How to Deal with Wedding Planning Stress

Planning for your wedding is one of the most exciting events you’ll ever experience in your life. And it is also one of the most overwhelming and—at times—most stressful.

Feeling and experiencing wedding planning stress while planning is perfectly normal, but it doesn’t have to take over your life. After all, you don’t want to end up like a bridezilla on what is supposed to be the most magical day of your life.

In this post, you’ll find some tips on how to identify what makes you stressed and how to stay calm and enjoy the ride.

And if you’re looking for some ready-made tools to lighten the load, you can check out this Stress-Free Wedding Bundle you’re sure to love.

Why Wedding Planning Feels so Stressful

There’s a saying that the devil is in the details, and in wedding planning, there are a million little details that will constantly be demanding your attention.

Decision Overload

Planning a wedding requires making hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions. You have the major ones—venue, guest list, vendors, budget—but you have several minor ones as well that still require some thinking through. Things like the kinds of flowers, the motif or theme of your wedding, whether you will have your hair up or down, what sort of earrings you will wear.

Family Expectations and Outside Opinions

While the main stars of the wedding are the couple getting married, family also comes into play here. Some parents have some specific requests for their children’s wedding. And then there’s pressure coming from friends who have had their weddings or from social media posts of weddings that just look so picture-perfect.

Time Pressure + Financial Pressure

No matter how many months you have between your engagement and your wedding, it will feel like you did not have enough time to plan your wedding. Some vendors won’t respond right away, designing and printing your wedding invitations might take longer than you thought, your wedding giveaways may arrive a few days too close to the wedding. The list is endless.

And then there’s the matter of your finances, too. You want to have the wedding of your dreams, but you also need to be practical. And that means negotiating or trading off some of the “would be nice to have” for something more affordable.

Perfectionism

Of course, you want your wedding to look nice. Of course, you want your day to be magical. But reality isn’t always as rose-colored or as picture-perfect as the Pinterest pins you’ve saved on your wedding inspiration board. There will be slip-ups, messes, miscommunication, petty arguments, and even some ugly crying along the way.

3 Practical Tips to Manage Wedding Planning Stress

Here’s how to manage your wedding stress so you can be as calm and relaxed as possible from the start, all the way up to your wedding day.

Get Organized Early

Whether you’re planning a wedding in just six months or twelve, the important thing is to start planning right away.

Use a wedding planning checklist or timeline. It helps to have a physical or digital checklist to stay on top of everything you need to do. Make sure you have everything listed there, from booking the venue to packing day-of kits for yourself.
Keep everything in one place. Have a binder for everything you need. Or if you prefer everything digital, have one folder where you keep everything. (ProTip: Upload copies to your Google Drive or Dropbox so it’s easily accessible everywhere.)

I created a stress-free wedding bundle that includes a done-for-you checklist. See it here!

Prioritize What Truly Matters

Sometimes, with everything you need to do and decide on, you end up losing sight of what really matters to you as a couple.

Decide with your partner on the three things that matter the most. For some, it’s the venue. For others, it’s the food. Deciding on the top three things helps you to focus your attention on what matters the most to you and eliminates pressure and distraction on the rest.
Release the pressure to “do it all”. Sometimes, you’ll find so many ideas that can be inspiring, and at the same time, overwhelming. You want a boho-themed wedding with large feathers and gigantic pillows on the beach. But then those dreamcatchers look nice, too. And the doughnut wall in your cousin’s wedding looked like so much fun—you heard that the guests loved it. And—and—you get the picture. But doing everything you want is going to cost you time and a lot of money. Instead, choose what’s important for you and what will fit your theme on the wedding day.

Delegate and Ask for Help

It’s a little hard to let go of some tasks and to-dos because you want to make sure that everything is just the way you want it to be. But if you take a look around you, you’ll find people who are more than willing to lend you a helping hand.

Involve your bridal party, family, and friends. Your family and friends are likely over the moon with your upcoming wedding, and most of them want to help relieve you of some of the stress you may be feeling. Assign some tasks to them, like cutting invitations or preparing wedding giveaways.
Hire vendors you trust. It can be pretty scary to deal with vendors, especially because scams run rampant these days. It’s always best to check a vendor’s reputation by doing a quick search online, checking out ratings and reviews on Pinterest, or even searching for them on Reddit. If a vendor seems shady or offers a deal that’s too good to be true, it’s best to go with your gut and get someone who might be a bit pricier, but at least you know they offer the real deal.

