Wedding Planning Overwhelm! How to avoid and give you some 'Bride' time

We see the signs time and time again, a beautiful bride to be walks into Caroline Castigliano’s and she has that flustered, over heated, tense look about her. Her shoulders are hunched, perhaps she’s carrying a LOT of bags, she’s probably late…let’s be honest- it’s not a good look….for anyone!

Worst of all, trying on and choosing your wedding dress is supposed to be a beautiful, magical and special time for you, so you don’t want it ruined because of wedding planning overwhelm and stress. So today we thought we’d give you our top tips to avoid wedding panning stress:

• Give yourselves time…and use it wisely.  After your engagement, you shouldn’t feel immediate pressure to start hunting for the exact date of your wedding.  Give yourselves time to enjoy what has just occurred.  But at the same time, start thinking about the time of year and all of the general things, such as the type of wedding and reception you’d like to have, where, and so forth.  Once you’ve eased into the mindset of thinking about planning for your special day, you’ll know that setting your wedding date is only the first step. Set a date that is far enough in the future to give you time to reasonably accomplish all the tasks you’ll have to get through, depending on how ambitious your wedding will be in terms of the size and scale of the celebration. Often brides can be so keen to get down the aisle that they compromise on the time they need to give themselves to enjoy the whole wedding planning process.

• Make a schedule and stick to it. Buy an old-fashioned planner, put a giant calendar on your wall, or sync your online calendar and smart phone with you fiancé’s.  Be honest with yourself about what type of organisation would really work for the both of you to keep on track (which may be two different methods entirely.)  If you’re not going to use it, then it’s not going to work. Make a choice early on and let it carry you all the way through your wedding preparations. Remember though, you need to ensure you’re fiancé is included in this part of the decision making process, you need to ensure you’re giving him enough time to make decisions and be involved, because when it DOES come time to include him down the line and he procrastinates (because he’s been out of the loop) it will just add to your overwhelm further.

• Set a timeline for success.  Once you have the method for scheduling your tasks, then the real work of setting a timeline with specific deadlines for the things you want to get accomplished (when you want to start your search for the best wedding venue for you and when you want to have your decision for the wedding reception made; the same for picking a wedding photographer, florist, invitations, and everything down the line.)

• Make the time. This doesn’t mean sitting in bed in the middle of the night with only the glow of your laptop from your Internet searches keeping you awake, because you just didn’t have time throughout the day. We want to see you well-rested and energised. Your wedding is as important as many of the other demands on your time. Give it the value it deserves and try to prioritise where possible. Treat your wedding planning as you would any other important appointment or priority.  Make appointments for yourself. Set aside a particular day of the week, block out hours out the day, and so on.

• Divide and conquer. This sounds easy, but is often where things fall through the cracks, when there isn’t clarity about who is supposed to do what when. Agree between each other on a division of tasks and those you’ll do together, and be specific.  Like all things, it should be a mutual decision; if there’s agreement, then it’s more likely to get accomplished quicker and there’ll be fewer ‘balls’ dropped down the line.

• Keep a paper trail.  Anything that happens throughout the day that you just don’t have time to address at the moment, try to find a universal place to keep the information. An idea you had, a name or number someone passed on to you. A call you got from a vendor while you were in your car. Spend the extra second to jot it down in your planner or email a note to yourself, just so you don’t forget or have to scramble to find the information when you need it.  The same goes for the more important documents. Contracts you need to sign. Written requests to make. Orders to submit.  Try to act upon them as they happen and make the extra effort to file them away as you go, so that one piece of paper you need isn’t suddenly nowhere to be found.

Most importantly- remember to breathe and to keep it all in perspective, this is ALL for your special day, all the work, the hours, the time, the decisions- you’re doing it so that you and your fiancé (and loved ones) have a truly magical day. When you look back in years to come, you’ll be so happy that you took the time to get organised.