From the moment you get engaged there will be friends, family, and some strangers asking you endless details about setting the date, where you’ll say “I do,” and what you’ll be wearing. Suddenly, your dream wedding Pinterest board is full of real possibilities and you’ll need to narrow it down, sooner than you first realized. Whether you’ve dreamt your whole life of planning your wedding or never wanted to, it’s easy to start feeling overwhelmed. There’s also a huge expectation that your engagement should be the happiest year or so of your lifetime, but sometimes it’s not, and how do you get through those emotions?
Here are a few suggestions on how to get in front of that overwhelmed feeling and plan your dream day.
Create a budget.
I know you’ve heard this one before, but have you done it? Creating a budget, especially a digital one where you can easily move funds around, eliminates confusion. It makes it easy to account for where your money is going and you can know instantly whether or not you can afford those extra special shoes you’ve been eyeing. Budgets allow your vendors to create the version of your dream event that is affordable for you and you should never be afraid to be up front with what you can afford. Here’s a helpful budgeting tool to try.
Ask for help.
Don’t be afraid to ask your fiancé(e), your bridesmaids, and your family to help you with the tasks that are daunting you. There’s nothing wrong with not wanting to address 300 wedding invitations on your own, so invite a couple of your girls with great handwriting over for brunch and invitation writing; they’ll be happy to help! If you are overwhelmed by a lack of time, or you don’t have a group of friends locally that can help you, see if it works with your budget to outsource a task like invitation mailing to your stationer or wedding planner. Often times, we can add this service to your existing package and make your life that much easier.
Don’t Procrastinate.
When your wedding date is nine months away, it feels like you can totally put off tasks for a month or two, but eventually all of those tasks can pile up into an overwhelming mess. If you are a 7th & C. couple, you have our comprehensive timeline that is customized for your engagement period, and trust us, there’s a reason why so many tasks can be checked off early in the planning process. Wedding planning tasks tend to build off of one another so when you push off a task, it can potentially hold up the process for yourself as well as your wedding vendors. Turn on some reruns of The Office and get those items checked off!
Pinterest-worthy and Instagram-able weddings do not mean perfect.
It is so easy to get lost scrolling through Instagram hashtags and Pinterest boards for hours and hours, but they can also blur your vision of what you really want. We know how hard it is, but try not to compare your wedding to the $250,000 Instagram influencer’s destination wedding day. Pinterest is a wonderful way to create a mood board for your wedding, but once you nail down an aesthetic, stop shopping. Pinterest is a never-ending source of inspiration and you’ll never be happy if you keep scouring for new trends to incorporate into your day until the week before.
Acceptance with reasonable expectations
Eventually, you will have to let go of a few things and trust the decisions you’ve made and that you will have an incredible wedding day. There are things out of your control, and neither you nor your wedding planner can ensure the rain holds out for your wedding vows. Your family will still be your family even all dressed up at your wedding, and they won’t magically turn into the perfect TV-casted wedding party. Remember, that your wedding day is about you and your fiancé(e) and the lifetime of happiness you are starting together.
While there are so many emotions throughout the wedding planning process, it’s so important to keep your eye on the end prize, and remember why you are on this journey together. The marriage you are starting will be well worth the stress of building your wedding day.
Are you in the beginning stages of planning your dream wedding in the Greater Seattle Area? I’d love to help. Click contact now, and let’s get started.