Need help deciding which vendors to get? In the Stress-Free Wedding Bundle, you’ll see vendor comparison sheets that can help you decide.

Protect Your Health

At the end of the day, what matters the most is that you remain healthy—physically, mentally, emotionally.

Take breaks from planning. Schedule “wedding-free” days where you don’t talk about your wedding, don’t think about your wedding, don’t take a peek at your wedding checklist. Do something fun on those days, like having a pajama party with your best friends or doing some shopping or spending a relaxing day in nature.
Practice self-care. Just because you’re planning for a very big day doesn’t mean you have to neglect everything else in your life. Take care to exercise and eat healthy meals at the proper times. Spend some time journaling and meditating to free your mind of clutter.
Remember: it’s about celebrating your love, not perfection. A wedding day should be all about celebrating the love you and your partner have for each other—not making sure everything is perfect.

Common Wedding Stress Traps to Avoid

If you feel yourself getting anywhere near any of these, run in the other direction as fast as you can.

Comparing yourself to Pinterest/Instagram weddings. Pinterest and Instagram are social media accounts where everything is curated to look perfect. But what you don’t see are the flaws that likely happened—dogs that got in the cake, vendors that never delivered, a storm when the weather app said it would be 100% sunny.
Trying to please everyone. While you do want to make people happy during your wedding, the people who matter the most are you and your partner. Make sure every element of your wedding is there because it is something that’s important to you—not because your sister-in-law’s cousin twice removed suggested it.
Leaving things to the last minute. If you leave some things on your to-do list, promising to take care of them before your wedding, you’ll likely forget about them until it’s too late. It’s better to have things done ahead of time rather than scrambling at the last minute to get them done.
Neglecting your relationship in the process. Sometimes, you can get so caught up in wedding planning that you neglect your partner and your relationship. Remember—your wedding day is only one day. Your relationship, your marriage, will go on long after that.

What to Do When Stress Becomes Too Much

What if you did all you could, but you still feel so stressed out?

Pay Attention to the Signs that Tell You to Step Back

Have you been losing sleep? Do you find yourself in constant arguments with your partner, family members, or just about anyone? Do you find yourself feeling burned out?

Maybe these are the signs that you need to take a step back from wedding planning for a while. And it can be tempting to open your folder and look at your wedding checklist, but you need to put yourself, your health, and your relationships first.

Consider Hiring a Wedding Planner or a Day-of Coordinator

Some tasks feel too overwhelming to handle yourself. You may want to consider handing things over to an expert event planner or even an on-the-day coordinator who can help relieve your of some things that keep you up all night.

Wedding planners are more than well-equipped to handle everything you’re facing—from venue coordination to demands from guests to unresponsive vendors and more. They’ll help you so you don’t need to worry about the details and can just spend time getting ready for the big day.

Lean on Your Support System

Whether it’s family or friends or your wedding party, be sure you are surrounded by people who can give you the pep talk and encouragement you need. Share your concerns with them and be open to their ideas and suggestions.

How My Stress-Free Wedding Bundle Can Help You

As an event coordinator myself, I know how hectic it can be planning for weddings. I’ve seen brides so stressed they couldn’t even put their phone down on the morning of their wedding. I don’t want that for you.

That’s why I came up with a wedding bundle that will help you get rid of the stress so you can focus more on the joy of preparing for your wedding.

In it, you’ll find:

Wedding checklists and timelines
Budget and expenses tracker
Guest list management system
Vendor comparison sheets
Vendor contact sheets

Prepare for Your Wedding with as Little Stress as Possible

Yes, wedding planning can be overwhelming—but it doesn’t have to be. It should be a joyful time preparing for your big celebration—not one that drains you of your energy.

If you’re ready to take the stress off your shoulders, I’ve put together the Stress-Free Wedding Bundle to help you keep everything organized. Think of it as a shortcut to a calmer, happier wedding journey. You can check it out here.