Tips for Reducing Wedding Planning Stress

While it’s one of the more exciting processes you’ll go through in your life, wedding planning can also be incredibly stressful. There are so many components of the event to think about, and it can all begin to feel like too much if you don’t take steps to ease the pressure you’ve put on yourself. To help you maintain your status as everyone’s favorite bride, here are a few tips for reducing your stress levels as you plan your wedding.

Make the Process Fun

It’s all too easy to look at your to-do list and immediately become overwhelmed by it. Wedding planning can be a lot of hard work! Lucky for you, though, there are plenty of ways to make the process a lot more enjoyable.

For each major task you have to complete, invite a group of friends or family members over to help you. Put on some upbeat music or a good movie, order pizza, bust out the wine, and tackle your task at a relaxed pace over the course of the evening. Break it up into smaller to-dos, and delegate the completion of different stages of the process to different friends. By dividing the work and putting your plans into action in a relaxed, low-key environment where you can chat and laugh with people you love as you go, you’ll find the process to be a lot less stress-inducing.

Practice Real Self-Care

The idea of “self-care” has become hugely trendy over the last few years, but it’s much more than just putting on a face mask and owning a small mountain of Lush bath bombs. Committing to caring for yourself means making your physical and mental health a top priority, and there are a number of ways in which implementing small changes to better your body and mind can significantly lower the amount of stress you experience.

For starters, to keep your mind, body, and skin clear, make sure you’re staying as hydrated as possible. Take up meditation, yoga, or other forms of gentle exercise to keep yourself in good shape while also bringing yourself inner peace. If, after checking in with yourself emotionally, you feel you could benefit from speaking to a mental health professional, consider looking into options for therapy that you could enroll in so you’re feeling your absolute best by the time your wedding comes around. By taking these kinds of measures while you’re in the midst of wedding planning, you’ll be helping yourself to feel amazing through your nuptials and beyond.

Solidify Your Budget

One of the more stressful parts of planning your wedding is determining how much money you realistically have to work with and then figuring out how to allocate that money properly. There’s no one correct answer for how much money you should put toward your event— it’s all about what you and your spouse-to-be are comfortable with spending, whether it’s coming from out-of-pocket, through a personal loan, or with the assistance of family and friends.

Once you know where the funding for your wedding is coming from, an easy way to keep track of all of your expenses is by setting up an online bank account where you can monitor all of the aspects of your budget in one place. Make sure you’ve established your priorities for the event in the earliest stages of the planning process so that you know your money is being put toward the things you feel will make your wedding day the most special, like hiring your favorite local photographer or decorating your venue with beautiful decor. With your budget solidified and well accounted for, the rest of your planning tasks will feel like a breeze.

Choose a Theme that Excites You

Sure, you can take the classic route and choose a simple color scheme with flowers to match, and the event will no doubt be lovely, but why not have a little more fun with it? Consider taking a more unorthodox route, and choose a theme that better reflects you and your spouse-to-be’s personalities and interests. Is there a fandom that led the two of you to fall deeper in love? Are you die-hard fans of a particular band? Is Halloween a year-round affair in your household?

By choosing a theme for your wedding that you feel passionately about, you’ll be taking a lot of the stress out of the prep work. If it’s something that you love deeply and excites you when you think about it, it won’t feel like work at all. When the big day finally arrives and you’re able to see that aspect of your life reflected in the bookings and decorations you’ve chosen, the event will feel all the more personal and meaningful for you and your loved ones.

Let Go

As much as you want your plan for your special day to be executed flawlessly, it’s important that you accept the fact that something can and likely will go wrong over the course of the event. There’s no point in stressing over things that aren’t within your control— every wedding has its mishaps, and the best thing you can do for yourself is to let go of your need to see to every detail and just enjoy the day for however it unfolds. You want the memory of your wedding day to be filled with joy, positivity, and love, so make those things your most important focus rather than worrying over things that ultimately won’t matter once the event comes to an end.