Engagement Rings

An engagement is one of the most memorable and auspicious occasions in the life of every couple. After all, it marks the beginning of your beautiful journey for eternity along with your significant other. Obviously, you will be on cloud nine when you get the beautiful diamond engagement ring, and will be bouncing off the walls out of thrill and excitement. Still, you must think about a number of things before taking the next important step in your relationship.

The main thing that you must consider before indulging in a newly engaged bliss is whether you need a long engagement or a short one. Most people tend to take wrong decisions in this case out of their engagement euphoria. So we are here to clear things out for you.

The Difference between a Short Engagement and a Long Engagement

An engagement is classified into short-term and long-term based on the number of days that a couple stays engaged. Obviously, a couple is expected to walk down the aisle shortly after exchanging the rings in the case of a short engagement. In this case, a couple will be engaged only for less than a year.

One of the major factors that are regarded as the upsides of a short engagement is the excitement factor that is sure to prevail between the proposal and wedding. Additionally, you will hardly get any time to stress on your wedding planning in this case. However, along with the upsides, there are some downsides as well; for one, it will be really challenging for you to execute things well within a short period. Additionally, your wedding expense could go very high because of the urgent bookings.

A long engagement, on the other hand, lasts for more than 18 months, and currently, most couples prefer this option so that they could get enough time to get to know each other. If you are wondering about the average or normal engagement period, it is considered as 12 months. Note that all these things are just the statistics though. At the end of the day, the time that you want to stay engaged or when you want to get married after your proposal is totally up to you and your better half.

Anyhow, if you are planning for a long engagement, which is pretty predictable and in trend these days, it is better to understand about its pros and cons. Some of those important points about a long engagement are given below.

The Pros

Time to Focus on your Life as Well as on your Wedding

One of the major upsides of a long engagement is that it will give you enough time to focus on your career or accomplish your dreams. You can also try to get to know each other more at this time, and weigh up things such as your likes, dislikes, hobbies, priorities, etc. After all, spending a good number of days in order to choose the right partner for a lifetime is justifiable. In short, this beautiful wait or the commitment towards your spectacular future is worth it.

No Need to Stress about Wedding Planning

Wedding planning is no fun; it entails a number of hectic tasks. Hence, you must plan things really well in order to avoid any last minute chaos. Since you have enough time between your proposal and marriage, you can take sufficient time to plan each and every aspect of your wedding. In fact, there is no need to hurry things in this case. You may take a number of days in order to enjoy your newly engaged bliss and the start the wedding planning at your own pace.

Money Saver

Another great advantage of a long engagement is that you can book your wedding planners and vendors many months before your big day. This, along with proper planning, will help you to trim down around 40% of your overall wedding expenses. Note that the wedding expenses tend to increase if you plan to book or organize things such as venue, food, DJ, planners, furniture, etc., close to your big day.

The Cons

Unpredictable Circumstances May Occur

In the case of long engagement, one of the major drawbacks will be some unpredictable circumstances, especially associated with the family. Usually, parents start pressurizing their kids to tie the knot as soon as they get engaged. In case any unpleasant things happened in a family such as any of the grandparents’ death, it would be on you that you could not fulfill their dreams.

The Countless Number of Options May Overwhelm you

Along with the luxury of having enough time to plan your wedding, the countless number of options may overwhelm you as well. Undoubtedly, it will be really hard for you to pick a few things from a pool of options. Furthermore, some people may lay back a bit thinking there is enough time to plan things. However, the time may run quickly and you will end up in stress fearing a poorly executed wedding despite getting so many advantages.

Loss of Excitement

You cannot overlook the chances of losing your excitement with time. This is, in fact, one of the worst downsides in the case of a long engagement. A recent study said that around 20% of people experienced cold feet when it comes to engagements that lasted for more than a year. Sadly, the statistics are getting worse with every passing year.