Wedding Planning Tips You Need To Prep For Your Big Day

Cover all your wedding planning bases with these tips and tricks from a 2021 bride that any soon-to-be-wed should go with while planning. 

Some advice is good, while others are essential. I'm grateful for the advice I received while planning my wedding. However, I did not hire a professional wedding planner. Instead, I had my Ultimate Wedding Planning notebook and the help of friends and family, plus our event coordinator for the venue. It was stressful, so I created this post to help brides who feel overwhelmed or need guidance on where to start.  

Wedding Planning Tips and Tricks You Need To Prep For Your Big Day

1. Create a budget and stick to it. Knowing your budget and setting a realistic spending plan is the best way to ensure you spend your money wisely. You are more than capable of creating the wedding of your dreams with any budget you have set. If you’re trying to save some coin, DIY projects are a great way to do so. I created many decor and stationery items using Canva and my Cricut. 
2. Make a list of priorities. Then decide what aspects of your wedding are most important. Everyone’s wedding priorities will be different. My top priorities were finding my dress, locking my venue, and deciding colors for decor and stationery. 
3. Research vendors and choose your team carefully. Read reviews, ask for referrals, and make sure vendors are reputable. One of my favorite resources is theknot.com. Their website allowed me to set up our wedding website and find many vendors in my area. Also, reach out to anyone you know who has recently been married and see if any vendors they used could work for you. 
4. Set deadlines for tasks and make sure you stick to them. Planning a wedding can be overwhelming, so having deadlines will help keep you on track. Setting deadlines for myself is where my mom, using my wedding planner and bullet journal, came in handy. 
5. Give yourself enough time for planning. The best way to avoid stress is to give yourself plenty of time to finish everything. For example, my husband and I planned our wedding for two years after we got engaged. I know this is not and won’t be everyone’s timeline, but it gave us plenty of time to plan every detail of our big day. Whatever timeline you plan, ensure it is enough to avoid being too stressed and overwhelmed during the process. 
6. Have an emergency plan. You never know what might happen on your wedding day, so it’s essential to have a plan in place in case something goes wrong. My mom has always advised me to have a plan B, plan C, and sometimes plan D when it comes to anything I am doing. Her advice came in handy and alleviated stress when we did have a change of plans. When wedding planning, you must be flexible, plan for the best, and expect the worst. 
7. Take time to relax. Don’t forget to take some time out of the wedding planning to relax and enjoy yourself. Personally, relaxing was challenging, but I knew it was necessary. You do not want to burn out during wedding planning, so I gave myself specific days to plan and other days to not think about it at all. 
8. Get organized. Keeping your documents, contracts, and other important information in one place will save you time and stress. I am all about staying organized, and when it comes to wedding planning, that is essential. When contacting and visiting vendors, we received many papers, contracts, business cards, color swatches, packets, etc. We physically and digitally organized to keep track of all the essential resources we received. You should get a physical and digital wedding planner and organize files in separate folders.
9. Don’t be afraid to delegate. It’s okay to ask for help from family and friends when planning your wedding. However, as someone who thrives on DIY projects, it was hard for me to delegate tasks to others even though I knew I could use the help. It was easier for me to delegate the tasks I didn’t want to or felt comfortable doing, like making phone calls to different vendors and researching hotels. 
10. Have fun! Planning a wedding can be stressful but don’t forget to have some fun along the way. As stressful as it may be, it is a beautiful and joyous process, and all that stress is for a good reason. Enjoy the little things with wedding planning, like looking at different venues, taste testing, dress shopping, etc. Don’t let stress consume the fun of it all.

Check out 5 Affordable Stationery and Decor Items To use for Your Wedding.