After 7 years and a lot of time spent (im)patiently waiting for the moment to arrive, my boyfriend finally popped the question at Christmas! He did it right - asked my mother's permission, picked out the perfect ring, and still somehow managed to make it a complete surprise. To say we are thrilled is an understatement!

But after so much time spent dreaming, it hit me that I now am supposed to actually plan a wedding. And planning a wedding is hard - and expensive, too! There were a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head of things that needed to be done. It became very overwhelming at first. Thankfully, I have my trusty wedding planner by The Knot to guide me through this crazy process.

We are still in the very early stages of planning, as the wedding is not until the fall of 2018. After hours of scrolling through Pinterest, the picture in my head is starting to come together. I have not just one Pinterest board, but one for each different aspect of the wedding day. The ceremony, the reception, the dress, the bridesmaids, and the groomsmen all have their own separate boards. This way, when I go to shop for a wedding dress, I don't have to sift through this massive board cluttered with other ideas to show the shop what kind of dress I'm looking for. 

My wedding book is soon to be filled with inspiration photos, receipts from vendors and other purchases, and budgeting charts completely filled out - right now, there are a lot of question marks in that tab! The wedding planning book takes you through the process step by step, with check marks and reminders to make sure you haven't forgotten anything important. 

I am doing my best so far to remind myself that our wedding day is just that... a day. All that matters at the end of our big day is that I will be married to my best friend. Things will probably go wrong and that is probably okay. In the meantime, I will do my best to plan accordingly for the perfect start to our beautiful life together!