When it comes to planning your own wedding, it’s easy to start to feel a little out of your depth. Most of us tend to get a bit overwhelmed, and staying organised sounds a lot easier than it is. We’ve chatted to the experts – wedding planners! – and they’ve offered some really practical ways you can stay organised AND avoid feeling overwhelmed with this whole wedding planning thing.
Getting organised…
Couples who are planning their wedding themselves, possibly with the help of a friend are often lost and try to compensate their inexperience in wedding planning with an overload on ideas, photos, mood books, notes, etc, resulting in an even more disorganised and subsequently stressful period. – Costa Blanca | View Profile
For “old school” people my advice is to buy a nice wedding planner diary to write their expenses, estimated and real ones, to save their ideas, photos, images taken from the web and/or from magazines.
For millennials and/or tech-freaks a good idea is to download one wedding app to take under control every single aspect.
Anyway… don’t be too obsessed with deadlines and what parents, friends or relatives will suggest.
Every couple has to keep in mind that their wedding must reflect their own personality not that of other people… So, if they don’t like a traditional style wedding and would opt for something easier like for example a party in the back garden of their house… why not? – Damore Wedding Design | View Profile
As a wedding planner we create a file and a package for each couple and we update this as we go along with photos, images and service provider quotes and details, this will always keep the couple up to date with everything and on hand should they want to refer to anything at any time. So we can do all this for our couples to save their time and energy – we do the admin side of everything and they enjoy the fun side of the day. – Lyndyloo in Spain | View Profile
There are a lot of checklists & planners free to download and these can be very useful. Get yourself a good diary to keep track of venue viewings and supplier meetings etc. – Help Plan My Wedding | View Profile
Both bride and groom should listen in this process 🙂 So, my tip is: write down all the “LIKES” and “DISLIKES” that both bride & groom would like to respect during this journey. Colours they like, colours they do not like… Which things they have in common? Which things make them unique? Personalizing the full process is very important because only, like that, on the wedding day, they will feel that “IT is MY wedding!”. – Mary Me | View Profile
Having a sense of organisation is going to be your best friend when it comes to planning your wedding. That might sound a little scary to some people and if that’s the case, then this is where your wedding planner will come into their own! But being organised will stand to you. Start by getting your guest list sorted first. This is a key element as it will really determine what sort of venue you can go for. There is no point looking at say a stunning, intimate manor house, when you know you’re expecting to have over 350 guests at your wedding and they just will not fit in the venue. – Coordination Made Easy | View Profile
Keep a planner, and if you get confused – just ask us!! We keep careful and detailed notes on everything that has been decided. – Rocks and Roses | View Profile
I would say invest in a good wedding planning folder, book or diary. Even better if it is one that comes with a timeline guide to help keep you on track of what you should be doing and when.
Set yourself an overall budget to work towards and list all the vendors you will require.
When it comes to breaking your budget down figure out what’s most important to you both whether that be amazing photographs, the entertainment on the day or the flowers and decor and ensure you allocate enough portion of your budget to the most important elements.
Be careful not to allocate too much of your overall budget to your venue if you know you are going to want loads of extra decor and flowers etc.
However, if you are happy for the venue to speak for itself and know you will just want some simple florals and decor then allocating a bit more of the budget to the venue can work in this case. – Hollie The Wedding Planner | View Profile
Preventing overwhelm…
Go for a simple, transparent structure, planning and organisation, which connects and is understandable and clear to all involved is key.
Communicate in a clear, understandable way, illustrated if possible, so that you get and keep everyone ‘on board’; venue, catering, vendors, photographers, …
It only works if they all know perfectly what to do, and when to do it.
Don’t assume anything! Check, double check and triple check, from the moment you start planning your wedding, until the end of your wedding day.
If you’re not sure you can do this, or it gives you stress, then the only path to an unforgettable wedding is to hire a professional wedding planner. – Costa Blanca | View Profile
Yes, I have and it is…delegate some tasks to people they fully trust.
