Wedding stress is real! Planning a wedding is so much fun, but it also entails lots of decisions, juggling lots of opinions, and managing a budget. If that’s not going to cause stress, I don’t know what will. Let’s dive in on five things you can do to prevent wedding stress from taking over!
But you don’t have to let the wedding stress take over! In fact, it’s essential that you don’t. You’re in control. Here are five essential things you can do to make sure you enjoy planning your wedding and prevent wedding stress from taking over:
1. Make the main thing the main thing.
Of course, the main thing is that you’re marrying the person of your dreams! What I mean is decide what the focus of your day is going to be. Brad & I decided that our day would reflect us and our personalities, and be about celebrating with the people who made us, us. We wanted it to look and feel like a wedding, but we didn’t let the traditions dictate our day! When helpful people were insistent we shouldn’t see each other the morning of the wedding or told us we absolutely had to do a first dance we weren’t worried. We decided what the main thing was and then kept the main thing, the main thing.
2. Make a budget!
Setting a budget at the start will give you a guide as you bring everything together. Your budget may well change as you go. But having one meant I knew when I needed to make cuts elsewhere! Sit down as soon as you can (don’t put it off!) and make a realistic budget. Look at what you can afford to spend and what things actually cost. Try to round up to give yourself some wiggle room. And discuss with your partner about what you’re going to prioritise if your budget needs to change!
3. Ask for help
While there will be well meaning friends and family offering their idea of ‘help’ which looks a lot like meddling, don’t let that put you off from asking for help when you need it! Some of the bits we did DIY were repetitive and my Mother in Law did a fab job of folding 150 little gift boxes, and putting together 150 key rings. And my Mum spent hours and hours making tons of pom-poms. People want to help so delegate where you can!
4. Date your partner!
To be honest I wasn’t that fussed about taking time off from wedding planning, I loved it! But Brad didn’t really enjoy me going on about it all the time, or the never ending mess of me making pom poms. And when we did take a break it really helped me too! Life is going to go on after your wedding, so taking breaks, and going on some fun dates along the way helps remind you why you’re doing it all anyway! Click here for some fun date ideas!
5. Keep the week before free!
It may be the last one but this is the most important! If you take anything away from this blog, take this – it really is essential! However long your planning is, the week before your wedding is likely to be full of high emotions, lots of people, and last-minute juggling! So keep it free, do all the prep work long before and make sure you’re all good to go! That way if something goes wrong last minute (which it probably will) you’ll have time to sort it. But also you’ll have time to enjoy the build-up with each other and your friends and family who are coming to town.
Bonus: It’s so easy to throw an ‘enjoy it all’ on the end of this. But honestly, it’s not all fun – getting married is one of the top 5 most stressful things in life. Be kind to yourself, work through the not so fun bits together. I remember having a big old row about where to go for our honeymoon because November isn’t the best time to go away, and we couldn’t agree on hot or cold – but in the end we had an unforgettable experience watching the Northern Lights in Norway – it was pure magic! I also found it hard to see it all adding up, but Brad helped me to understand that some things were worth paying for to take the stress out of our hands and get to enjoy it all more! He was so right.
You won’t prevent wedding stress completely, and that’s okay. There will be stresses, things may go wrong. Focus on the why, do it your way and be kind to yourself. I’d love to hear about what you’ve got planned! Or if you’re stuck and need some unbias advice I’m always happy to give it! Hit the messenger button in the bottom right, I’d love to chat!
