5 Tips for a stress-free wedding

5 Tips for a stress-free wedding

Planning a wedding can be super stressful!…There’s so much to do and it can be difficult to know where to start, particularly as for a lot of people it’s their first time getting married. Don’t let planning a wedding overwhelm you as it’s meant to be a happy time in your life, not a stressful time! I’m personally getting married in the next couple of months and have taken a very chilled approach to planning my wedding, firstly because I’ve been very busy photographing other lovely couple’s weddings, but secondly because I just didn’t want to let it consume me which would only bring me down and potentially turn me into a bridezilla! Below I have listed my top 5 Tips for a stress-free wedding, I hope you find them useful!

Beautiful flowers by Jo Hicks Flowers

1. Create a plan of action

Map out a plan of action shortly after getting engaged. How long do you want your engagement to be before tying the knot? If you’re wanting a short engagement then you need to get cracking with the organising straight away! If you’re hoping to have a slightly longer engagement, it’s still a good idea to start brainstorming ideas for the style of wedding you’d like and then you can start looking for venues that match your style.

2. Create a Budget

This one is a biggy! It’s so easy to just keep spending without creating a budget and sticking to it! Sit down with your partner and decide together on a maximum that you would like your entire wedding to cost and then break down all of the individual elements creating budgets for each of them too. Then calculate what you’ll realistically be spending all in all for your wedding. It’s easy to forget the little things like jewellery, favours, stationary and invites, gifts for the wedding party etc, so make sure that you factor all of these into the cost too.

3. Be Realistic

When creating your budget, be realistic about what you can actually afford. If you want a big ‘All out’ wedding with lots of guests, then it’s not going to be cheap! Consider chatting with a financial advisor and take out a loan if you need to but don’t get yourself into unnecessary debt! If you have a smaller budget, maybe think of ways that you can be more creative and incorporate a more DIY feel to your wedding and pull in favours from friends and family. I’ve known some of my brides or their parents to go on a flower arrangement course and make their own bouquets, bake their own wedding cake or hold a bake off competition so that guests can get involved and have fun with it, whilst also providing the dessert for your wedding, thus cutting out the cost of hiring a cake artist. Instead of having a sit down 3 course meal, you could have a BBQ or hog roast and instead of hiring a designer for your stationary get crafty & creative and make your invites and table numbers yourself, then you’re also putting your own stamp on it.

4. Use spreadsheets and have a wedding folder

I personally try and keep everything digital wherever possible and have created spreadsheets for my budget, expenditures and guest list, which makes it easier to keep track of everything and you can just update them as and when you need to and with spreadsheets they just run the numbers for you with the right formulas, so you don’t have to add everything up. Not everything wedding related is digital though, so It’s also great idea to have a folder to keep all of your wedding documents in, like vendor contracts and receipts for purchases as well as inspiration and ideas. Keeping it all in one place keeps everything wedding related organised and easy to find.

5. Get Inspired

Use Pinterest to gather inspiration on all aspects of your wedding from venue styling and colour schemes, suits and dresses, to bridal make up and hair styles – it’s all on there! I even have boards for all these things on my Pinterest page so if you want to follow me for inspiration, here is a link to my profile – https://uk.pinterest.com/lucylouphoto/ Chat to friends and family members who have already got married and find out how they did things, go to venue open days to view venues all dressed for a wedding and look in the wedding sections of department stores like John Lewis and Debenhams.

I actually have more than 5 Tips for a stress-free wedding but wanted to keep this post short and engaging, so look out for more tips coming to the blog soon!

I also have a list of my recommended local suppliers, which you might find useful if you’re currently planning your wedding, view the list by clicking HERE

I hope that my 5 Tips for a stress-free wedding have been helpful, thanks so much for reading! 🙂

5 Tips for a stress free wedding