camillepearl23@gmail.com If you’re recently engaged, you might have googled “How long should an engagement last?” “How long is too long to be engaged?” or “How long is the average engagement?” These are reasonable questions to have when you’re recently engaged! How long you’re engaged depends on how long you want to be planning a wedding and also how much time you can dedicate to wedding planning. Depending on the length of your engagement, you might also make a decision to hire or not hire a wedding planner. Check out my post titled “Should I Hire a Wedding Planner?” This post will answer the question of how long the average engagement is and the pros and cons of having a long engagement or a short engagement.
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How Long is the Average Engagement?
I asked in some wedding Facebook groups (Join my wedding planning FB group here!) how long the members will be engaged before they get married. I got so many different answers ranging from around 4 weeks to 7+ years! Of course, each couple had their own reasons for how long they were engaged and that is what works for them! However, the average engagement was around 18 months. This gave the average couple a long enough time to enjoy being engaged and also plan their wedding effectively. There is not “perfect” length engagement, you and your partner do what works for you!
Why Have a Long Engagement?
More Time to Plan
The longer you’re engaged, the more time you’ll have to plan your wedding. If you have more time to plan, you may experience less stress and rush during the planning process. Get your wedding invitations from Picky Bride for gorgeous cards!
More Time to Budget and Pay
Payment plans for your vendors (venue, photographer, caterer, etc.) will be longer since there are more months until your wedding. This might mean that each month you are paying a smaller amount since you will be paying it over a longer amount of time.
More Time to Enjoy Being Engaged
Being engaged is a special time in your life and relationship. The longer your engagement, the longer you’ll have to enjoy being engaged! Subscribe to the Miss To Mrs Bridal subscription box and receive engagement and wedding items each month – I love this service!
More Options of Vendors
The earlier you search for potential vendors, the more options you’ll have because they won’t be booked for other weddings. It’s always good to be ahead of the game on vendors! Check out TavernCreative for all your paper vendor needs!
Take Time to Look for a Place to Live
If you’re moving in with your partner or moving apartments or houses, a longer engagement will allow for more time to find the perfect place for you to live as a newly married couple!
Give Your Guests More Time
If you’ve sent out Save the Dates (Find unique ideas here!) or told your guests when the date is, you’ll give them more time before your wedding to find cheap flights and/or accommodations with a longer engagement. You’ll also give them more time to shop the items on your registry! Sign up for MyRegistry to combine registries from different stores. If you’ve asked your guests to contribute to your honeymoon fund, make sure you sign up for Honeyfund!
Why Have a Short Engagement?
Fewer Choices of Vendors
If you’re anything like me and you have a hard time making decisions, I actually find it easier to choose when I have fewer options to choose from. There will be fewer venue options and other vendor options and that may make decisions easier! You can get a quick ship dress from Dress Afford.
Less Time for Unwanted Family Interference
I’m sure your family means well, but they will have a lot of wedding advice and ideas. With a shorter engagement, they’ll have less time to share their ideas and influence your wedding decisions.
Legal Purposes
I am the last person to give you legal or financial advice, but if you’re looking to file taxes jointly (or do anything else jointly) you might want to get married soon after your engagement.
Better/More Options for Military Spouses
If you or your partner is going to become a military spouse you may consider a shorter engagement if they are deploying or going somewhere for training. Find wedding favors for both small and large weddings on Evermine.
As you can see, there are pros and cons of having a long engagement and pros and cons of having a short engagement. It really depends on you and your future spouse’s situation and what you would prefer to do. Comment down below how long your engagement will be or how long your engagement was. I’d love to know! Make sure you subscribe to my email newsletter for weekly emails including that week’s blog post as well as deals on wedding related products and services.
We were engaged for 3 years but he proposed after 3 months so… it worked out well LOL. 12 years married/15 together this May!
Congrats! I guess a long engagement worked out for you!
My engagement lasted for 14 months. And I enjoyed every minute of it even the premarital counseling.
Counseling is so good for couples!
Sometimes there may be issues such as health and family…we got engaged after 5 years together and another 5 till our wedding, now 15 happy years together, a blessing…and hopefully many more to come!
That’s great – congratulations!
Great post! So many couples struggle with this especially during these times of COVID. Both my children have ended up with micro weddings and then doing a friends and family celebration later.
Yes I’ve had a few friends do that!
Great information:)
Wow great info. I have taken notes from you 😂