Your wedding day will, hopefully, be one that lives long in the memory for all the right reasons. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are a lot of things you’ll need to do before you get to bask in the glory of a successful wedding day. Ask anyone who’s been through the process themselves, and they’ll tell you that, yep, it was a lot of work.
While it’s inevitable that you’ll feel a little bit of stress during the planning process, there are things you can do that’ll help to keep your stress levels at a minimum. In this post, we’ll look at some key tips that’ll make planning your wedding as straightforward as possible, as well as ensure that you end up with a great wedding day.
What Do You Want To Do?
One of the most effective ways to make planning your wedding easier is to think about what you want to do, rather than what you think you should do. It’s much more fun to plan a wedding when you’re following your instincts. If you’re just trying to work through a checklist of what you think a wedding ought to include, then it won’t be long before it feels like work. Plus, you’ll be less likely to enjoy the big day, anyway.
In the beginning, think about what you want your wedding to look like. Later on, you can go with your gut — if you don’t get those warm and fuzzy feelings from, say, a caterer that you meet, then it’ll be best to continue your search until you find one that sits right with you.
Get Organized Early
The process of planning a wedding sounds simple once you break it down to its core features — venue, caterers, entertainment — but becomes more complicated as you go deeper. And then at some point, it becomes very complicated, and feels as if you’re trying to juggle more balls than you can handle. Or, at least, it may feel that way if you’re not organized. The solution? Get organized! It’s best to have a dedicated wedding folder from the first moment you begin planning. It’s also recommended to set up a separate email account just for wedding-related stuff — it’ll make keeping track of your correspondence much easier than if they’re in your general work/personal email.On top of that, try to do what you can as early as possible, such as looking for and purchasing men’s wedding rings, the venue, where to buy the cake from, and the music; all of it should be done months upon months in advance. Honestly, the earlier, the better.
Think Hard About The Guestlist
You might want to have everyone you’ve ever met at your wedding, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the more people you have at your wedding, the more work you’ll have to do. That’s not to say that you can’t have 250 people attending your big day, but it’s best to ensure that it’s really what you want. As well as providing more work, having a catch-all approach to your wedding can influence the overall feel of the day. Most people find that it’s best to be selective — more than anything, you’ll have peace of mind in knowing that all your effort is going towards people that you really want to have there on your big day.
Careful Venue Selection
The venue you select is going to have a big impact on the overall look and feel of your wedding day. But it’ll also impact the smoothness of your wedding organization. You might have your heart set on getting married at one particular site, but if the venue doesn’t have a track record of hosting weddings, then it’s likely that you’ll end up doing more work than you otherwise would. The best wedding site will be one that’s beautiful, that is happy to work with you to make your dream wedding come true, and, perhaps most importantly from an organization perspective, has a track record of hosting weddings. So as well as looking at the aesthetics of the venue, ask questions about their experience. Do they have what it takes to host a great wedding?
Make a List of Priorities
There’s no shortage of awesome things you can include on a wedding day. A live band, fireworks, cocktail stations, horse and carriage…the list goes on. If you want to have a grand and memorable wedding, then you may look at including a couple of extravagant touches in your day. However, it’s best not to go overboard. A touch of simplicity can do wonders for the planning process. Plus, having too many amazing activities can sometimes feel like overkill; it’s best to prioritize one or two fun touches and let them do the talking.
Invest in De-Stress Activities
Planning your wedding will likely be a little stressful from time to time, but it shouldn’t be overly stressful. And the planning process certainly shouldn’t begin to impact your happiness or the quality of your life. Alas, that does happen from time to time — after all, if this is your first wedding, then you’ll make mistakes along the way. It’s best to proactively work on keeping your stress levels at a minimum by investing in relaxing activities. Spending a little bit of time meditating, doing yoga, or just switching off from the wedding planning process can all do wonders.
Work With People You Trust
You’ll find that pretty much everything related to your wedding is more straightforward if you’re working with people that you feel comfortable with. Let’s take your photographer as an example. They’re going to spend significant amounts of time with you, so it’s essential that you don’t actively dislike them (or find that their presence puts you at unease). Plus, it’s much easier to breeze through problems when you feel comfortable enough to have frank and honest conversations.
Or Hire a Wedding Planner
You can very much organize a wedding by yourself, but if you’re planning a grand wedding, or just have minimal time due to work/family demands, then it may be best to hire a wedding planner. You’ll still have a big say in the overall look and feel of your big day, but you’ll find that many of the complicated planning steps are removed. Just remember to work with a wedding planner that you trust and with whom you feel comfortable — they’ll become something close to your best friend during the planning period, so you need to feel good with them.
Be Mindful of Guest Demands
Your wedding will run much more smoothly if you haven’t placed too many demands on your guests. For example, you’ll only end up fielding a million questions if you’re getting married in a hard-to-reach location and have an unusual dress code/other requests. Your guests will be happy to join you, but be realistic about what you ask from them.
Organize As Much as Possible Beforehand
There’ll be some things that you believe you can leave until the day of your wedding. But it’s best to avoid that temptation. You’ll be busier than you think in the run-up to the wedding, and in any case, you’ll just want to enjoy the day as much as possible.
Let Go of Perfection
Finally, if there’s one tip that we’d like to drive home, it’s to be OK with not having the perfect wedding. No matter how hard you try, there’ll always be something that can go slightly wrong. You can’t control the weather, after all. The quality of your day will depend not on the setbacks themselves, but how you respond to those setbacks. If you have a go-with-the-flow attitude, then you’ll be elevating the atmosphere of your big day, and that can have a big impact on your own enjoyment of what should be your special day.
Buy Your Wedding Rings ASAP
Alright, when it comes to wedding planning in general, there are a lot of things that need to be done ASAP- that’s pretty obvious. But one thing that a lot of people don’t realize is the wait time for getting rings. Yes, when it comes to men’s wedding rings or even women’s, they take a while. Sometimes, it’s a few weeks; other times, it can be longer.
For starters, you need to be sized. All retailers vary for when rings come in, and depending on the brand or material, you may even need to wait months! So, think of it this way: you can’t buy rings at the last minute because you usually need to wait weeks to get them back. But even in this case, if they don’t fit, you’ll still need to return them and wait longer for a new size. Just a deadline like that alone can be stress-inducing!
