Last night I managed to get into bed before 9 p.m.
I put on an eye mask to block out the light (the sun doesn’t go down until after 9 p.m.) and drifted off to sleep within 20 minutes. Victory!
I can tell that my lack of sleep is affecting other areas of my life (I’m snackier, more irritable, less creative and less motivated to work out, etc.), so I am trying to prioritize my sleep. On nights when Ryan works late and doesn’t get home until close to 8 p.m., it stinks to only have an hour or so with him until I feel like I need to go to bed, but I’m beginning to realize that may be the way it needs to be for a while. At least Ryan was a good sport last night and got into bed early with me so we could read and hang out together for a little while.
I just realized that the second paragraph of this blog post might lead you to believe that I am miserable, but on the whole I feel much happier since I started working at the gym four months ago. It has been a good change for me, but I’ll elaborate on that a little more in another post since I’ve been meaning to blog about the whole working from home versus getting out of the house thing.
Breakfast
Breakfast this morning was a toasted whole wheat bagel topped with almond butter.
I toasted the bagel and topped it with almond butter before I left the house this morning and it held up just fine until I was ready to eat it in the break room at work around 5:30 a.m.
My hours today have me at the gym from 4:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., so it will be a long day. Phew!
Leslie and Ross: Wedding Update
I have some good news on the wedding front from Leslie and Ross! They officially put a deposit down on a wedding venue.
They will be getting married on…
A spring wedding!
Ryan and I told Leslie and Ross that they definitely didn’t need to wait an entire year to get married if they could find a venue they loved that had availability sooner. We took a little more than a year to plan our wedding and have always said that we felt like we booked a venue and then did nothing for seven or eight months!
With their wedding date on the books for the beginning of March, my head is already spinning with bridal shower and bachelorette party ideas. I can’t wait!
Question of the Morning
- If you are married, how long was your engagement?
- If you are engaged, how long is your engagement going to be?
We were engaged for a year and a month, but I definitely think a shorter engagement would’ve been totally manageable. We booked our venue and then months passed without any wedding planning until things picked back up about two to three months before our wedding.
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We were engaged for 16 months and, if I could do it again, I think 8 or 9 months would be better. We got engaged in May and our original wedding date was supposed to be the following April (we ended up moving it to October)…when that original date in April rolled around my husband and I were definitely regretting the delay–we were more than ready by April!
We got married about 5 months after we got engaged. We knew long in advance where we wanted to be married so I sent them an email asking about availability and they only had 3 days left for the upcoming spring/summer season. We picked the farthest date that also happened to sound the nicest June 9, 2012 or 6/9/12. We got married 2 weeks before a girl from school I knew who booked her day 1.5 years in advance. Everything came together easily I just didn’t have a lot of time to pick and order my dress.
Well I am definitely not an example here because we were only engaged for a few weeks before we got married…We knew what we wanted and where and just made it happen 🙂 Congrats to Ross and Leslie for picking a date!!
So exciting! My husband and I had a 5 month engagement. It was totally managable, and I’m so glad it was short. 🙂 We couldn’t wait to begin our lives together!
We were engaged for 2 months! Three years later, I feel like it was a great (& lucky) decision. We basically had less time to stress about what to do. We picked it and did it! It worked great for us!
Awe, I can imagine that the lack of sleep is affecting areas of life – it always happens to me when I get sleeping issues. But, the good things is that you’re really loving your new job. Can’t wait to hear more details about the change for you.
And congrats to Ross and Leslie! That will be so exciting:)
We were engaged for 4.5 months. I was told I would never find a venue, but we had plenty of options and got everything we wanted. I always tell friends, shorter engagements are better. Less time to stress!
That’s how ours was! We were engaged for 13 months, not necesarily because that’s what we WANTED, but it was kind of circumstancial, my husband was still in school and I was moving home, 5 hours away. We had already been dating 3 years so it was kind of, is this going somewhere or not?? We would have rather only had like a 6-8 month engagement for sure. It felt like we booked our venue, bought my dress, did the BIG stuff, then just kind of waited around until 4 or 5 months out when things really start kicking! But, it was also just fun to relax for a year and enjoy those “engaged” days 🙂 Congrats to your sis!
For some people the “waiting” time is saving time to pay for it all. It’s incredible how expensive eveything is or can be. I got engaged in the beginning of November 2012 and married the end of May 2013. We had a super small wedding – only 11 people including ourselves- just immediate family. We got married on a Friday which made for all of our first choice vendors being available and slightly less expensive than a Saturday. We had a cocktail party the following weekend for our friends, still small, about 30 people. I can see how if people have a lot of friends and family the size of the wedding can get pretty large pretty quickly though.
