If you’re anything like me, then you’ve probably spent a lot of your childhood and teen years thinking about your dream wedding. The perfect dress, a gorgeous venue, beautiful flowers, and the most amazing partner standing by your side -- all the elements to one of the most special days of our lives. However, actually sitting down and planning your wedding can be (and usually is) incredibly stressful. We can easily imagine all the perfect elements of our wedding, but actually planning out those parts can take up a lot of our time and focus. Juggling our full-time jobs and personal responsibilities all while planning our wedding can take a toll on our mental health. It’s easy to forget to take care of ourselves, especially when it feels like we don’t have the time to. That’s why we’ve created our top 10 tips to help you reduce your wedding-planning stress, so you can breathe easy as your wedding day gets closer.

Prioritize

With so many different elements to planning a wedding, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Although we feel as though every part of our wedding is important, we have to remind ourselves that certain tasks should take more of a priority than others, such as selecting a wedding date and reserving a venue. Take a deep breath; you have time to finish everything before your wedding. Prioritizing your most important tasks also helps you plan accordingly. Instead of spending hours and hours on everything at once, we can take a bit of time each day to plan out a few tasks every day, which can help open up your schedule for some much-needed relaxation.

Put Together a To-Do List

You can think of your wedding to-do list as your game plan for each day. Without one, it can be easy to forget certain tasks or get distracted by other responsibilities. It also feels great crossing out each individual item as you complete them. Along with a to-do list, consider making a “done” list, which can help you see all the progress you’ve been making as you move along the wedding-planning process.

Don’t be Afraid to Delegate Tasks

As you start planning your wedding, you may be realizing that you might not be able to handle all your tasks by yourself. And that’s completely okay! Just because it’s your wedding, doesn’t mean you have to complete everything by yourself. Although it can feel stressful delegating your tasks to friends and family (especially if you’re the type of person who likes to get things done by yourself); however, handling all your duties without help could lead to exhaustion. There’s a lot of things to get done, and your friends and family want you to have the best wedding possible. They will gladly help you as you prepare for your perfect wedding day.

Avoid Comparing Your Wedding to Others

Social media apps like Instagram and Tiktok are great places for inspiration for your own wedding. However, seeing tons of glamorous wedding pictures can make us feel pressured to do more than we have to or even want to. These posts can make us feel as though our own wedding might not be “good enough” without certain elements. However, we have to remind ourselves that social media is just social media. Our wedding, on the other hand, should be all about us and our preferences. There’s no need to compare because everyone has different tastes. It’s important to remember that we should only be focusing on what we want for our wedding, not what other people have for their own.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

If you’re a perfectionist, then you may not like what I’m about to tell you. No matter how hard we try to make things “perfect” for our wedding day, everything might not go as planned. Although we try to ensure that nothing goes wrong, we will most likely experience a few hiccups, especially while wedding planning. And that’s okay! Once your wedding has come and gone, you’re not going to remember the little things, like not getting the flowers you originally wanted. Whenever we nitpick the small things, we get more overwhelmed. Remember that your wedding is all about love and celebration; even if everything isn’t “perfect,” you can still have your perfect wedding.

Consider Hiring a Wedding Planner

With the right wedding planner, wedding planning could feel like a breeze. It’s their job to help you with all the things you might be confused about or not know how to handle. They’ve done hundreds, if not thousands of weddings before, and they have experience in all kinds of situations, good or bad. They can help alleviate some of your stress, leaving you with more time to handle other responsibilities and take care of yourself. If you don’t have the budget for a full wedding planner, day-of coordinators can also take a lot of stress off your shoulders on your actual wedding day.

Stay Active

Most of us have heard that staying active can help us mentally, emotionally, and physically, and this fact remains true with wedding planning. Working out, going for a walk, and yoga are great ways to get our minds off the wedding-day stress and help us keep in tune with ourselves and our bodies. It’s also a great way to take some time off from planning and to maintain our physical and mental health when we need it most.

Think of the Bigger Picture

With all the wedding planning tasks, it’s easy to become too concerned with the little things. Remember, your wedding is all about you and your partner’s love for each other. At the end of the day, it won’t matter what center pieces you have or what font your wedding invitations are; what matters is your love for each other and the friends and family who want to celebrate this love with you.

Credit: Sam and Steve Documentary Photographers

Your wedding is most likely going to be one of the most memorable days of your life, but that doesn’t mean it has to be the most stressful one. Take a deep breath, embrace the chaos, relish the journey, and savor every moment leading up to your special day. By implementing these tips, you've not only crafted a smoother planning process but also paved the way for a more relaxed and enjoyable wedding experience.

If you want to read more wedding-day tips and tricks, or if you want to learn about our South Asian bridal hair and makeup services, visit the rest of our website at cinderellabridez.com. Or if you want to learn about our CEO’s experiences as a business owner, check out her website at barbiepatel.com!

8 Tips to Reduce Wedding-Planning Stress