05 Jun The Stress of Wedding Planning

Although I’m now in the thick of wedding season and am lucky enough to have some very big weddings on the books coming up, I wanted to take a few minutes out to write a blog that I think carries most weight particularly at this busy time of year.

Over the last few months, with more and more of my (on the day planning) clients’ and friends’ wedding dates approaching, it has become apparent that many of my brides-to-be (maybe the grooms are too, but we just don’t hear about it as much!) are becoming increasingly stressed with the wedding process and sadly finding they are not able to enjoy the planning as much as they’d hoped.

After hearing of this woe from a few people consecutively, I thought it important to put a blog post together as it really saddened me to hear this worry from those who should be enjoying such a magical experience.

Planning a wedding is unlike planning any other event. Firstly, you’re spending most likely the next largest amount of money since buying a house but also, something to stress, is that it’s your money you’re spending as opposed to a corporate budget for example and this means every decision is weighed with a lot more worry.

I of course understand that because of this, you want everything to be perfect and therefore second guessing every decision that is made is likely to happen. You have emotions tied to every decision that you make which is something I even experienced when planning my own wedding. I honestly thought that by being a wedding planner I could somewhat disconnect from the common woes and plough on with the logistics without hesitation. But, I ended up finding that the emotions that are involved are, believe it or not, what makes the process so personal to you and your fiance and hence so much more memorable to our planning journey.

Putting too much stress and pressure on yourself is a common factor but what you need to remember is your guests will never know if the bread rolls were in fact meant to be rustic artisan bread (this was one of my wedding day stresses!) or if your roses aren’t the shade of pink you saw at your sample set up.

My advice is to strip back to basics and focus on your fiance and the reason you’re marrying them. Please try to not forget the real reason of a wedding day… you get to marry your one true love!

So, Brides and Grooms to be, I’m going to let you into a couple of the tips I give to all Claire Clarke couples embarking on the wedding planning journey and I really hope these help you refocus during the last few months of planning and enjoy what’s left of the process!

Share the load

Sharing the load is important and number one on my list. There are two people involved when making the all-important wedding decisions and brides, please don’t think that your husband to be won’t be interested in helping make these decisions. Even I spent most of the process making the choices alone however it wasn’t until my lovely husband sat me down one evening and explained that he actually wanted to help that I began to open my eyes. Suddenly, the process became so much easier (go-figure hey?!) and enjoyable as we were able to discuss the options and see the day come to life together.

Take Time Out

I know as the wedding approaches your time will be quickly taken up with all the final planning meetings, final touches to your bespoke items and planning the seating plan. It is important, however, to take some time out with your fiance away from the planning of your wedding. My advice here is to get out of the house and away from the huge amounts of ribbon and jam jars surrounding you. Even if it’s once every couple of weeks, find the time for a one-on-one date night at which neither of you are allowed to talk about anything wedding related. Not only will this help you re-focus when you do return but it’ll also remind you both to enjoy each other and the reason you’re about to embark on such a wonderful commitment.

Hire a Planner

After saying all the above, there still are some couples that will still of course struggle and that’s why many planners like myself have ‘the finer details’ service option. I’ve found that this option has been more and more appealing to couples recently as it means that 6 weeks (or however long before you feel it’s needed) before your wedding I will take all the planning elements off your hands. I will organise your timelines, chase the last few RSVPs, organise diet requirements and handle all the supplier emails you’ll be receiving regarding your final details.

Ultimately, this will give you time to enjoy the lead up to your big day and focus on the important things; nails, hair, tanning…. And of course, your fiance!

If you’d like more information about this finer details service, please do get in touch as I have a few more September and October 2017 dates left but if you’re planning to continue the journey without a planner, don’t forget to enjoy the process as much as possible so you can look back on the memories of not only your day but the whole journey. I’m not saying it will be easy but I am saying it’s meant to be fun too so please, take some time out, share the load and most importantly, have fun over the last few months of your wedding journey!

With Love,
Claire x