I thought 7 months was perfect for feeling like I could take my time choosing things and not feel like I had to make a decision because time was running out and I also ended up incorporating some things I might not have thought of having the 7 months to plan. Also some things just take time because you can’t find the right thing right away. It took me 3 months to find the right bra to go under my dress, while the dress took me 1 shopping trip on a whim. I was worried I would have to find a new dress because of the bra situation. It’s amazing that a simple low back bra could not be found in a department store, but I had to order several lots from different online retailers to find something that worked, was comfortable and fit correctly. I was frustrated not being able to just go to a store and try them all on. In the end I found something though thank goodness since I absolutely loved the dress!
I enjoyed the planning and selection process and think that it is definitely part of the fun of getting married! You don’t want to make every decision in one night. I think your sister’s timeline is perfect. Can’t wait to see it all come together!!
We were engaged for 5 weeks! Everything turned out perfectly, and I was so happy not to have a drawn-out engagement.
We have been engaged for just a month now. Our engagement will be 11 months long! Our date is May 24, 2014!
I’m a crabby girl when I don’t sleep so I understand making it a priority. YAY for a good night’s rest.
I’m still boyfriend/girlfriend status but we should be getting married in the next few years. I feel like once the venue is picked, it feels REAL and you have to start getting things done.
My engagement will be a little over 2 years – I think it depends on a lot of thins…money, family, being out of school. We waited since my fiance was just getting out of the military and needed to settle into a job. We also wanted a certain season, so that factored in!
I really can’t wait to hear your thoughts about working from home vs. getting out of the house! I was engaged for about 13 months, and I thought it was about perfect, but I can definitely see it being possible to plan in 6 months or so, as long as you have the time to commit to it!
I am right there with you on the sleep Julie! I finally made the connection between feeling overwhelmed, grumpy, and sweet cravings and decided that sleep needed to be a top priority. I can already tell a difference!
We got engaged 14th March 2012 and got married 15th June 2013. This long engagement was not necessary but we both wanted to get married in June. The crucial part was finding a venue and booking all the suppliers. If you have a specific caterer or photographer in mind you need to be fast. Then we did not really do anything but dreaming and deciding on themes and colour schemes for a few month. The last 6 month were maniac though 🙂
Oh I am so happy for your sister! Planning a wedding is so wonderful….
We were engaged 16 months before we got married. We got engaged at the end of July and wanted a fall wedding and trying to plan it in 2-3 months was too quick so we had to wait. It allowed us to book vendors and make decisions slowly though so that was good. It also gave me a little too much time to research ideas and change my mind a hundred times though!
I always think 8 months to a year is the perfect time to be engaged before the marriage. It allows you to settle into the “married couple” vibe and get things organized in time for the wedding, but it’s not TOO long you end up just waiting and waiting to become an official married couple. Plus, you need at least 6 months to fully plan out a wedding full of bridal and bachelorette parties!
We were engaged for 10 months before we were married on June 9, 2012. It felt like an eternity! We both agree that if we could go back, we would have probably had a shorter engagement. Maybe 6 or 7 months. Assuming you can get the venue without any more notice than that, everything else can DEFINITELY be done in that amount of time. There were months where I did almost nothing – and I plan events for a living!
I was engaged for 9 months and still think I had too much time. As long as you can get the venue you want, I don’t think you need more than 3 months. Truly!
I’m not engaged but its seems like my friends are waiting at least a year before their weddings are booked. I’m loving this shorter engagement idea though because honestly if I had to wait a year worrying about all the things that could go wrong andconstantly thinking about the details I’d go crazy!! so exciting for them though!
They’re so lucky they were able to find the right venue and put a deposit down so easily. I got engaged in February, and finding a beautiful venue for 14 people was a much bigger challenge than I expected. The fixed costs for the ceremony sites and room rentals were so high. We got to the point of signing with 1 venue, but a lot of the contract expenses were tbd and I didn’t feel comfortable. After months of working with the coordinator, everything changed when she got back from vacation. We were told we couldn’t have the date we wanted, or the ceremony site. She also told us that the preferred vendors list she sent us didn’t include the intimate wedding package we discussed, and that we had to use the photographer they provided or pay extra. At that point, I’d already been communicating with a photographer from the preferred list, to make sure she was available, discuss rates, etc and all my work was undone. The new photographer’s rates were outrageous! At that point, we just walked away because we felt we couldn’t trust the venue. We ended up booking an intimate wedding package at an inn in Savannah, Ga and there is an amazing restaurant right across the street. Even finding the right venue in Savannah was tricky because some inn a required that you reserve a minimum number of rooms and require a 50% deposit upfront. They promise to reimburse you when your guests arrive and pay for their own rooms but you never know!
