It’s no surprise that planning a wedding can be extremely stressful and emotional. There are so many things that go into planning a wedding, such as creating a budget, trying to navigate the budget while inviting all the people you love, and it can also bring family issues up to the surface. A wedding is the beginning of your new life together with your husband or wife, and keeping the entire process as stress free as possible will help ensure you make it to your wedding day still together! Don’t let the stress of wedding planning get to you. Here are my top 4 tips for keeping wedding planning stress free.
1. Create a Realistic Budget
You may be surprised to learn how much weddings cost, with the average wedding in the USA costing around $28,000. Considering it’s quite one day of your life, that’s a huge expense. Only you and your partner know how much you can comfortably afford to spend on your wedding. Creating a realistic budget will allow you to feel confident in how much you will spend on things like product photography studios and to ensure that you’re not putting financial strain on your relationship to afford something that you simply cannot afford. There’s no sense going into credit card debt for your wedding – you don’t want to start your new life off together in this way. Once you’ve got your budget sorted, it’s time to create your own save the date so you can have people lock in your date.
2. Figure Out Your Non-Negotiables
You’ll want to sit down with your partner and to decide what aspects of your wedding you can’t compromise. There may be some things that are really important to you, such as a certain music group playing, beautiful save the date postcards, or your favorite wedding photographers. Choose some things which feel to be non-negotiables, and that will allow you to see what things you can change in order to maybe save a little money. Every person will have different priorities for their wedding, so being really clear with your partner about what’s important to you, will help ensure you’re united moving forward.
3. Keep Some Perspective
While your wedding is an important occasion and likely the biggest party you’ll ever throw, it’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is the marriage you’re creating, and how that will grow throughout the years. There’s a good chance something or some things will go wrong on your wedding day, but when you focus on what’s truly important – creating a new beginning with your love – the things that happen will be much easier to manage and get past, because they’re not the most important thing.
4. Ask for Help
If it’s within your budget, always hire a wedding planner! Planning a wedding can, at times, feel like a full time job. Having a planner to help you with this task will take so much pressure off you and your partner. If that’s not in your budget, consider a day planner to at least handle the actual event so you can relax and enjoy it. Be prepared to ask friends and family members to help, especially if you’re trying to do a low cost wedding. Having an extra set of hands can make a huge difference as to how much you get and how fast. Some friends and family may also like to contribute to your wedding in lieu of gifts, such as buying your cake or contributing to the decoration. This can be a substantial help that will reduce the financial and organizational pressure of hosting a wedding.
Wedding planning can be extremely stressful, but I hope these four tips help you feel more relaxed about the process and help you enjoy the process.