Once you’ve gotten engaged, you’re going to start receiving a lot of advice. A lot of the advice you receive will be helpful. However, not all of it will be worth pursuing.
There are a few pieces of advice that are regularly given out that should be ignored entirely. We’re talking about bad advice that can derail your big day. If you avoid using some of the following tips, you’ll be just fine.
Forget the Rain Plan
If you’re planning an outdoor wedding, banking on the weather is not a good idea. The unpredictable should always be accommodated for in your wedding plans, and that includes plans for a rainy, dreary day.
The advice that you shouldn’t take the time to come up with a backup plan is often accompanied by the opinion that making alternative plans consists of too much worrying. While limiting the amount of worry you experience during the planning stage is important, making alternative plans isn’t about worrying—it’s about common sense. If you’re throwing an outdoor wedding, make sure there’s a plan B.
DIY Everything
Including DIY touches in your wedding is a great move; it gives you a chance to show off your personalities while also letting your guests know how much time and energy you put in to ensuring that they have a good time.
However, attempting to DIY every aspect of your wedding can be a recipe for disaster. Small projects on their own are feasible, but attempting to DIY every aspect of your wedding requires a massive amount of work; far more than you’ll be able to invest to get everything just right.
Provide Less Food
Providing food is the most expensive part of the wedding, but it’s important to keep in mind that for most guests, it’s also the most memorable part of the wedding.
A common piece of advice couples receive is that guests don’t eat that much anyways, so you can scale down the meals. In reality, after a ceremony and cocktail reception (potentially), most of your guests will be eager to settle in for a good meal. If there’s not enough food to go around, the reception experience can get uncomfortable very quickly.
Count on Fewer Guests
Another common piece of advice is to plan for fewer guests than you’ve actually invited. The reasoning given is that many of the people you’ve invited won’t actually show, so you should plan for their absences.
While there may be some no-shows at your wedding, there’s also a good chance there will be none. You should always do wedding planning with the assumption that everyone you’ve invited (and who has RSVPed) will be in attendance. Otherwise you can find yourself in a situation where everyone shows up but there’s not enough food or space to accommodate them—a far worse situation than having leftover food.
Ditch the Day-of Coordinator
When wedding planning before the big day, it can be easy to fall under the impression that because you’ve planned and organized so much already, you’ll be able to coordinate things on the big day.
However, the pre-wedding planning and the actual wedding day are completely different; on the actual day of your wedding, coordinating things will be incredibly difficult. Relying on family or friends to pick up the slack is both taking a risk and asking the people you love to step away from the fun to help. A day-of coordinator is really the best option to ensure that everything actually goes smoothly on the big day.
