When planning your wedding the advice train is endless. I know because it drove me nuts! But there was one piece of advice that really helped me, and I think it’ll help you too!
Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the advice is helpful, but a lot of it can make wedding planning quite confusing too!
However, the one piece of advice that stuck with me was this: keep the week before your wedding clear.
I actually heard this piece of advice years ago, but for some reason it stuck – and I’m so glad it did! It was Shauna Niequist who said it. She officiates weddings in the US, and I remember reading her number one piece of advice for all her couples.
She said (along the lines of) whatever’s left to do, or sort the week before your wedding just leave it. It won’t be that important, it’s not worth the stress and you’ll be more ready if you don’t do it. I remember her saying to prioritise enjoying each other’s company on the build up to the big day. And to get in the right frame of mind for all the celebrations, so you can relax and enjoy!
The week before our wedding…
With this advice in the back of my mind, I worked hard to plan our wedding so everything was complete a week before. I kept that final week clear so we could relax and avoid stress.
As it turned out we ended up moving into our home a week before our wedding! When we were waiting at the agents to pick up the key, one of them said to me, “aren’t you getting married next weekend? You’re just so calm!”
The week wasn’t without its stresses. We cleaned, decorated, and by some miracle our furniture fitted up the stairs! But I’m so glad we didn’t have a mountain of wedding stuff to do as well, honestly that week really was a lot of fun!
We had time to enjoy the build up as friends and family came to town ready for the big day. We even got to go out with a bunch of our favourite people the night before our wedding to watch the fireworks!
Don’t let yourself imagine that meant we didn’t leave anything to the last minute (don’t mention our speeches!) but I am such a last-minute, hit-the-deadline kind of girl, and I would have stayed up late all that week to get everything done – but because of this advice I didn’t have to!
Was it worth it? For sure!
This is definitely the best advice I can pass on to you. While there will be exceptions, like a friend of mine who we had to find a new dress for the week before – pretty essential! And our band fell through 4 days before, so we had to sort that.
But honestly, while that week wasn’t the ideal, peaceful, serene week I may have been hoping for (I am a do-er so that would have probably driven me nuts!) By keeping it clear, we had time to sort the problems that did arise, stress levels were kept to a minimum, and we had a lot of fun!
Enjoy planning your wedding! And if you can: bring the deadline to complete everything a week forward, it’ll be well worth it!
I’d love to know your number one piece of wedding advice!
Happy Planning!
Grace x
