If you were to follow popular wisdom, you’d think that becoming engaged was akin to gearing yourself up for months of pressure and stress. Yet while it’s unlikely to be a walk in the park, it doesn’t have to be an all-out stressful affair. Indeed, dare we say it, but it might just be fun! But you’ll need a little help to get to this point. Below, we take a look at a handful of useful tips for keeping the stress levels to a minimum when you’re working up towards your wedding day.
Source: Pexels.com
Keep Things in Perspective
Whenever you feel stressed about ANYTHING, it’s good practice to maintain a degree of perspective. Unless it’s an actual problem – and being engaged is not a problem – then it’s always possible to take one step back, see the problem from afar, and see that things aren’t so bad after all. Instead of letting that stress build up and up, change your attitude instead! Any time you’re beginning to feel weighed down by all of your wedding responsibilities, take a walk around the block and remember how lucky you are that you even get to have these “problems” in the first place. Plenty of people who want to get married never get the chance to!
Have a Budget – and Stick to It
You’re going to put unnecessary pressure on yourself if you’re trying to have a luxury wedding when you don’t have a luxury wedding budget. There are plenty of costs attached to a wedding, and it’s not going to be cheap – but it also doesn’t have to be overly expensive. Before you get too deep into the planning stages of your wedding, make sure you’re working out a realistic budget for all the costs. You’ll find it much easier to keep a level head if you’re not forever railing against all the bills that are coming your way. If you have a clearly set budget before you begin making a lot of plans, then you’ll know that, at the very least, you’ll have one important aspect of the planning stage under control.
Work With People Who Know
For some people, it’s not the costs that are the biggest stress-inducer: it’s the sheer amount of details that need to be planned. If you’ve never planned a wedding before, then you might be shocked by how many arrangements need to be made! And of course, it’s even more difficult to get everything sorted when you’re both working full-time jobs. In these cases, it may be useful to work with a wedding planner, who will work with you to make sure that everything is organised to your specification. When it comes to planning a big job, it’s always useful to have an expert hand on your side.
Stay Realistic
Most stressful situations in life aren’t really all the stressful, at least in the traditional sense. We normally get all hot and bothered by things because they’ve somehow failed to live up to our expectations. But here’s the thing: sometimes, people’s expectations are through the roof. They’re not realistic! If you’re comparing your wedding to one you’ve seen on the big screen, then yeah, you’re going to be disappointed, and that disappointed will manifest itself into frustration. When it comes to planning your wedding, take a “bottom-up” approach; that is, start from the ground and make it as good as possible. Don’t picture the perfect wedding and work backwards – you won’t reach your lofty expectations!
You Can’t Control the Weather
The title says it all, really. You are not going to be able to stop it raining if that’s what the day calls for. You can, however, be prepared so that there’s less chance of weather messing things up. You can pick a date that’s “in-season”, for starters, and also have a back up if you’re planning to have the bulk of your wedding outside. Of all the things that it’s really not worth getting bothered by, it’s mother nature!
Source: Pexels.com
Not All-Consuming
If you’re like a wedding pressure cooker, then you’ll be slowly simmering away, and all the while the pressure will be rising, rising, rising. As such, it’s a good idea to blow off steam every now and again. Don’t be all-consumed by your wedding planning. If it’s all getting too much, set it aside for a couple of weeks. If you’ve picked a day that’s far in the future, then you don’t need to spend every waking moment thinking about your wedding details. Go have some fun for a while – life doesn’t stop just because you’re engaged.
Go With the Flow
Some of the best life advice can also be applied to people planning a wedding: go with the flow. No matter how well planned your wedding is, there is going to be something that goes wrong. No-one has a perfect life, and no-one has the perfect wedding! When these minor hiccups take place, brush them off. If you react to every small thing that goes wrong, you’re going to find it pretty difficult to make it through to your wedding day unscathed. Small issues only become problems if you let them!
Don’t Forget Who You Are
We’ve all heard stories of Bridezillas, people who turn into complete nightmares when they’re organising their wedding. These people can be insufferable – they take positive energy (getting married) and convert it into negative energy (making everyone around them hope that this wedding is over soon). So be mindful. Don’t forget who you are. If you were nice and pleasant before you got engaged, then you can be nice and pleasant after you got engaged.
Five Years Time
Finally, a little trick to call upon when you feel the blood pressure levels beginning to rise. Think about the future, some five years down the line. Would you want to look back at your wedding planning days as a time to forget? Or would you like to remember it as a fun time that spoke your love and future happiness?
