A wedding planning survival guide for couples who want a fuss free wedding
If you’re typical of my couples you’re probably going to breeze through your wedding planning. Most seem to take it all in their stride and have a pretty laid back time of it, which is mostly because they don’t get sucked into a lot of ‘wedding industry stuff’. That’s good because the wedding industry loves to tell you about what you SHOULD be doing. Most of my couple would plan a wedding that reflects them as people.
Even if you’re planning a really laid back wedding there can still be pressure points. Planning a wedding if you have nothing to do but plan a wedding is probably fine. Throw in life, work and managing family relationships and there are definitely a few opportunities for stress reduction! Here’s my wedding planning survival guide.
Have a clear wedding plan
It might sound obvious but sometimes the obvious is worth stating. If you have an idea of where you’re heading and how to get there it’ll help with every aspect of the decision-making process. Download a free wedding planning checklist or five and off you go.
People laugh at the cliched wedding excel spreadsheets but it’s really easy for budgets to spiral out of control. Stick your to-do list on Trello, start an inspiration board on Pinterest and make sure you have a clear idea of your budget priorities so you can focus on what’s really important to you.
You can find loads of advice about wedding planning and especially wedding planning in relation to photography in my planning guide.
Make the big wedding planing decisions on your own
It’s inevitable that people will have opinions and expectations. If you’re planning a non-traditional wedding you might have to present a united front while you explain your decisions.
The truth is that often other people, like parents for example, are as emotionally invested in the day as you are. Work out what’s important to you and why. Understand your reasons for making the decisions you’ve made and then explain why they’re important to you and if all else fails give your nearest and dearest some specific wedding planning jobs to keep them occupied!
Step away from the wedding planing inspiration
Wedding planning can easily lead to overwhelm. From the venue to the band, from the flowers to the cake; and, you know, picking an awesome wedding photographer, it’s easy to get a bit lost in all of the available options.
Once you have a plan for any styling and aesthetics it’s a great idea to step away from Pinterest, wedding blogs and magazines. Falling into the trap where you’re tempted by everything you see is a surefire way to quickly max out your budget! It’s really easy to reach saturation point with wedding inspiration too. Do yourself a favour and use inspiration based resources sparingly.
Delegate, delegate, delegate
Delegation is especially wonderful if you have family members who really want to be involved and who have strong opinions. Send them off with a time-consuming project to get their teeth into!
If you’re DIYing elements of the wedding think about having a craft party. Ply your friends with booze and snacks and get them to help you.
Allocate budget for a wedding planner. They can help with styling, logistics, supplier sourcing, budget management and a whole load of other tasks. Having a planner will allow you to get on with enjoying your day. Services range from full planning to styling consultancy and working with a planner will pay for itself in terms of the time you’ll recoup. It’ll also mean you can have a stress free wedding day as your wedding planner can manage all of the logistics for you. Some of my favourites are The Bijou Bride, Always Andri and Knot and Pop
Don’t forget to enjoy being engaged
Have a wedding chat embargo in place for date nights. Focus on each other outside of the wedding planning stuff. Being engaged is a special time and you should definitely take some time to enjoy it!
Remember this is about a marriage, not just a wedding
Your wedding is one day. It’ll probably be a brilliant day that marks the start of the rest of your lives together. You’ll have a fun day where you get to hang out with all of your favourite people. It’ll probably be an emotional day or even a stressful day.
Whatever kind of day it is it’s just one day and that one day is not the reason you’re doing this. The reason you’re doing this is to have a marriage, not a wedding. If you hold on to that thought it makes any wedding planning related storms easier to weather.
I hope this wedding planning survival guide is useful. Leave a comment below with your wedding planning survival tips! If you’d like to chat about working with me as your wedding photographer get in touch here.
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