Planning a wedding is no small feat and, unsurprisingly, it can lead to a lot of stress. After spending the first few months of planning pretty overwhelmed by it all I’ve finally gotten a handle on things and have some tips I wanted to share with my fellow brides-to-be (… or friends of brides-to-be; pass this on! lol!).
Having a clear plan of what you need to get done and by when goes a long way to reducing the stress of planning. Once you know something is ‘on the books’ but not an immediate must-do you can forget about it and just focus on the task in front of you. If you can work with a wedding planner, I highly recommend it, but if your budget doesn’t allow for it or you don’t want to there are lots of great tools online to help you stay organized. I personally love The Knot Wedding Planner because it breaks of the checklists and how it breaks everything down. (Canadian friends that is a US link; you can buy it here or here).
Once you’ve got your schedule organized, set reminders for yourself to pop up a week before various tasks need to be done – reminders like pay the florist, book a menu tasting, etc. Again, it’s just an easy way to allow you to do the work upfront so you can forget about it and be more relaxed day to day.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to your friends and family who’ve been there! You’ll have moments where you think you’re nuts and having a sounding board not only can provide helpful advice but also just remind you that you’re not crazy for spending an hour looking at napkin colors or stressing about where to seat your second cousin who insisted on bringing a tinder date. lol. The worries are normal!
I’m speaking to my fellow type-A control freaks here: you need to let others help. You cannot do this by yourself. Need help getting a shortlist going of florists to consider? Ask your mother in law to help! Need to arrange transportation between a ceremony and reception location? Let your maid of honor step in! People want to be involved and they want to help you out.
Set hard limits for when you can and can’t talk about the wedding. It can be sooo easy to talk about the wedding with your fiance basically any chance you get and that really adds to your stress. Think about a ‘no wedding talk at dinner’ rule, or something like that so it doesn’t become the only thing you focus on.
Similarly, don’t forget to spend non-wedding related time with your fiance! Schedule a date night. Plan an activity. Remember to do things together that have nothing to do with the wedding. (As you can see Alex and I took a photo break to go tobogganing. Never thought I’d be on a sled in a dress and heels, but we had so much fun lol!)
Staring at Pinterest weddings day-in and day-out does not help with anxiety and stress about perfection. In reality, there’s no such thing as a perfect wedding, and yours will be beautiful even if you can’t get every pinterest worthy detail in place. Remember to read articles about real weddings, reminisce about weddings you’ve been to, and look at wedding photos of family and friends. You’ll find yourself so much more aligned with the ‘why’ of it all, and so much happier about the whole thing!
Take breaks to breathe. Seriously. Do a yoga flow, throw on a podcast and listen and deep breathe, or even do a meditation.
Sometimes you just need to get out of your head and away from all things wedding. Have a good fiction book on standby (I’m reading this sci-fi trilogy right now and love it!) It’s a great way to escape anything wedding related and reset your mood.
It sounds so cliche, but honestly remember why you’re doing this. Remember that you get to marry your person. At the end of the day the wedding will be amazing because of that alone. ❤️
I hope these tips for reducing wedding planning stress are helpful! They’ve really been helping me feel more calm and happy throughout this crazy process. If you want to see more of my wedding planning progress, you can view all my Wedding Wednesday posts here. 😊
On an unrelated note, I’ve been doing a ton of ‘bride to be’ shopping lately, so I wanted to share some of the “bride” things I’m loving right now. Swipe through to check them out:
These are wonderful suggestions! The last point is the most important!
xoxo
Lovely
http://www.mynameislovely.com
Thank you Lovely!
I cannot emphasize DELEGATE enough!!! I waited until far too late in my wedding planning process to do this and it made a massive difference once I let go of some of the responsibilities. Also love that you suggested going on dates and of course, my personal favorite: reading. These are all such good things to do when planning a wedding!
Thanks girl! and yes, I am struggling with delegating for sure but I just need to do it for the sake of my sanity ha.
I bet this post is SO helpful for all the current brides! I can’t imagine how difficult its been.
Thanks Anna, I hope so! <3
These are great tips! I did a lot of these when I got married too.
Lizzie
http://www.lizzieinlace.com
Thanks Lizzie!
My main reminder when I got married was that the wedding is only a day and marriage is forever. Make the day special but keep that in mind!
http://www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com
Such a great reminder!
I can’t begin to imagine planning a wedding during a pandemic, but these are some resourceful tips! xoxo, Sarah
Thank you Sarah!
Amen to these! Asking for help and delegating certain tasks was SO helpful in planning and reducing stress. Reading always relaxes me– it’s definitely important to step away from the planning and give your mind a rest.
That’s exactly what I’m learning – the need to step back and give myself breaks!