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The thing about a 20-month engagement is that life goes on. The world does not revolve around my wedding planning; in fact, it keeps on spinnin’ on its own! Crazy, huh? Well, life did go on…and it has included other proposals. Lots and LOTS of proposals. Prior to our engagement, I had been to seven weddings, two of which I was old enough to drink during. Mr. Lion had been to even fewer. Since our engagement, seven more couples among our circles of friends have gotten engaged. Yep, I will soon be doubling the number of weddings I’ve been to. As the news of each of these new engagements reached us, my first emotion was utter excitement. Of course I was happy for our friends! The second feeling was a tinge of anxiety. Many people, especially brides, have the tendency to compete. I feared that sharing engagements would result in “one-upping” and “keeping up with the Joneses.” You know what I’m talking about:
I have to say, I have been pleasantly surprised! Wedding planning has actually been a really fun experience to be able to share. It’s been helpful to have someone to bounce an idea off of, knowing that they’ll be considering that idea as critically and honestly as you would because they’re weighing the same options. It’s been a relief to have someone to vent with when things get stressful. And most of all, it’s been an interesting lesson in bride individuality.
My favorite part of wedding planning is how it’s such a unique form of personal expression. I adore personal touches at weddings, and I love when the bride and groom’s personalities shine through. It’s been really fun to witness our friends’ weddings take shape as they incorporate their personalities. No two weddings are exactly the same, and the differences between them are what make them so beautiful.
Two of the newly engaged girls are fellow Gators, though we didn’t become friends until PT school. They have since moved back to Florida, so our weddings/showers/bachelorette parties have been excellent excuses for reunions!
Personal photo: Chomping to show our Gator bride unity!
Personal photo: Then we had to do some baby Gator chomping to show off our bling.
Have you shared your engagement with friends? Has it been a positive or negative experience?
How fun! I haven’t really been able to share IRL, just on Weddingbee and it sure is a blast, isn’t it? 
I love sharing an engagement time with my friends. At one point 5 of my friends were engaged at one time.
We all have different budgets and ideas. The beauty is that we can bounce ideas off of each other!
I know how you feel!! My future sister in law got engaged 6 months before we did and our wedding will be 3 months after hers!! But so far having her to bounce ideas off of and support has been great! She found her dress this past weekend and looks STUNNING! I am SOOO thrilled for her!!
Actually - I’ll be sharing my actual wedding day with my matron of honor…now granted she will be celebrating her 5th anniversary at my wedding…but we’re sharing a special day just the same.
My MOH, I love her to death, and although we’ve been friends for nearly 20 years, I was concerned she wouldn’t be okay with the fact that we would “share” the date. When she found out, she was elated and so was I. She said her & her hubby couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate their anniversary.
I love the idea that we will share an anniversary…who better to share it with than my BFF! 
My best friend and I will be having our weddings within a month of each others and I couldn’t be more excited! We have talked about how stressful those last couple months are going to be…she’s my MOH and visa versa, so not only will be obsessing over our own weddings but we will also be scrambling to help each other. We have such different design aesthetics, so I can’t wait to see how everything evolves for us. My FI and I have already been engaged 6 months (her just a few weeks) so I’ve been pestering her for a while with all my concerns and ideas… now that she’s dived into the ‘wedding planning world’, she realizes I’m not a neurotic OCD freak! I couldn’t be happier to have someone to obsess with.
I’ve been sharing with my best friend, who happens to be my cousin and she’s like a sister (wow, that’s a long description). It’s been mostly positive, but sometimes its weird. Like when people bring me up as being next when we’re doing something for her, I don’t like that. Or when people compare our weddings out loud–not cool.
I wish I had more friends to share engagements with! I have one friend who just got engaged whose wedding will probably be about a month after mine, but we live 7 hours apart, so not much chance for a lot of in-person planning time together, which is sad! Enjoy having the company, it can get a little lonely when you have no one else who gets what you’re going through!
exciting! (and go gators)
i had only been to 2 weddings in my entire life before last fall (and i was very young during both of them).
then the rush came in fall of ‘09! november , january, february, april, and FI had another one in june that i skipped.
it’s been CRAZY! but i guess that’s the time in your life you get to.
i’m got engaged right in the middle of a lot of friends’ weddings, so i have lots of help from them
It is fun! My bff has had a 20 month engagement too! I got engaged in March, and I’m having my wedding three weeks before hers, so at first I was extremely nervous that she wouldn’t be okay with it (getting engaged after her and married before her could have been dicey!). But FI and I really did not want a long engagement, bff and I worked through it and everything is great now. Another local friend got engaged shortly after we did and it’s been AWESOME planning with her. We recommended our photographer (who they booked!) and a venue that we couldn’t use but loved when we first saw it.
Our officiant and his fiancee are two months ahead of us in engagement and wedding date. But it’s been so much fun going to vendors with them- we also stay at his parsonage when in town for dances and meetings so it’s nice to catch up. We are having similar weddings (both Swing) but with different colors, budgets, etc
I wish more of my friends were engaged, so they would realize I am not being crazy and jumping the gun with things like ordering my dress and booking the venue 6 months out. One of my close friends is engaged, but they are having a long engagement and she’s barely started planning as the wedding is a little under a year away. And they are having a very non traditional wedding.
My sister got engaged less than two months after I did. It has been a lot of one-upping on everything. We even have identical engagement rings. i hope it doesn’t continue over the whole year of our engagement. 
I love sharing my engagement! I’m sharing with 2 cousins and by the end of 2010, I will have been to 9 weddings… with 3 more lined up for 2011!
We have a couple that seems to do everything we do about 2 weeks later than us. So of course we weren’t surprised when they got engaged 2 weeks after us! While I genuinely am happy for them, I find their timing suspect. However, I refuse to make it a competition. I probably just won’t share many details with her as I will with others. Luckily their wedding is after ours but of course, it’s 2 weeks after!!!
I have other friends who are engaged and have a blast talking with them and sharing in the planning.
It’s been great being able to talk wedding stuff with close friends also going through it. I can’t wait to be MOH for my MOH this weekend!
A blonde, a brunette and a redhead all get engaged…
Thanks for the giggle this morning!
Love the cute little gator chomp pictures 
Ours is this ugly bear claw thing. Not nearly as cute. This reminds me of that little kid song… Baby Shark!
I liked sharing our engagement at one point 6 of my cousins were engaged (3 sets of siblings), it was especially fun to be engaged the same time as my sister. Shes my best friend so it was awesome planning everything together.
I call those my brides in crime. You look so cute in your gator-gagement pictures!
How fun! We have not shared our engagement with any close friends, but with several acquaintances who have become engaged and married all during our long engagement.
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Mrs. Lioness, Atlanta Age and Occupation: 25, Physical Therapist Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Attorney Engagement Date: August 29, 2009 Wedding Date: April 2011 Venue: Anthony’s Fine Dining About Me: I’m a Southern girl with New England roots. I say "wicked" and "y’all" in the same sentence and I like to drink sweet tea with my lobster. Mr. Lion and I are both former Floridians now living in Atlanta, which fortunately is still SEC country...Go Gators! We both love baseball, coffee, traveling, cooking, and playing Words with Friends with each other on our iPhones all day long. I’m very passionate about the things and the people I love, and I tend to plan things with all of my heart...our wedding, of course, is no different! Oh, and also Mr. Lion is a first generation American of Cuban descent. I may look more like Lucy than Ricky, but I’m doing my best to incorporate some Latin elements into our vintage-garden-Southern wedding!
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