My fiancé proposed to me in May of 2018. He gave me the sweetest, most thoughtful proposal ever. I mean, how can you say no to a trip to California and a beautiful ring. Just the thought of spending my life with him makes me go crazy! However, nobody told me what comes with all of the excitement.
The wedding planning stress.
Of course, I am beyond thrilled to be engaged, but wedding planning is not the easiest. I mean there are so many thing to think about for your idea of a perfect day! Where should it be, what colors should I use, what happens if I'm so stressed out I CANT STOP EATING BEN AND JERRY'S CHOCOLATE THERAPY?!?!
Thankfully, I have an awesome bridesmaid team (yes it's a team because I can't do it without them), my mom, and future mother in law. Everyone has had such great ideas and great advice for me during this. My dad tries to give me advice, but let's be real, dads don't give the best advice when it comes to planning a 200 person wedding when you're in school and 19. So far, I haven't been a bridezilla or screamed at anyone. I'm more relaxed than I thought I would be. Probably because I have a freezer full of ice cream to bring me a step away from a full on melt down.
This isn't about what my wedding is going to look like, or every little detail about what I am going to do on my big day. I actually decided to pick this topic to help other people with their stress of wedding planning and managing your time during a high stress time already.
The best advice I would give to someone else is to TAKE YOUR TIME!
I can not stress this enough. Plan your wedding farther out than you think. I originally wanted to get married in 2020 but I moved it to 2021 because there's so much you have to look into. Enjoy being engaged! Everything takes a long time to order, to book, and also to plan so give yourself plenty of time.
Go to bridal events. I never thought I would be the person to attend a huge bridal event, but it really helped me! I ended up finding out what I liked, didn't like, and what was even ideas I thought I liked but hated. Events like this really are helpful and can give you great connections with a variety of different companies and people. Events usually have photographers, venues, food, music, party vehicles, linens, and you can win some cool prizes. I ended up picking a wedding dress from one of the vendors at a bridal show. There are so many wedding companies out there, and you need to pick what is best for yourself.
Always shop and book early. Shopping and booking early is beyond important to planning a wedding with a budget. I bought my wedding dress in August, and I will not get to even try on the base dress on until May. On top of that, your dress needs to be altered AGAIN after the base dress comes in, which can take anywhere from 6 months-12 months. (Not to scare anyone, but if anything goes wrong with your dress you need extra time just to make sure it will come out perfect). Also, you can find AMAZING deals on wedding stuff during December-February. I wanted Moscow Mule cups as my thank you gift to everyone to comes, and I shopped early and bought them for $1.68 each instead of $18 each. Shopping early will help a bride and groom with stress. Everything about weddings are expensive, but if you shop early, you can save tons of money while keeping your sanity. Plus the extra money you save, you can use it for something else!
Look into honeymoons way ahead of time. Honeymoons are the one great vacation with the love of your life, before you have kids and your romantic vacations turn into seeing Disney on ice a thousand times and explaining that the polar express isn't real and no, you can't see where Simba is really from. You should always look into where ever you're going with great detail. See what attractions there are, see what there is to do by yourself, with others, and what is located nearby. Your honeymoon is for you! Do what will be fun for you.
The last piece of advice I will give to any other bride to be, is to not sweat the small stuff. Every detail to your perfect wedding is important, but by the time it's the day of your wedding, you won't care about anything else besides your new life and family. If you worry about everything, you will be a bridezilla, and you stress yourself out way too much. Be happy and love every second of planning your wedding!
The Knot Wedding Planning Website
This memoir is well written and give so much information about how to plan a wedding. What I take away from this memoir is that you should take your time and not rush plans for a better outcome. I like how you give so much good advice about how you can minimize you stress levels by planning ahead. You have the perfect amount of detail and information.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated where you started with your memoir, but I feel like at the end it became more informative than personal. I am not sure that a true memoir would blatantly give advice. If you had developed your own story of planning your wedding more fully it would give your writing the true feel of a memoir.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who recently got engaged, I'll pass along this info to him, it was very helpful! However, like the previous comment said, this felt less like a memoir and more like a regular blog post with some information. I'd love to hear you write about your wedding or the process to getting there at some point!
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