Planning a wedding is no small or easy task. It’s hard not to sweat the small stuff when even the tiniest of details seem like it could make or break the big day. Given that, it’s understandable that wedding planning is a stressful venture for most brides and grooms.
Unfortunately, planning a big event is a task riddled with pitfalls and traps, and many people make their wedding planning unduly stressful by making mistakes like the ones on this list.
Avoid these mistakes, and planning your wedding will be a whole lot simpler!
4. Starting with the Wrong Task
There’s a lot to be done, and admittedly, some tasks are much more fun than others. One of the tasks that couples tend to avoid is settling the guest list. But this is the all-important task—without guests, are you really having a wedding?
Some couples jump the gun and start booking venues or making menu decisions before they’ve settled the invites. If you don’t know who you’ve invited—and how many people—how can you plan a menu to accommodate special dietary needs? (Your cousin is looking forward to the wedding, but her serious shellfish allergy could put a dent in your plans to serve lobster bisque and crabcakes.)
Travel also presents a problem: Did you find the perfect venue, but everyone lives 300 kilometres away? You’ll either need to arrange transportation—or pick another venue, maybe a little closer to home.
3. Refusing to Sacrifice
Budgeting for a wedding can be the stuff of nightmares. Even if you do double-check your addition, you might find that you’ve underestimated some of the costs. That can spell big trouble for your big day budget.
A larger problem is if you refuse to revise your plans to match your budget when you discover that things aren’t adding up. While it can be difficult to give up parts of your vision for such an event, it can save you a lot of stress (and debt) if you’re open to making some changes.
Maybe the lobster bisque has to go, or maybe you decide to make your own invitations. Maybe one expensive type of flower (like peonies) can be exchanged to a less expensive option(like hydrangeas). Stay flexible!And early compromises in your new union will help with understandings down the road.
2. Going It Alone
For most people, planning a wedding is their first foray into event planning. Call it a trial by fire, if you will: You’re planning an enormous event for your nearest and dearest, and it’s an incredibly important and significant day! It’s not exactly the ideal project to take on as your first.
That’s why you shouldn’t go it alone when it comes to wedding planning. While it might seem to cost more up front, getting the expertise of an event planner can actually help you stick to your budget (or even save money). It will also save you a lot of time and a lot of stress, since you won’t need to be responsible for every tiny detail of your wedding.Your sanity on such an important day is worth its weight in gold.
1. Treating Your Guests Like Sardines
Shopping for a wedding venue is difficult—and this is another reason you need to have your guest list in hand before you book anything. Most venues will tell you the absolute highest number of people the site can accommodate. You then need to reduce that by about 10 percent, according to experts, since you’d probably like your guests to have some breathing room.
You may have found the perfect venue, but if you are going to end up cramming your guests into the space, you need to rethink the plan. Either the guest list needs to be trimmed, or you need another venue—because no one is going to notice how lovely the wedding is if everyone is concerned about getting elbowed by their neighbours.