Some tasks could be: first contact with wedding venues which meet the wedding couple’s requests, or the first call with caterers, musicians or photographers for first quotations within the budget of the couple.
In addition to this I’d also suggest using some apps downloadable also on mobile phones to check everything in real time and don’t risk forgetting something.
Even in the case of a full DIY wedding, my last suggestion is: hiring a wedding day coordinator. She/he takes care the day of your wedding to coordinate all the suppliers and to solve “last minute” problems, which may occur, allowing the couple to live their most important day without any stress, fully enjoying it, and having time to spend with their guests. – Damore Wedding Design | View Profile
“Don’t get overwhelmed!.” 🙂 Don’t forget to continue with your date on Friday nights, or the cinema on Mondays. It’s important to have other themes to discuss and don’t bore each other with “the wedding theme” all the time. Ask the bridesmaid to help you with the dresses, the decorations, the favors with you and allow your groom to drink a beer with their mates while choosing the DJ and the band. Don’t forget yourselves in the middle of this process. It’s a big day, but it’s YOUR big day. – Mary Me | View Profile
It is common for couples to get overwhelmed during their wedding planning and it’s not hard to understand why. A wedding is a huge event in their lives, it’s going to be something they will have dreamt about for ages, so naturally, they’ll want it to go off without a hitch. That said, most couples have full-time jobs and busy lives and wedding planning can be something they just do not have time for, or they feel it’s getting too much to take on themselves. If that happens, my advice is to stop. Take a breath, call me and remember it is all going to be fantastic! – Coordination Made Easy | View Profile
Put your hands up and ask for help! This might sound simple, but I believe in the power of teamwork! Your wedding day should be one of the most fun and exciting times of your life as a couple and certainly should not be an altogether overwhelming experience.
If you are feeling overwhelm try and figure out why. Is it a case of you are simply juggling too many things? If so can you ask your bridesmaids or families for help and to lessen the workload?
If however you are feeling overwhelmed because your wedding plans are going completely off track and are beginning to look nothing like what you both originally dreamed of, then it’s time to re-evaluate and take back control!
If for example you wanted a small relaxed wedding and all of a sudden it has turned into a huge formal affair full of people you don’t even really know and it makes you uncomfortable or you wanted a destination wedding but your close family and friends didn’t think it was a good idea etc. etc. then it is no wonder you are feeling overwhelmed!
It is your day and important that you do what is right for you as a couple.
If however a couple is feeling really overwhelmed and it is begging to ruin the experience completely I would definitely say hire some professional help.
I have had a several couples come to me at this exact point, where they have either started their planning and perhaps booked a venue and one or two vendors, but have realised that the time is running away from them and that they are not as far along as they should be in their planning and need some quick help, or that they have an idea of what their dream day should look like and have started with one or two aspects but simply feel they cannot seem to pull all their ideas together to make it the magical day they have always wanted. This is where a planner like myself can come to the rescue. – Hollie The Wedding Planner | View Profile
Don’t become overwhelmed with what others want, it’s your day and make sure you remember this, do what you want and don’t be persuaded to change your ideas for someone else. Ask lots of questions and make sure everything is what you want. – Lyndyloo in Spain | View Profile
Starting out on the wedding planning journey can be overwhelming for a lot of couples. I would advise couples to break the planning down into multiple manageable steps. The first step being finding & booking your reception and ceremony venue/venues. After this has been done book one supplier at a time. Start with the band and once booked move on to the photographer, then videographer etc. You will probably be communicating with multiple suppliers in each category so if you try book everything at the one time it may get confusing. – Help Plan My Wedding | View Profile
Take time out to write everything down. Start with the end goal (the wedding) and work back from there, ie what needs to be done a week before, a month before, two months before, etc. By knowing what the goals are and sticking to the time frame, nothing can get out of hand. – Rocks and Roses | View Profile
