5 ways to make wedding planning stress free

Two days ago my little brother married his best friend, V – you might remember her from my DIY Paper Pinwheel post. Their wedding went extremely well! I especially enjoyed the ceremony that was performed by the bride’s cousin with a bit added from my sister; it was meaningful, personal and spoke directly to the love and friendship between my brother and V. To have this kind of day (basically a perfect wedding!)… well, there is a lot of planning, negotiating and preparation involved. I was happy to help the newlyweds throughout the planning process, but ultimately they put a lot of energy into the planning of their wedding. It was obvious two days ago – the decorations, food, photographers, cake, etc. were all excellent and exactly what the couple had envisioned.

Planning our wedding (Me and the Mr.’s wedding that is) was a fabulous experience. Although I never want to get married again, I enjoyed everything about the entire process. I have planned events nearly my entire life – helping my mom plan Ice Shows, helping with theatre productions at school, helping with safe-grad and other graduations related events such as prom and then in later years planning all kinds of events in University such as Commerce Society Dinners, Career Fairs, Etiquette Dinners, etc. and now planning events for my job such as conferences, golf tournaments, etc. Planning “my” wedding was the ultimate event to plan because I didn’t have to consult with others, I didn’t have to get budgets approved and it didn’t matter if I was the only person who loved the centrepieces. Side Note: The Mr. is one of the most easy going people on the planet. He was happy to not have the burden of making any of these choices and was thrilled to let me run with everything. And yes, I know it was OUR wedding!

All of that said, planning any event can become overwhelming, stressful and down right annoying. The week before hosting any event brings out questions from everyone and can make you into a crazy person worrying about the smallest of details. To try and help out all the future brides and grooms here are my top 5 ways to make wedding planning stress free:

1. Limit outside opinions – as my dad always said, “opinions are like a**holes… everyone has one”. For some reason everyone in your life will feel the need to give you their opinion for YOUR wedding. I am guilty of doing this as well, so don’t feel bad if you are that person. But, as the couple getting married, do your absolute best to take the opinions you want to use and leave those that you don’t. In the end, all of your friends and family members want you to be happy and will not care if you chose their favourite color, cake flavour, etc. Which leads me to my next point…

2. Remember what is important (TO YOU!) – the goal of the day is to get married. You can accomplish this in a church, at a golf course, in your backyard or really anywhere you choose. Ultimately you will be faced with many choices and decisions throughout the wedding planning process. Some things will mean more to you than others, but try to keep your head on straight and remember what is important to you, not your maid of honour, mom or mother-in-law (the list goes on here…).

3. Get the big things done early (photographer, location, decorator, caterer, etc.) and do your best to limit vendors where possible. For example, if the decorator can double as the florist and the location can double as the caterer, save yourself the hassle of adding another person in your contact list and double up their duties.

4. Stay organized – you will talk to many different vendors and have many options going through your mind. Do your best to keep everything organized and in one place. As a lover of excel spreadsheets (don’t judge me…) I would suggest using this method, however as long as you keep all of the information together so you can easily access everything you will be well served to make stressful planning days a lot less stressful in the days ahead. My maid of honour bought me a version of this wedding planning binder that I used to keep all of my paper stuff together and get ideas; it also worked like a charm to stay organized!

5. Have a budget and stick to it – I would suggest creating a draft budget for your wedding (of course, I would choose to do this by creating an excel spreadsheet) and to be VERY comfortable with the grand total. You are about to start your lives together as a married couple and there is absolutely no need to start this new chapter in your life with the stress of debt or money issues. It will be tempting as you plan your day to pay for all kinds of little things that will make your day perfect. Keep your budget in mind so that your choices make your day perfect without having a financial burden afterwards to cause a new stress.

I sincerely hope this has been helpful and invite you to share this post on social media if you think it can help others as well.

My shoes for that: My wedding shoes – Badgley Mischka silver heels (photographed by Philippe Dumas Photography, photographer from our wedding and my brother’s wedding) These shoes are no longer available, however there are a few options similar and by the same designer I would recommend – Poloma d’Orsay Pump, Sari II Dress Pump and Jennifer d’Orsay Pump.