If planning your wedding has started to take over your life, you’re not alone. For many brides, making key wedding decisions, figuring out what belongs on the ultimate-to-do list, and counting the cash that can go toward the big day, can feel like a time crunch that’s equivalent to working a part-time job.
You might start to enlist the help of close friends, family members, your finance, or free resources, only to feel overwhelmed and like no matter how many plans you make, pop-up problems knock on your door on a weekly basis.
To help make sure you’re prepared for it all, here are the top 8 things that might go wrong while planning your wedding, and how to stop them from happening.
1. You’ll Spend too Much Cash
Even if you have the best intentions to keep an eye on how much you’re spending, without committing to a budget and checking in weekly to make sure you’re spot on with how much cash is leaving your savings account, you’ll surely overspend. If you want to make sure that you have control over the finances for your wedding, set a budget early on, factor in additional fees and leave yourself an “emergency fund” for last-minute expenses
2. You’ll Have Objections
Know the phrase, “Too many cooks in the kitchen”? likely that will start to be how planning your wedding feels. You’ll have opinions flying in from every direction (from your family and friends to your fiances) about what you must have at your wedding, what’s tacky to have, and who has to be included on the guest list —even if they have hardly been included in your life. Sit down with your fiance early on to make key wedding decisions and make a list of the five things you want outside opinions on.
That way, you won’t be bombarded with commentary on wedding things you’ve already made decisions about.
3. You’ll Lose Perspective
With all the wedding planning, the decision making, and the dollars spent on the big day, it’s easy to lose perspective as to why you’re getting married in the first place. When you start to veer off the trail, you might crowd your wedding to-do list with items you hardly care about, are doing for the wrong reasons, or are taking away from the main reason your guests are coming to celebrate your special day, which is for you.
4. You’ll Have a Vendor Disagreement
Working with wedding vendors can be a bit tricky. Sometimes you might ask for something they don’t provide or they might over promise and under deliver. Have a contract that documents, in detail, exactly what the expectations are, the deadline is, and how much it will cost (so that no hidden fees can suddenly pop-up). Have terms in there that disclose what the plan will be if the vendor doesn’t deliver as promised or they don’t get back to you in a timely manner.
5. You’ll Forget to Add to Your To-Do List
If your wedding to-do list looks short and sweet, chances are you missed a few things. Double check your wedding to-do list with other bride’s lists so that you can make sure that you’ve thought of every single thing you need to think about and do before your big day.
6. You’ll Save too Much for the Last Minute
The week before your wedding should be a week of rest and relaxation. But if you’re saving a big chunk of your to-do list to take care of during the days before your wedding, you might find yourself extra stressed and pressed for time, leaving things undone that need to be done before the big day. Plan ahead. Pretend your wedding is a week or two before it really is. Then, your deadlines will be easier to hit and your last-minute list will be empty.
7. You’ll Forget About the Weather
There are things about your wedding you can control and things, of course, you just cannot. One of those things is the weather. Months before your wedding date, start thinking of a weather backup plan, especially if your wedding or the areas you want to take photos are outdoors.
8. You’ll Have Pop-Up Fights With Your Fiance
Wedding planning can be stressful on both you and your fiance, which can lead to pop-up fights between the two of you. While it’s going to be very hard to agree on every wedding decision and challenge, it’s important that you work together, take days-off from wedding planning to focus on doing other fun things together, and to have a plan in place in case the wedding stress starts to impede on your relationship.