Elle’s Bridal Diary: Join The Engagement Club

My Bear and I got engaged one month after and three weeks before other couples in our circles and while they may not be close friends and we may not be attending each others’ weddings the euphoria of the greater community quickly died and turned into, “join the engagement club”.

In fact, in our church we were one of 6 couples, at work one of three and in my university year one of five*.

This is just the phase many people our age find themselves in and to be honest – it’s a beautiful thing.

This does, however, offer the temptation of competition and comparison which we all know – it’s NOT a beautiful thing.

This could also lead to ill-motivated decisions and allowing the main thing to become less than the main thing. I mention this because it happened to me. I would secretly watch and wait, hoping no one else uses our themes, flowers or favours. I would be tempted to change the ceremony décor for the sake differing from someone else rather than doing what my heart desires. It’s not to say you wish for failure or anything less than beautiful for fellow brides and grooms but in the hope of staying unique and original you hold thumbs that their shade of blush is pinkier than your orange tones and many other notions like these.

All the small details of our beachy DIY affair have been sourced from our joint love of the ocean, collections made over the years and refined by wedding blogs like this one. We believe that our guests will enjoy an insight into our lives together, our love and our story, an insight that may be unique but more than that will be true to us. We want our friends and family to walk away saying “that party was a true reflection of the couple” rather than “of all the weddings this year that was the best one”. So yes, we may have similar photo booth props and bridesmaids hairstyles and that’s ok. We will be Mr and Mrs surrounded by those we love and that is a club we are proud to be part of.

*These stats are correct at the date of edit and may not be accurate when this blog goes live, not at the rate people are getting engaged these days.

Read more from Elle as she plans her wedding in our Bride to Be section.