One big factor in length of engagement is how far in advance you need to book your vendors and the weather. Living in FL, we wanted a spring wedding, low heat, with a small chance of rain so early May it was. I knew I had to lock in our major vendors early but I had no idea! I spoke to our photographer in April of this year and he told me he only had 2 weekends free for May 2014! I put down his deposit first because he gave us an incredible deal and we already knew we wanted to get married in Savannah. He actually recommended the inn we ended up choosing for the wedding, so I’m really happy we booked him first.
These kinds of issues considered, I would choose an engagement of less than a year if possible. Otherwise, you end up drawing out the little details and thinking about it all the time anyway!
Congrats to your sister!! I love how excited you are for her, it’s adorable.
My fiance and I got engaged last September on our fourth dating anniversary. We are getting married in Mexico on November 10th! Yay!! While I don’t think we needed this long to plan everything (and really we didn’t get going until January of this year and I haven’t been stressed at all), since we are doing a destination wedding, we wanted to give our family and close friends plenty of time to plan accordingly (passports, saving up (us, too!) etc.). And really, it’s been so fun spreading out the fun pre-wedding activities (my bridal shower is this weekend!) throughout this year 🙂
I’ve been engaged since June of last year and get married next May. A long engagement has pros and cons. I’m ready for it to be here already but at the same time we needed to save money for it. I didn’t want to be in debt because of a wedding so it has been working out for us!
We were engaged for almost 18 months to the day. We got engaged on Christmas Eve, 2011 and got married 3 weeks ago on June 22.
We were the same way though, we booked out venue within a few weeks of getting engaged and then really didn’t do any planning until we got closer to our wedding. We, however, thing it worked out perfectly as we didn’t have to put very much of our wedding OR honeymoon expenses on any credit cards, 18 months of saving allowed us to pay cash for pretty much everything which is exactly what we wanted. We did not want to begin our married life in tons of debt.. especially since we’re in the market to sell our home and upgrade! Personally, I think to each their own – you definitely don’t NEED a ton of time to plan the wedding, I am very happy with how our engagement worked out. I was stress free and debt free throughout the whole planning process! 🙂
So true about sleep–making it a priority is uber important. I need more tonight for sure!
Our engagement was 11 weeks long! Super short, but we knew what we wanted & it all happened super quick, which I was totally cool with. Best day of my life, ever!!
Congrats to your sister! That’s soon- so exciting!
I’m getting married on 3.8.14 too!!! I can’t wait to follow along with thier planning! We got engaged 2.2.13 so it will be a year and a month engagement for us 🙂
Ours was a year and eight months! I can only get time off work in the summer so I had to choose either 8 months or 1 year 8 months. We basically did nothing for an entire year
My sister is getting married 2 weeks after yours! She’s been engaged for a year now.. So we are finallyyyy starting the “fun stuff” including bridesmaid dress shopping last night! It’s my first wedding on the other side of the action in regards to planning showers and parties so I may have to follow your lead if you have any tips!
So excited for Leslie and Ross!! My husband and I were engaged for about 1 year and 5 months. I had always thought we would be engaged for a year, but my hubby proposed in May 2011, and I really wanted an October wedding. So needless to say, we pushed it off til the next year and got married October 20, 2012! I agree that a year or less is plenty because anything more than that can lead to long lulls with nothing to do. The longer engagement worked out for us though since I was working a lot of overtime at work throughout the engagement.
My husband and I were engaged for 9 months, but were together for 5 years before we got married, so I was more than ready to get the show on the road, haha! So excited for them! And your almond butter bagel is making me hungry!
We were engaged for 15 months. I would have liked to have gotten married in September (7 months earlier), but we had to wait until my brother returned from Afghanistan.
How exciting! I’m not engaged (yet) but I can imagine I would want a year or less as well. My brother and his wife were engaged for 18 months and it dragged on for them too much! By the time that wedding came, they were ready 🙂
I look forward to reading your post on working from home versus getting out of the house!
I’m getting married 3/22/2014, 2 weeks later than Leslie! Yay for spring 2014 weddings!
We got engaged 10/2012 but the date had to keep getting pushed back due to venue/church issued that kept popping up. But it’s nice to finally have everything settled and finalized.
