Sanity Saving Wedding Planning Advice

Sanity Saving Wedding Planning Advice

Anyone who’s planned a wedding knows there’s always information you walk away with after your event that makes you think, “I wish I’d known that when I was planning our wedding”! How can you keep calm and plan your wedding? We’ve compiled some golden wedding planning advice to keep in mind for your sanity.

Put Yourselves First

Don’t try to make everyone happy. While you should be considerate and act like good hosts for your guests, you need to create an event that is reflective of you as a couple. It should match your style and vibe. Make the decision based on what you both love and what feels right to you. Weddings bring about lots of opinions, but remember the reason for the day is about you two! If it makes you happy, go for it.

Photo by Meghan Harrison Photography / Industry Venue, Indianapolis, Indiana

Choose The Right Vendors

The planning process can be overwhelming, which is why it is essential for brides to align themselves with a planner, vendors, and designers who will create and manage their vision as if it were their own. While the number of unique vendors can be extremely overwhelming, with a little help, it can be SO exciting. It’s exciting because it means that you have the opportunity to hire a vendor team that matches your unique brand, style, and personality. You just have to find them! As a professional wedding planner, acting as your vendor matchmaker is one of our favorite tasks!

Check out our Vendor Spotlights to learn more about a few of our favorite wedding pros!

Photo by Courtney Carney, Makeup by E.L.O Beauty

DIY is Not Always Your Friend

Have you ever hosted a party at your home? The preparing, the decorating and the cleaning take away the fun from the host. Weddings are the same. Worrying about hand-crafting all your details, transporting them, building them and tearing down/loading them are no fun at all. Your wedding day should be spent celebrating, not working. Do you really want to do create something yourself? Focus on ONE detail and knock it out of the park! Your mom, your aunt and your entourage will thank you for not going overboard.

Photo by Laura Von Photography

Make a Decision – and Stick With It

Pinterest is great for brainstorming wedding planning advice and ideas. Pinterest is also great at overwhelming you. Once you’ve nailed down your details, stop fussing and trust your instincts! Don’t compare your wedding to others or what you see online. It’s easy to go down astonishingly deep rabbit holes on every single detail. And even if you enjoy this kind of thing, it’s still very easy to burn yourself out researching the small stuff over time. I once had a couple ask me for referrals. They said, “Please just give us two excellent choices and we’ll choose from that.” They were aware of the endless decisions and wanted to simplify and not overthink.

Photo by Cat Satre Photography / Laurel Hall, Indianapolis, Indiana

Your Love Story is Unique, but Weddings Aren’t

As much as you want your wedding to be one-of-a-kind unique, it’s almost impossible. Sure, you can add a fun spin on colors, location, attire or theme, but don’t stress yourself out trying break the mold in every way possible.

Photo by Cat Satre Photography

Don’t Tell Secrets

Keep your wedding details a secret. I know you are excited about your wedding and all the wonderful, creative ideas you’ve dreamt up. However, don’t tell all. Just like a great movie, you would never want to know the whole plot before you see the movie. Save some of the surprises for your guests to experience on your special day! Some memorable examples from past weddings included a confetti canon shot off over the dance floor, the bride changing into a 2nd gown and evening fireworks for a grand finale.

Photo by Nonpareil Weddings

Think Long-Term

Use the 25-year rule when you have to make a big wedding decision: Are we going to care about this on our 25th anniversary? If you think so, give it due attention. If not, let it go.

Photo by Rainstorm Photo

Something Might Go Wrong – and That’s OK

We strive to make your day as seamless and as perfect as you imagined. Inevitably, something may go wrong that is out of your control. From a rainy day, a missing flower girl basket or the limo arriving late. Accept what you cannot change. The day is going to fly by…prepare yourself for at least one thing that is not going to go as planned. Do not stress…and just go with the flow! With the right team, you may not even know when hiccups arrive. Having a coordinator on your side absorbs the stress as they act as a buffer to ensure things flow smoothly without interrupting you.

Lisa was so fantastic as our day-of-coordinator. All the advice we received coming up to our wedding was “something will go wrong, don’t stress out about it”, “it all goes by so fast”, or “I didn’t even get to eat my own cake.” With Lisa as our coordinator, none of those things were true. She went above and beyond! We both enjoyed every moment of our wedding day and (as far as we know ;)) nothing went wrong (and we got to eat lots of cake)!
-Alexa, September 2019 bride

(Read more of our reviews here!)

Photo by Kae Marie Photography

When planning your wedding, there are things that are nice to know, and there are things that you need to know. We hope these nuggets of wedding planning advice help you to keep your sanity while planning for your special day.

Wedding Planning & coordination

LISA

VanHorton