Cool, Calm and Collected: Staying Stress Free Planning your Wedding
So he/she put a ring on it? Firstly, Congratulations! Weddings are an exciting time for you and everyone involved, but planning it can also be seriously stressful. There’s wedding dresses, venues, accessories, menus and guest lists galore. It can be enough for even the calmest, yoga-doing, meditation-obsessed bride to feel under pressure. Luckily, we have compiled a few tips and tricks to help you keep your cool. Making sure nothing gets in the way of the best day of your life.
Start planning as early as possible.
Begin with Inspiration boards.
Make a binder or folder of magazine clippings, printouts and pictures to use as inspiration.
Sit down and make a to-do list in order of personal priority with a timeline.
List in months. At the top 9+ months, then 8 months, 7 months, and so on. Putting pen to paper can help straighten out all the craziness of planning. There is additionally great online resources that can help with the planning process.
Even for those whose weddings may be two years away, time can quickly turn into your number one enemy.
Soon after your engagement, check if there are any bridal shows and expos coming up and make sure you attend them. Bridal expos are the perfect place for recently-engaged brides because everything is under the one roof. From venues to invitation designers, you can start to develop a solid conception of what you do and don’t like as well as connect with potential vendors.
Book a day out of gown try-ons.
At Belle et Blanc Bridal, we normally require a period of 6-8 months for the creation of a made to measure gown. It’s important to try on gowns as early as possible and get an idea of what styles you love so your gown designer can have as much time as possible to create the dress of your dreams! Take along your family and friends for verbal encouragement and extra opinions for those who know you best and make a day of it.
Once your date is chosen, research and visit potential venues.
Chances are, your wedding date could fall during a popular time, and venues you may love could book out if you leave it too late. If you are using a wedding planner, take them along with you or ask them to assist in liaising with the venue, they will ask all the hard hitting questions and make sure no stone goes unturned!
Surround yourself with positive people.
The time old phrase blood is thicker than water may be applicable in some aspects, but if your Auntie May is bearable in five minute increments only, it may be best to keep her at an (very long) arms length. Encouraging, positive and easygoing friends and family will keep you grounded and calm. Keep overly critical friends and sour faced relatives firmly away and choose people to be in your bridal party that make you genuinely happy and put stressful thoughts at the very back of your mind.
Remember your fiance.
This may seem like a silly tip, but it can be all too easy to be swept up in the whirlwind of wedding planning and put taking non-wedding related time out with your beau on the backburner. Remember, stress breeds stress, and a stressed bride and groom can make for tense situations. Take the time to put down the planning for a day or so, and spend time doing things you genuinely enjoy with the one you genuinely enjoy. Also, don’t automatically think that you bear the brunt of the planning. Teamwork makes the dream work, it should be a collaborative process, so take them with you every step of the way (except for the gown!). That way you can bounce ideas off one another, avoid confusion and arguments, and ultimately create a wedding that, at its essence, highlights your special bond.
Put yourself first.
Your wedding is your day. You shouldn’t be swayed by other people’s opinions. If you love the dress, buy it. Don’t want a big wedding? Don’t do it. Trying to make other people happy and conforming to their expectations won’t end in happiness. Learn how to say no. Take advice graciously and make sure people feel their ideas are being acknowledged, but at the end of the day, it’s your wedding. Stay true to what you want and ultimately, if you are happy and stress-free, it will rub off on everyone around you. Happy wife, happy life!
Observe the 10% rule with your budget.
Most likely, you and your partner will make a budget and decide how much you want to spend on different aspects of your wedding. However, ensure you make a budget that is informed and based on the real cost of everything. Do your research, contact a few different vendors to get ballpark figures of what things cost around your area and talk to friends and family who are married on how much they spent on what. It may be awkward, but awkward is better than constant nasty surprises and knocks to your budget throughout your planning. Figure out how much you can afford to spend, and discuss if/how parents or family members may be able to contribute. From there, you can create a realistic budget. Round everything up by 10% minimum and also factor in things like thankyou notes and gifts, and tips.
Delegate!
So your pinterest board is bursting at the seams with cute DIY favours and decorations that you have deemed do-able. However, in the last few weeks leading up to the wedding, stress levels reach their peak, and you can suddenly feel as if you have a mountain of things to do. This is where your A-team comes in. Assemble a group of reliable people and delegate achievable tasks for each to do. Suddenly, it’s less of a mountain, and more of a ‘my god I’m so excited’ for your big day. It’s imperative to remember that you can’t, and shouldn’t, do it alone.
Address thank-you notes and organise thank-you gifts ahead of time.
You will be exhausted when the day is finished. Months and months of planning and excitement have culminated in one big, magical day. The last thing you will want to do is make more work for yourself by making and writing thank-you notes and organising thank-you gifts when you thought you were well past the hysteria of planning. Do it before the wedding. Spend a night sitting down and writing them a few months before, and booking flowers etc. around the same time.
Preempt everything
Pre-empt any frantic day-of phone calls from vendors by handing them a sheet with contact numbers and essential information. Additionally, assign a trustworthy friend as a keepsake collector. Chances are you’ll be too swept up in the madness of the day to remember to save menu, party favours etc to look back on in the future. It can also be hard on the day trying to wrangle people into photographs. So assign someone to wrangle them for you. you can save so much stress by pre-empting details you didn’t even know existed.
Make a mantra
Don’t make it complicated. Create a simple phrase to repeat mentally (or verbally) when you feel overwhelmed and stressed. Find a solitary spot, close your eyes and breathe in thinking calming thoughts.” Mantras like this can help you find your calm, even in the craziest of times.
Remember what’s important
It’s all too easy to stress and lose sleep over the most minute of details. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if the napkins are Ivory instead of Antique White. All that matters is you’re committing yourself to spending the rest of your life with the one you love most. In twenty years time, nobody will remember the tiny intricacies you spent countless hours stressing over, but will definitely remember the amazing bond you and your beau have.