Hello! I am a new follower of your blog and I absolutely love it! You are so motivating and positive! I have gotten so many recipies and workouts already that I want to try out! Catching up on sleep ALWAYS helps me to feel better! And I force my hubby to go to bed with me and while I sleep he watches tv or reads 🙂
So exciting for your sister! I just got married in April so I completely understand the wedding excitment, stress and every othere emotion that comes along with it! My husband and I were only engaged for 8 months and that was the perfect time for us! We didnt feel rushed and we didnt feel like we werent doing anything for the wedding. I think they have a great timeline!
My husband and I got married last August after a 3 month engagement! I was beginning my teaching certification program at the beginning of September, and we knew we wanted to be married before that. It was a lot of planning in a short time, but it was well worth it! Congratulations to your sister and Ross- a Spring wedding will be absolutely beautiful. 🙂
I got engaged in September and then married that June, so I was engaged for about 9 months and I felt like it was the perfect amount of time. We were able to get everything done without feeling like our wedding was so far away! Also, I’ll be interested to read your post about working from home vs. working at the gym now! I was also curious, do you feel like you’ve lost weight/gotten in better shape since working at the gym? I only ask because I’m sure many people (myself included) feel like if you’re a trainer/teaching classes that it would be easy to be in shape because you’re working out for your job….however, I’m sure the erratic house can be challenging and you probably don’t want to stay at the gym working out forever once you’re done with your shift…so I was just curious to hear your experience with that!
Glad you got to catch up on some sleep! That always makes me feel better!
We were engage for a little over a year; although, if I had to do it all over again, I definitely wouldn’t wait that long. Our wedding was beautiful, but I think we could’ve done something smaller scale in less time.
We were engaged for 14 months – when we went to check out venues, there were limited dates available and we had to work around a number of our friends’ weddings the 2 months prior to ours. It did feel like we took a few months to book the big things (venue, DJ, photographer, dress) and then we had a good 4 months or so with nothing to do! I would have enjoyed a shorter engagement, maybe 10 months.
We had a quick engagement…got engaged in March 2004 & married September 2004. We dated 3 years. We wanted a summer wedding and didn’t want to wait a whole year. The venue we wanted had an opening Labor Day Weekend and we took it. I wasn’t working full-time so I had the time to focus on planning and it turned out perfect. 🙂
our engagement was around a year, as well, but it totally could have been done in a shorter amount of time! my sister got engaged and married 4 months later!
Yay! Congrats to Leslie and Ross! They are getting married on the best day of the year…my birthday!
My hubby and I were engaged for two full years. We wanted a summer wedding outside so we had to have at least a year engagement, and then my brother decided to get married the next summer so we decided to wait another year so we did not have two big wedding within months of each other. It was a lot of time but we enjoyed relaxing and being engaged for the first year. We were also a planing a wedding that was four hours away so the extra time was helpful! I love weddings, congrats to your sister!
We were engaged for 14 months. It was a little long, but ended up being okay. Like you, we booked all our vendors within the first two months, and then I basically had 3 months where all I did was think about my dress. I seemed to have things to work on, but it didn’t really pick up pace with DO ALL THE THINGS until about 4 months before the wedding. I kind of wish I’d spaced it out but there wasn’t a lot of pressure until the end.
We were engaged a few weeks shy of 2 YEARS! We were paying for the majority of the wedding ourselves, so we needed that time to save for our big day. It worked out for us even though it felt agonizingly long at times. It gave me time to focus on the small details and take our time without any stress. BUT if I had it my way, it would have only been a year. C’est la vie – and it turned out to be the wedding of our dreams, very personal to us, and a day that we’ll never, ever forget.
We got engaged last September and will be getting married next week, July 25th! We picked a Thursday wedding because it was much more affordable and we had all the vendors at our finger tips! We got the music, photographer and venue we wanted without worry! Plus we can spend the long weekend with our out of town guests! We are doing our honeymoon to Aruba in November when its cold here in New England!
We were engaged for a year and four months before we got married. Speaking of which, tomorrow is one month until our one year wedding anniversary! Time really flies by so quickly! Congrats again to your sister!
How exciting! I’m not engaged or married but I have been before and we decided a week before our wedding (we eloped) Yeah…. probably not the best idea. When my true love asks me I want to plan a big wedding and actually wear a dress! I’d like to have at least 6 months.
I feel like a semi short engagement could be nice, not crazy short but just enough time to plan without the waiting around is good. Wedding planning can be stressful so its probably best to not have too much extra time to overthink every detail.