The Happiest Day of My Life
Something I’ve learning in the past 8 months of planning my own wedding: planning the happiest day of your life includes experiencing some of the most stressful days of your life.
My Top 5 Tips to Avoid Stress:
1. Create an online registry.
This is something that I had not done, but I encourage you to do. Creating a registry isn’t rude, and you aren’t selfish for creating one. I’ve learned that having an online registry available for your guests is actually helping them. HELPING THEM. Sounds crazy, huh? Well, it isn’t. This will help your guests figure out what to buy you, without having to ask you, and without having to worry if anyone else is going to buy you the same thing. They are less stressed trying to find the best gift, and you don’t get three toasters.
2. Start planning and buying ASAP.
Honestly, I started filling a Pinterest board with certain ideas, looks, color themes, and dresses for at least a year before we got engaged (maybe I’m a bit crazy). Keanu and I have been dating for 4 years now, and we had talked about marriage for a year. Once it came up as something closer to a reality than a dream, I started creating in my mind my perfect wedding. This small step made a huge impact on the planning process, because I knew what I wanted. I had a vision to strive for, I had an end result in mind and it caused me to feel motivated and at ease as I began ordering the little elements immediately after becoming an engaged woman.
3. Set small goals and deadlines.
Through this process, you have to be aware of the type of planner you are. I knew that I had to get as much done before I hit the 2 months left mark because once those last two months came, I completely froze. I didn’t want to do anything. I felt the weight of the entire wedding fall upon me and I hid from the world. Thankfully enough, I was prepared. I was a lot further ahead than I thought I was. So that one month that I spent not making any progress on wedding prep, didn’t have a huge impact on the end result.
4. Talk about your progress.
This may sound a little silly, but honestly this helps me feel at ease every time I do this. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I always feel like I’m not prepared or like I’ve forgotten something when planning a trip or event. However, I’ve found that telling someone about all of the things I have, what’s in line, and what’s on the way, I realize that I’m more prepared than I feel. Then suddenly, the weight isn’t crushing me anymore and I walk in the confidence that I can do this (AND YOU CAN TOO!).
5. Appoint one person to be in charge on the day of.
I’ve spent the past 8 months planning my own wedding (sort of) alone, and it’s been fine. A lot of the help you’ll need from other people won’t come until the last three weeks before the big day, but you definitely need to have that one person that knows exactly what you want for decorations. As the bride, you won’t have time to decorate, or see the decorations, until after the ceremony. So, someone needs to represent you on that day as things are put into place, and you need to relax, let go of all stress, and focus on becoming a married woman.
