How to minimise the stress of
planning your wedding
I'm going to run through some tips and advice on how you can minimise the stress of planning your wedding. I am not saying you'll be totally stress free, even the most chilled couples can still experience this.
Hopefully this blog post will help you and make your wedding planning a more happy and exciting time for you like it should be!
Write down your ideas
You will have so many ideas running through your head from centrepieces and favours to colour schemes and flowers. Writing this down somewhere means it's not floating around in your head, leaving you feeling over-whelmed.
I created a slideshow for myself for everything! Each slide was used for a different aspect of my wedding, you could do the same or possibly make a scrapbook or pinterest board. I loved adding to it, getting excited each time!
Write lists for everything
These can be lists of things to book, from your venue to wedding suppliers. You can write lists of things you need to buy such as wedding favours or your jewellery. I highly recommend using the Bridebook app to help you out. It has tick lists and time frames of when to do certain things. I found it very useful!
Also write to do lists of anything else whether that's meeting with a supplier or creating your own invitations and sending them. It will feel so satisfying when you get to cross it off your list too!
Of course your guest list comes under this section, I probably wrote about 10+ before settling on our final numbers. Check out my other blog post called Creating Your Guest List for more tips and advice on this.
Store your receipts
Every time you book something such as your venue, photographer or florist make sure you get a receipt of booking from them all. You can then file them all together and you will be able to see how much you're spending on everything.
It would be a good idea to also keep a record of anything else you've spent money on such as stationery, favours or clothing accessories, these can easily build up and you might be able to stop yourself from over spending.
You could even create a spreadsheet of everything you've paid for!
Finding the right suppliers
This can seem like a difficult challenge sometimes. You either find the one you want immediately or it can take ages to find one you're blown away by. The earlier you start looking the better, to give yourselves as much time to find the perfect photographer/viedoegrapher/florist etc.
Recommendations are a great place to start, try asking friends/family or join a Facebook group such as Wedding Advice and Chat UK or South Wales Weddings. You'll want to find out as much about them as you can, check out their website and social media sites, to see what their work is like, hopefully you'll get a feel for what the person is like too. Of course, remember your budget when looking around!
It's important to have a face to face chat before booking especially with photographers/videographers etc. to see if you have good chemistry and will actually get along on your wedding day.
Be decisive
It can be very easy to get stuck when deciding on certain things, whether it's the wording of your invites, your colour scheme or your table plan. Of course you can compare and have a few choices to choose from but don't spend weeks trying to decide, elevating your stress levels in the process.
Your day, your way!
It's your day so you can plan it anyway you want to! Don't compare it to anyone else's and ignore any comments from anyone who seems to disapprove of something by mentioning the way they/someone else did it on their wedding day.
If there is an aspect of traditional weddings that really make you anxious, such as the speeches or the first dance, why not just avoid them altogether? It doesn't have to be traditional, if it makes it easier on your nerves then don't do it. It doesn't have to be a huge occasion costing the Earth either, if you are worrying about your budget and don't like the thought of all that attention, maybe you would rather a more scaled down, intimate wedding.
Be very clear with your guests about the facts and details. Put as much info as you can into your invites. First of all, make it clear who is invited by writing the full names of each guest in their household rather than just The Jones', for example, to avoid any mix ups.
Then there's the obvious details such as time, date, location and your contact details but you can also add in nearby hotels or maybe the cost to book a room at your venue, local taxi services, directions to your venue, menu choices (though you can decide on a set menu for everyone), a request for dietary requirements, whether you are having a gift registry or asking for money for house/honeymoon etc. or if you're not allowing children. Give a well-worded reason for this, that won't offend easily. (You can check out my other blog post on whether to invite children).
This will help to avoid any unnecessary questions from your guests, of course there could still be the odd one or two who say they've lost their invite or want to check their child really cant come!? A wedding website full of FAQ's can be helpful for this, so every time you get a question you can direct them there. gh you can decide on a set menu for everyone), a request for dietary requirements, whether you are having a gift registry or asking for money for house/honeymoon etc. or if you're not allowing children. Give a well-worded reason for this, that won't offend easily. (You can check out my other blog post on whether to invite children).
This will help to avoid any unnecessary questions from your guests, of course there could still be the odd one or two who say they've lost their invite or want to check their child really cant come!? A wedding website full of FAQ's can be helpful for this, so every time you get a question you can direct them there.
Take a break
Make sure to take a break from it all, before you start feeling overwhelmed because wedding planning can take over your life! Make time to go out somewhere with your partner or to meet up with friends. De-stress with whatever you enjoy the most, whether that's binge watching TV shows or mountain walking. Watching 'Friends' (again) always de-stresses me! Vow to not check any emails or send any enquiries to any suppliers/venues for as long as you need until you're feeling ready and excited to continue with your wedding planning journey.
Remember there are two of you getting married! It can be quite common for men to not have a huge input but try to share out some of the planning so it's not all on one pair of shoulders.
It's OK to not be OK
At some point during your planning, there may be times when something upsets you or doesn't go as you wanted. It's OK to have a cry or to get really peed off and shout and curse about something, vent it out! You won't be alone, it's very common for wedding planning to be stressful. Just make sure you have someone to talk to about it so that you can find a way to resolve the issue and move on, I'm always hear with an ear to listen by the way! Then you can continue to enjoy planning your wedding day.
Just remember this should be a fun experience, that you'll look back on with fond memories in years to come. Try not to overthink things, when the day comes you'll just be so happy to be married to the love of your life!
I absolutely love hearing all of your plans, it reminds me of when I was planning my own wedding!
