Everyone soon to be engaged has this idea in their heads of what wedding planning will be like. It’s supposed to be a happy and fun time, right? In reality, wedding planning is uncharted territory for most people, and it can be an overwhelming time full of anticipation. It’s easy to let the wedding planning stress put a damper on this exciting season of life. That doesn’t have to be the case if you don’t let it. Take these few pieces of advice for joyful wedding planning.
This is not one of those articles telling you to cut out the flowers, skimp on the decorations, or buy a second-hand wedding dress because the guests only care about the food, drinks, and music. Let’s face it, those are all pretty dang important details to most brides. While I fully believe the reception is intended to be for the guests, as long as you have created a fun and hospitable evening for them the rest can be about the bride and groom!
Some brides care more about their dress, and some care more about the food. Wherever your priorities are, stick to them! Afterwards, you might realize you could have gone without those embroidered cloth napkins, but honey, if that’s the thing that makes your heart happy (and it’s in budget) then go for it! With that being said, don’t let yourself get hung up on tiny decisions like whether those napkins should be ivory or light gold. That decision will not make or break the wedding.
Don’t ever feel like your wedding has to be a certain way. Just like you shouldn’t let someone convince you the cake isn’t important, don’t ever think you have to do something a certain way just because that’s how someone else did it. Quit comparing your wedding to other weddings.
It is not a competition!
I am so guilty of this. There were tons of other girls getting married around when I was, and it was hard not to look at the weddings before mine and wonder if mine would be as pretty or as fun. It is easy to fall into the comparison trap.
“Comparison is the thief of joy.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Guess what. The only people comparing weddings are the brides stressing about their own.
Here’s the secret, be yourselves! As long as the bride and groom are genuine and your wedding reflects the two of you, your guests will enjoy themselves. They are there because they love you, and they will be able to feel the love you have put into it.
When you are feeling the wedding planning stress, take a deep breath and remind yourself why you’re even doing this. You are about to start your life with the person you love. Now, that is something to be joyful about!
You can plan, stress, and tweak the details until the day before, but once the day comes, accept the fact that you have to let go. That may be hard for some brides (me, for one!). Trust that the people you have hired or assigned to jobs will do what you’ve asked. And if something doesn’t go as planned (and it probably won’t), laugh it off!
When your wedding day arrives, the most important thing is that you enjoy it and be present! It goes be incredibly fast. So, constantly remind yourself to take it all in because you spent months, maybe even years, planning that one day. Enjoy every minute of it.