A Long Engagment

When I saw Joanna’s fabulous engagement pictures for the first time (and I know you’ve seen them, how great are they?) I was overwhelmed with a feeling of nostalgia… thinking about how exciting it felt to be newly engaged, how over the moon we were with that feeling of shiny new beginnings. The pictures capture that feeling better than I’ve ever seen it captured on film. After looking at the pictures for a few minutes, I realized that we were, after all, still engaged – we had every right to still feel like we were being lifted off the ground by joy and a giant pink balloon.

When I get to the end of the road, I promise to report back to you about what having a 18 month engagement was like in the end… but right now I can just tell you that it feels very long. We’ve been engaged for 10 months, and we have another 8 to go until the wedding. We picked a long engagement mostly because we knew it would help us keep the wedding more affordable, and it has. We were able to book an affordable bay area venue that books up a year and a half in advance. We’ve had time to make the dress. We had time to experiment with doing the flowers. All of this is great. Having extra time can be a great way to get good deals. But there is also something very draining about being in an expectant state of waiting for over a year.

The engagement has ended up being a incredible emotional journey for me, and it hasn’t all been easy, but I’m not sure I would give any of it up. But, I’m happy that we’re beginning to pull out of our mid-engagement slump. Soon it will be just 6 months until the wedding (and the one year anniversary of our engagement all at once). We’ll celebrate, and then, suddenly, the wedding will feel just around the corner, and the excitement will start all over again. At first I was excited to be engaged, I was shocked and thrilled every time I saw that bit of sparkle on my finger. Now, I’m excited by the shiny new thing of marriage at the end of the road (and the extra sparkle I’ll get on my finger then.)

In the meantime, prepare for a few more posts on things like – pretty flowers! pretty vases! pretty programs! As I get myself excited all over again for the event itself.

Did any of you have long engagements? Are any of you in the middle of long engagements? Do you have words of wisdom to share?

Photo by the amazing Max Wanger

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