Counting down the days to your wedding can quickly become a stressful routine. The pending tasks and responsibilities combined with wedding cold feet can overwhelm anyone. One efficient way of avoiding any last-minute mishaps is by mapping out all stages of your wedding preparations.
Planning a stress-free wedding is definitely possible – you just have to keep the following key factors in mind. Here’s some expert advice on how you can have an exciting yet relaxed wedding day.
10 Ideas for a Stress-Free Wedding
1. Finding a Way to Stay Organized
As soon as you and your significant other decide on a wedding date, it’s time to pick up some beneficial habits that will help you stay organized. Thankfully, websites like The Knot and Wedding Wire makes wedding planning an easy task. Let’s start from the basics.
The Knot vs. Wedding Wire
Both websites provide all the planning resources you could need for your wedding – from building a wedding website to designing invites, RSVP, convenient budgeting tools, and connecting you with various vendors. Here’s a quick comparison to help you decide which website is the one for you.
The Knot
· Extensive gallery of website templates.
· Easy invites and RSVP for guests.
· Budget-friendly vendors.
Wedding Wire
· Ability to choose or customize pre-made website themes.
· Only allows the guests registered on your list to RSVP.
· Suggests local vendors with high customer ratings.
2. Setting a Realistic Budget
The excitement and joy of your big day might make you feel like you have to splurge for your wedding, but the instant gratification of this feeling might leave you with regrets once reality sets in. Always discuss with your partner regarding budget split and who’s paying for what. Setting a budget limit before starting your planning will help you prioritize important features of your wedding. Think you’re crossing over your budget? Simply remove a menu item or cut down on the decorations to control your expenses.
3. Investing In The Wedding Professionals
Hiring family members and friends to work your wedding can help save money. But making them in charge of your wedding preparation and service won’t hold up to a wedding professional.
Family members do this part-time as a hobby. They don’t have the experience to keep a tight ship, so there will be delays in communication and mixups in the preparation, which can be pretty frustrating leading up to the wedding. Plus, they will feel more relaxed on the day of your wedding and often act more like a guest rather than taking care of you and your guests. On the flip side, a professional will have everything under control and make your guests feel welcome while taking care of all your needs as well.
Bottom line, your wedding should never be someone’s hobby, and investing in the wedding professionals will go a long way in making your experience stress-free!
4. Shortlisting Your Vendor Options
Hiring vendors for your wedding requires making a series of calls and relaying your wants and expectations for each service. Wedding planning experts suggest that you limit your vendor inquiries to a minimum of three. Anything more than that, and you’ll be spending your precious time conversing with various vendors instead of taking care of other urgent planning matters.
5. Don’t Lower Your Expectation
While comparing quotes is an excellent way to set a budget and not go over it, you will need to carefully interview each vendor to determine who is the best fit for your big day. As attractive as it may be to book the cheapest option, you have to ask yourself why they are more affordable than others and be Ok with it. After all, you don’t want to spend your days leading up to the wedding worrying if you have hired the right vendor or not. Your wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Go ahead and book the service that makes you feel most comfortable and best fits your budget!
6. Stop Trying to Accommodate Others’ Wishes
You must make peace with the fact that you can’t make everyone happy – and you shouldn’t have to! Your wedding is your special day, and your guests are there to celebrate a new chapter of life for you, not vice versa. People love being nit-picky and gossiping anyway, so even if you have the most fantastic venue, menu, and décor, there’ll be a few grumpy personalities sharing their opinion. Learn to ignore them and focus on making the most of your special day.
7. Don’t Wait to Place a Hold on Your Chosen Vendor
Wedding season leads to a booming business for caterers and other vendors. If you stall holding your first-choice vendor, they’ll be booked and busy before you even realize it. With the popular vendors off-market, all your previous research and inquiries might seem unfruitful. The limited choices can make it a struggle to find someone you can trust for your big day. Therefore, try to book a vendor for your wedding date at the earliest.
8. Get Into A Contract & Read the Fine Print
Written contracts are a great way of giving clear instructions to the venue, vendors, and other services you’re booking. Never be OK with verbal agreements because people tend to forget specific details, and your date could become double booked. Make sure to get into a contract with your vendors, and the service is straightforward and defined to avoid mistakes. Furthermore, if you think there’s a service missing, you can always use the contracts to prove the agreed-upon details.
Alternatively, some venues and vendors have their paperwork requirements, so make sure to give them and read them before signing off any contract!
9. Maintain Strong Communication with Your Vendors
Conveying your expectations and demands to the vendors is extremely important. Failure to do so can lead to misunderstandings and mishaps during the wedding. Don’t leave the planning details for the last minute. Creating a clear plan and to-do lists for each vendor can save you from worrying about your big day.
10. Don’t Micromanage Your Big Day
Weddings make people restless and antsy. You want it to be flawless and according to your fantasies. However, micromanaging every small detail will only wear you out and make you feel exhausted. If you’ve managed to plan a wedding with your trusted vendors and other services, there’s nothing left for you to worry about. Your vendors will coordinate and work with each other so that you can be a guest at your wedding. Your wedding is your day to feel important and valued without stressing out over the hosting responsibilities.
Remember, your wedding day will be over in a flash. So, eat, drink, dance – and make sure you have lots of fun!