious, secular, Justice of the Peace, elopement, or destination. Then talk about how you see your reception. -Figure out what your budget could be for your wedding. How much can you save in the next x amount of months - that is your final budget. Remember, it's not polite to ask your parents to help fund the wedding. If they offer to assist you, that's great! Also, don't count on the money until it's in your hands. There have been some girls who are promised money, plan for it and they never get it, making them scramble last minute to figure out how to fix this budget issue. -Create 2 guest lists, a must have list and a would be nice list. Once you have the two lists, start looking at reception halls. When you find your venue, it should fit all of your must have list into it and if you have room/budget to invite people from the would be nice list, move those individuals over to the must have list, this is now your final guest list. Please know that doing an A/B list is rude to your guests. Only send out one round of invitations to your guests, if people RSVP no, you do not invite more people. -Do not select your bridal party until around 9 months before the wedding. Relationships change all the time. There are many brides who have posted on either the Wedding Party board or the Moms & Maids board who are now trying to kick BMs out of their wedding because their relationships changed or other petty issues. Also know, that the only thing a BM needs to do is purchase the dress (that's within her budget - don't forget to ask!) and show up for the wedding. Any additional tasks, like hosting pre-wedding parties, assisting with invite assembly, or favors, etc, is a bonus offered first by your BM, not dictated by you. -Remember that as soon as you begin to invite people to your wedding, it is no longer just about the B&G, but also about hosting people properly. If you have questions, go ask the Etiquette board if you have questions about hosting properly. Sometimes their answers are a dose of tough love, but the ladies there just want to make sure you are not rude to guests or get talked about badly behind your back - because that will happen! They also want to make sure that your family and friends still like you after the wedding. -Keep facebook posts about your wedding to a minimum. You probably have tons of friends, but will not be inviting all of them. So posting on facebook asking for everyone's addresses, could lead people you will not be inviting to offer their address. This could lead to an embarrassing conversation later on. -Also, there is a new trend where the B&G have started to send out announcements prior to the wedding to tell people that they will NOT be invited to the wedding. This is terribly rude. How would you feel if you received in the mail a note saying you are not invited to our wedding, but here is where we are registered, feel free to send a gift. Only send wedding related stationary to invited guests. You can send out wedding announcements the day after your wedding, but these are just to announce your marriage and do not have any registry information on them. If you want to do Save the Dates, remember that anyone receiving a STD must get an invitation later. I hope these tips will be helpful to all the brides to be out there. These are some commonly talked about topics on the different boards here. Feel free to ask any questions. Sometimes it's best to lurk on the other boards before posting. This helps you get to "know" a board and checking out previous posts could also answer your question for you.