Reducing Your Wedding Stress
There are a lot of ways to help manage your wedding stress. One of these things is choosing a venue that is right for you. Many wedding venues offer additional services to help take the stress out of your special day and some, like Slightly Different Nursery in Shelby, NC, offer you a completely unique experience you won’t find anywhere else!
Here are some tips to help keep the wedding planing stress at bay.
Get Organized
Maybe you wouldn’t call yourself the most organized person in the world. Maybe lists aren’t you’re thing, but even if that is true, you may want to try it out for a change. Depending on your wedding and its size there will be hundreds, if not thousands of details that need to be sorted and decided and it can be a daunting and stressful task to keep up with it all. Organizing these details for quick reference and to ensure nothing important is missed can go a long way to minimize the stress of planning your wedding. For those of you who are natural list-makers and organizers this may even sound like fun, but for the rest of us there are some excellent resources on the internet that include timetables, checklists, and budget spreadsheets.
Don’t Stress Over Relaxation
Most brides and grooms get a lot of advice on taking time during the wedding planning or right before the wedding to relax, but many try to take it a bit further than needed. Stay within your comfort zone when planning your relaxation activities. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. If you have never found the idea of bud baths, deep tissue massages, and being stuck with acupuncture needles appealing in the past, chances are high that scheduling a whole day of such activities on a strict time table may leave you more stressed than before you went in. What’s important is that you take time and do what YOU find relaxing, whether that’s your yoga class, meditating, walks, or simply hanging out with your friends outside of discussing wedding plans.
Jack of All Trades, Master of None
Remember, you are the Bride/Groom. You are not the florist. Or the musician. Or the caterer. Or the officiant. It’s easy to get swept up in wanting to make sure that every detail of your special day is how you want it, but remember that the vendors you hire have a job to do, and they are professionals. Of course, you will want to ensure that you are clearly communicating what you are wanting and verifying they have a comprehensive understanding of their part in your big day, but after that, let them do their jobs. Micromanaging them will only add to your stress, and, in all likelihood, tick them off quite a bit as well.
Delegate
Be honest with yourself about how much you can handle as well as the types of task you can handle on your own. Then it’s time to rally the troops…your friends and family. They say two heads are better than one…and an army of loved ones with designated tasks that play to their individual strengths is even better. It will take items and chores off of your list and your delegates will be pleased you trust them to help plan your big day.
Don’t forget to assign someone as you day-of go to. This will be someone responsible for any last-minute decisions and details, as well as provide a direction to any vendors needing some last-minute clarifications, etc. This ensures anything that comes up is resolved quickly and quietly without distracting the wedding party or providing any unneeded stress.
Eat Healthy
Stress can frequently lead to unhealthy eating habits. Often people gravitate to the wrong types of food when under stress, such as high calorie, fat, and sugar foods. These foods not only cause weight gain but also make you feel worse all together which only adds to your stress level. Instead of reaching for these foods, regularly eating healthy foods will not only help you fit into your wedding attire, but many often help reduce stress naturally. Ensure your diet includes whole grains as well as red, green, and orange vegetables.
Stay Active
Additional stress also frequently leads to exhaustion, both mental and physical. This can then manifest itself more physically through illness, anxiety, and depression. You may find yourself spending more and more time on the couch or in bed, but this is the opposite of what you should be doing. Physical activity helps reduce stress and will help you push through your exhaustion. There’s no need to take up an extreme workout regimen to combat the wedding-planning blues, but make sure you are getting out and staying active regularly.
Listen to Others’ Advice
There is no doubt you will be inundated with the opinions of others when it comes to planning your wedding, some more forcefully presented to you than others. But through it all it’s good to remember that many of these people have planned their own wedding and do have good insights to offer. They are sure to have seen what worked and what did not for their own ceremony, despite if that information is applicable directly to yours or not. Don’t let the unsolicited opinions an advice of others put you off from asking your friends and family for their input. Ask what things make their big day wonderful as well as what problems they faced that threatened to ruin it. You don’t have to take all or any of the advice offered, but you may learn something interesting that can help your planning and your wedding go more smoothly.
Remember What This is all About
It’s natural, when feeling overwhelmed at all the time and work which going into wedding planning to think, “What am I doing?” or “Is this wedding worth it? Let’s elope!” When you find you are asking yourself these types of questions, it’s good to think back to what this day is all about and how you and your partner got to this point. Don’t let the individual tasks get in the way of the day you two have envisioned to celebrate the beginning of the rest of your lives. If it helps, you can go back to messages, letters, pictures, and social media posts of your relationship, engagement, and FUN wedding planning moment. Doing things like this can help motivate you and reduce some of the wedding planning stress, or at least make you realize again that it will be worth it in the end.
Make Time for Yourself
Weddings are about you and your partner and the love you share, but you should also make a point to remember that everyone needs some time to themselves. Do whatever it is that helps you unwind and deal with the stress of wedding planning.
Get Plenty of Rest
Fatigue and exhaustion intensifies stress of any kind, making it difficult to focus on the responsibilities in your life; wedding or other. This is why it’s crucial to get 8 hours of sleep each night. Not only with those around you thank you, but you’ll end up thanking yourself.
Establish Boundaries
With so many excited friends and family eager and willing to pitch in and “help” with your wedding planning, it can be quite easy to get sucked up into a swirling funnel of pressure and expectations of others. Remember, you are not going to be able to please everyone, but at the end of the day, it is YOUR wedding. Not your mother’s. Not your Sister’s. Not your Friends’. Yours. Let them know, kindly, what you need help deciding, and what you have already decided on for yourself for your big day.
Stay Close with your Spouse
A united front is best. While you won’t agree on everything during the wedding planning process, it’s important to be a united team and back each other up during the decision-making process. Especially when those well-meaning friends and family members attempt to cross those boundaries you set for them.
Manage Your Time on the Wedding Day
Make a time table that includes everything you need to do the day off. Down to your morning coffee. This structure will help you take control of your time, so you don’t add to the butterflies that are naturally occurring in your stomach. You will know you are where you need to be, when you need to be there and won’t have the worry of running late to your own wedding. Remember, you’ve already appointed someone else to manage anything else that comes up last minute. You just need to make sure you show up, look wonderful, and get married.
