Planning a wedding is hard work. If you think about it, planning your wedding is essentially planning the biggest party you will ever throw. Party planning takes a lot of organization, foresight, and patience; a wedding is no different. As you get closer and closer to the big day, you may find your stress level increasing at an alarming rate. After all, there is so much to do, so many decisions to make, so many boxes to check. It’s probably impossible to remove stress entirely from the occasion, but it is possible to reduce it significantly. There are three steps every bride and groom should take to make sure planning their wedding is joyous, not hellish.
Step 1: Accept Imperfection
It can be tempting to fall into the trap idea that your wedding needs to be flawless. The truth is no wedding is flawless. Weddings are large, unwieldy things, and it is important to your sanity and your happiness that you recognize not everything is within your control. There will be situations and problems that you cannot account or plan for. There will be bad weather, dropped cakes, torn dresses, grumpy bridesmaids, etc. The moment you accept the imperfections and roll with the punches is the moment you will feel that premarital stress fall from your shoulders.
Step 2: Ask for and Accept Help
Weddings are an exciting time for friends and family of the bride and groom. You will get many offers for assistance. Do not turn these offers down! Most of the time, people are not offering help to be polite, they are offering help because they genuinely want to be a part of your big day. Take your friends and family up on their kind offers. Your stress level and task list will be reduced, which will allow you to relax and enjoy your engagement. Weddings are in many ways a communal affair. Enjoy that aspect of the planning to its fullest.
Step 3: Remember What’s Important
This is the most important step by far, so pay attention: you are not getting married to have a wedding; you are getting married to have a marriage. In the expanse and life of a marriage, the wedding is but one small moment—a blip on the large picture. Remember that your priority and focus should be on the commitment you are making to a person you love and who loves you. Your wedding might not be fairy tale; it might be chaotic or messy or anything else, but you will still get married to that special someone at the end of the day, and that is what the whole thing is really about. Be grateful for the chance to spend such a special day with your friends and family and you will find yourself a relaxed, happy bride.
Weddings are tough. It’s so easily to get caught up in the planning and the stressing and the buying and politics, but remember that the way in which you approach wedding planning—that is, your overall attitude and expectation—determines your enjoyment of the process.