How To Manage Wedding Planning Stress

Is It Normal To Find Wedding Planning Stressful?

Yes, completely normal. At the beginning couples are usually excited. There are lots of ideas, venue choices and inspiration. For many brides I work with, the stress becomes much stronger around the final month before the wedding. Suddenly the wedding feels very real. Guests start asking questions, final confirmations are needed and there are a lot of small details happening at the same time.

Choose the right planner at the beginning. And I don’t mean only somebody who is organised. You need somebody who understands you as people as well. Destination wedding planning can last one year, sometimes two years, so there will definitely be moments where something changes or a problem comes up. A good planner needs to understand when the couple needs information, when they need advice and sometimes when they just need someone to tell them, “Leave this with me, I’ll handle it.” Trust is very important.

What Advice Would You Give to Couples Who Are Struggling With the Pressure to Create a ‘Perfect’ or Pinterest-Worthy Wedding?

Pinterest and Instagram are great for inspiration, but they can also become dangerous if you start trying to copy everything you see. You don’t know the budget behind that photo. You don’t know the size of the production team, whether the image came from a real wedding or a styled shoot, or how much work went into creating one small corner for the photograph. I always tell couples to use inspiration to help us understand their taste, not as a shopping list. Take the feeling you like from the image, the colours, the atmosphere or one particular detail, and then create something that works for your own venue and your own budget. Your wedding does not need to look like somebody else’s wedding to be beautiful.