Contrary to popular belief, not all women are able to spend hours every day designing their ideal wedding. Many are busy working on their careers and other responsibilities. If you’re too overwhelmed to handle wedding planning, here are some things you can do:
1. Shop Online
Online shopping is a savior when it comes to wedding planning. It saves you several hours of walking through bridal emporiums and malls. (Although, you should experience the joy of at least one day where you walk through these establishments.)
You and your fiancé can shop for almost anything online, even the diamond engagement ring. It removes one stressful piece of wedding planning since you can simply shop when you have a break at work or before bed each night, and the items you buy are shipped right to your door. Most websites have great return policies, but order in advance to ensure you get what you want!
2. Delegate to Someone You Trust
Caroline Logan shared her story with Richmond Magazine when she was planning a wedding while trying to juggle her career responsibilities. She was traveling often for work and her fiancé at the time was working on political campaigns that had him away from home and unable to contribute.
“It became a bona fide Molotov cocktail of high stress and no fun. I felt like everything was spiraling out of control — until I took a step back,” she reported. “I asked for help. I delegated. I figured it out. And on May 24, 2014, we had our fairytale wedding that took my breath away.”
You can and should do the same. For Logan, it was her best friend and her mom who did much of the heavy lifting, and because she trusted them to handle the details, she didn’t drop any balls with work or the wedding.
3. Shop Local
You might save a few bucks by taking a trip into the big city, but do you really have time for that? When you’re busy with work and home responsibilities, your time is often more valuable than your money.
You can support your local economy, help the environment, and save a lot of time by shopping locally. Use a local dress maker to tailor your gown, a print shop to print and mail your invitations, and a restaurant or bakery to cater your reception. Oftentimes, you’ll get superior customer service and quality with these smaller establishments as well.
4. Talk to Your Boss
Although it might seem awkward, tell your boss when you’ve set a date for the wedding. Give him/her at least several months advance warning. This makes it much easier to take off early to meet with the caterer and take vacation days after the wedding.
“It’s tough for a boss to turn you down if you ask for something a week in advance, but it’s easy to say no if you ask just two hours in advance,” executive and time-management expert, Doug Sundheim told BridalGuide.
5. Make Definitive Decisions
The brides who say, “Oh, it doesn’t really matter” when choosing between two things find themselves making up for lost time in the last days of their wedding. Nobody wants to be bridezilla, but failing to make decisions will lead to confusion, procrastination, and potentially creating a product that you hate.
Learn to be a definitive decision maker. When presented with multiple choices, take a few minutes to carefully consider the pros and cons of each and then decide. Try not to go back on that decision later. Set it and move on so that you don’t waste time dwelling on unproductive fence-sitting.
6. Make Time for Your Fiancé
In the chaos of planning your ideal wedding, don’t forget about what’s most important. Stress is one of the most difficult aspect of a relationship, and if you’re not careful, it can set your marriage up for unhappy times.
“Wedding stress comes in waves,” Jennifer Spector, Newlywed-At-Large at Zola Weddings, told Bustle. “The thing that makes all of these [wedding planning] things so stressful is that most people have not planned a big event with all their loved ones,” pointing out that everything from the logistics to handling your personal life can create unshakeable stress. That’s damaging for any relationship, even the strongest of duos.
“The most important thing a couple can do is remember that a wedding is one day, but a marriage lasts a lifetime,” she says. “If you have that focus in mind, the wrong table setting or a disgruntled relative will not affect you in the same way.”
Wedding planning should always take a back burner to your relationship. Go on dates, have time set aside that’s free of wedding planning, talk about your days, and try to live a relatively normal life despite the hubbub that surrounds you. This will set you up for bliss at the beginning of your marriage.