When I planned my wedding I was a stress ball case. I wanted everything to be perfect and wanted to please everyone. I had no idea what I was doing and looking back now would do so many things differently now that I have been in the wedding industry. Here are a couple of my tips as well as past brides on tips on how to be less stressed when planning a wedding.

1. Take breaks: Have planning days and days where you go on date nights & just have fun. The more you plan the more the stress might build up so take set days of the week off. Use those dates to eat your favorite food, go see a movie, take a nap or literally just read your favorite book.
2. Delegate: People want to help you, so let them. For my sisters wedding we had a lot of friends of hers that wanted to gift her their speciality (I gifted her photography, her pro chef friend gifted her a cake and so on). If you are having a DIY wedding then ask a group of friends to come over and make a party out of spray painting candlesticks gold or packaging up the thank you gifts. Let your village help you out.
3. Save Money: This is the number one cause of stress is how much money wedding’s are. I say invest in your top 3 vendors (for us it was venue, photographer and food) then on the other things find ways to save money. Rent instead of buy. Find things on sale. Go thrift store shopping and re-make things. Search wedding sites of used wedding decor etc. Brainstorm with your friends. Ask if you can borrow things from their house for decor or from their wedding. You would be surprised how much you save if you borrow things instead of rent/buy. Lastly, take a deep breathe and know this day is about you two and your marriage. Does not need to be perfect but it should represent what you want to do. You cannot please everyone so go for what represents you guys best.

Advice on how to be less stressed while planning from past brides:

“The number one thing I tell girls who are going through the process is to save yourself the true headache/stress and get yourself a wedding planning! I had a wedding coordinator myself which helped, however, the big difference between coordinator and planner is that the coordinator’s main job is to coordinate the day of your wedding. For someone like myself, who had no idea what I was doing and what the right steps were to take were but knew exactly how I envisioned the day, this was not enough. Spend the money, hire a person who’s true passion and goal is to plan from A to Z alongside you and keep you on track. What I regret the most is that the wedding process became a chore and was no longer a fun experience because of all the stresses. These are the best days of your new life, so enjoy them!” -Skirmante

“Have one of your bridesmaids help you throughout the process. Especially the day of. I gave one of my bridesmaids my phone and she answered so many calls & questions that day that would have stressed me out”- Dotti

“Follow your heart. This is your wedding day and the one day you and your spouse will remember for the rest of your life. It’s impossible to please everyone, so just make sure everything is how you dreamed it would be. It’s okay to be a little selfish on your big day. Eloping is not something everyone understands, although we knew it was what we wanted to do. We felt like it would be too much stress on us to do a traditional wedding. Although we had family that did not agree, our wedding day was all about us” -Bree

“Prioritizing a few things we really cared about gave me freedom to not stress over every little detail. We knew what aspects we wanted to put our time/money into, and which things we did not have huge opinions about. For example, I love floral elements but couldn’t care less about types of flowers. So we went with whatever we could find at the local floral mart in our color scheme and did them ourselves knowing they wouldn’t be perfect and that was more than okay with us! We knew we wanted people to have a good time, so a good DJ, food and drinks were our priorities. An an amazing photographer to capture it all!” – Haley

“Trust the recommendations of the pros. We stressed about some aspects of the day but then we talked with our photographer and she explained everything to us. We almost did not do a first look until she said to do one. Hearing what our photographer had to say about how happy people were with their choice to do one made us rethink doing it. It was, I think, the only time my husband and I got to spend alone that day. That is the one thing I will never regret”- Ali

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