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Whether you have decided to enlist the help of a wedding planner or you've gone ahead and braved the wedding planning yourself - keeping your sanity during the process can feel like mission impossible. We all know that our family and friends have our best interest at heart but listening to an influx of opinions all at once can be draining and on top of that, the number of decisions you have to make during the process - from colour schemes, destination wedding or not, number of bridesmaids, florals etc. can feel endless.
A fellow bride-to-be has provided her top secrets to keeping her sanity during the wedding planning process; from money saving tricks to those oh-so-needed stress reducing tips.
1. Early bird gets the best price
I found out first-hand that service costs for many wedding suppliers go up every January. My advice is to get quotes from suppliers as soon as possible, ideally the year before your wedding, if you can. Even if you pick up with the vendor the following year, some vendors will honour the quote they gave you the previous year.
So never be afraid about looking too eager, it can save you money in the long run!
2. Don't Procrastinate
Apart from securing the best possible price, starting early definitely reduces stress. If you leave things too late, when you try to book your ideal vendors, it's likely they will be booked for the date you want and then you have to start the search again to look for someone else. Leaving things until later can also mean you settle on things you didn't want to because you're running out of time.
When I planned my wedding, the things that gave me the most stress were the things I left later than I should have.
3. Determine your non-negotiables
Is it your outfit? The venue? Decoration? Identify that one thing that you don't want to compromise on for your big day. Guaranteed, the one thing that will not stay as planned is the budget; things often cost more than you expect. You may be able to cut corners for certain things, but allocate more to cover the things that are more important to you.
4. Get into stalker mode
Do your research on the vendors you're looking to book, especially if that person is pivotal to your day. Before booking my wedding planner, I contacted 3 past clients of theirs via Instagram just to get their personal, unfiltered review. I went to events DJs were performing at to hear them before booking them for my wedding.
Never worry about being over the top, it is YOUR day, get the best people for the job by any means.
5. Where to start with your asoebi
For your traditional wedding, decide on your bridal / celebrant outfit colour FIRST! You're the celebrant, so everything should revolve around you. One mistake I made was being indecisive about the colour I would wear, whilst trying to sort out everyone else's asoebi. It made the process so much more confusing.
Once you've decided on your colour, identify all the different groups of asoebi you need, and lay out all the different colours you are thinking of having incorporated into your day.
After you've decided those 3 things, you are ready to get in contact with Simply Asoebi. We handle 100% of the logistics involved in the asoebi process - we source the fabrics for you, handle payments from your guests on our website so you don't have to, and then deliver them to your guests' home in our signature packaging. The process just starts with a free initial consultation...
6. Have someone else do it for you
If you have the budget, I highly recommend getting a wedding planner or at least an on-the-day coordinator. A wedding planner will take a lot of the researching and organising off of you both ahead of the wedding and on the day itself.
If you would like to know who to use, check our previous blog for recommended wedding planners. If you don't have the budget for a wedding planner or coordinator, I would definitely advise delagating some things to friends and family.
7. Listen to your photographer
If you're anything like me, you'll hate standing around for hours in different poses taking pictures, but I've been told by brides that it's best to just listen! Don't get frustrated, you won't regret it when you sit down a month or two after the wedding and look at all the stunning shots from your wedding
8. Sneak away with your partner
Speaking to brides, the wedding day can feel like a circus. You and your partner are being pulled in every direction, you spend ages taking pictures, people are constantly coming up to you to congratulate you...so, it can definitely be hard to get a breather.
If you can, take you and your partner somewhere private to eat your meal one-on-one for 30 minutes...alone! No photographers, no family...no one. Just have one person to 'guard' and make sure you guys are not interrupted. A bride did this and really appreciated the one-on-one time with hubby to just soak up the day and TALK! Try to do this if you can, your guests will manage without you for just half an hour
9. The day will fly by...
If there's something that you will hear every bride say is 'the day goes by so quickly!'. For something that people take a year to plan, the last thing you want is for the day to breeze past you. Do NOT stress over the little things, they're never important in the grand scheme of things.
Focus on looking beautiful and enjoying the celebration of your marriage!
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