When you are in the process of planning the potential happiest day of your life, there is no doubt that you need to be doing everything that you can to ensure that it is as special as it possibly can be. At the same time, there are also a whole host of potential mistakes that have been made by all sorts of couples in days gone by that you can avoid.
The following blog post is going to be examining these in a higher level of detail to ensure that you are not in a position in which you are going to fall into common traps that have already been laid out. So, let’s get started.
Making Plans Before Setting Your Budget
First up on the list, there is certainly no doubt that you need to have a clear budget in mind for your wedding. Otherwise, you are simply going to end up in a situation in which you are dreaming of all these special things in front of you, but you may not have the financial means behind you to pull them off.
This can lead to all sorts of disappointment that could have been otherwise avoided. The plans that you are making can still be highly special and personal, but you do not want to put yourself on the road to financial ruin for them to happen.
Listening to the Opinion of Everybody
It can easily get to the stage when every single person and his dog has an opinion about your special day. However, if you get to the stage in which you are trying to listen to every single person out there, it is inevitably going to get to the point in which you are seriously struggling to make your ideas come to fruition.
Therefore, you should be taking the opinions of others with the pinch of salt that they deserve. Otherwise, you are going to get to the stage where you are seriously stressing yourself out trying to make everything happen for every single other person rather than yourself. Of course, you always have the option of canvassing the opinion of others that mean something to you as and when you need it for any reason.
Not Researching Ideas Enough
There is no doubt that before you get your plans fully into action, you want to be able to look as far and as wide as possible about all the different ideas that you could be implementing. For example, instead of a traditional wedding in a church, you could instead investigate the option of a beautiful yacht wedding.
The more ideas that you start to look at, the more likely it is that you are going to be able to stumble across something that works well for you. Not only this, but you are also going to get better at filtering through the ideas of where your preferences remain and what simply does not work in your eyes.
Failing to Have a Plan B for Rain
If you are going to have a big day that is held outdoors, there is no doubt that you need to have a plan in place in case the weather does not play ball in the way that you would otherwise want it to. While you may not be wanting to think of a plan B at this stage, there is no doubt at all that you will be grateful for it should the worst happens.
For example, are there going to be any marquees that you can rent out if the wedding happens in the open air? Your venue should be able to offer some potential plan B ideas should you need them for one reason or another.
Making Your Guestlist Too Long
While you may well want to invite a whole range of people to your wedding, it could also prove to not be realistic in the way that you had wanted it to be. Therefore, you need to start to whittle down your guest list sooner rather than later.
While this may be a tricky process, the longer that you give yourself to get it done, the better and the easier that it is going to be in so many ways. You can only have as many people coming as your budget is going to allow, so make sure that you are taking this firmly into account.
Not Getting the Timings Right
Of course, many people will set aside a whole day to have a wedding, but you need to think about how the day is going to flow. There may be some periods that require a significant period of standing around and you need to think about how the entertainment is going to allow the day to flow.
Not only this, but you should also be thinking in terms of food and drink. While you may have the sit-down meal served at a certain point, there may well be a time in which you are going to need to serve some drinks and canapes that will get people through to the next stage of the wedding.
Not Sending Out the Invites at the Right Time
If you have given yourself enough time to plan the big day, you should also have plenty of time in front of you to send out the invites. Ultimately, you can start with a save the date if you would like to ensure that people are not going to book something else on that day.
You then need to send out the formal invitations. Essentially, the more time that you give yourself, the more likely it is that people are not going to have anything else to do on that day. If you have something that is particularly grand in mind, such as an abroad wedding, you are going to need to give yourself even more time to ensure that people can book all of their travel, accommodation, and everything else involved.
Not Looking at the Option of a Wedding Planner
For a lot of people, they never really think twice about having a wedding planner take care of it all. For others, they simply think that they are going to be able to take care of every single detail for themselves, which means that they bite off more than they can chew.
Even if you decide not to eventually go through with hiring a wedding planner, it is going to be more than worth considering it as a potential option that could prove to make all the difference to ensure that your big day is going to go off without a hitch.
Sweating the Small Stuff Too Much
When you get closer to the big day itself, you can guarantee that some things are going to go wrong along the way. Therefore, you need to be careful before you start sweating the small stuff and worrying about every single little issue in front of you.
Otherwise, you can easily get into a situation in which you are simply driving yourself crazy and you are not going to be able to fully enjoy what you have in front of you. Ultimately, you need to put each problem in the grand scheme of things and remind yourself why you are going to be getting married in the first place and what it all means to the two of you.
Not Creating a Wedding List
If you are going to be asking for gifts from people, you certainly need to make sure that you have taken the time to create a wedding list. This way, you have a clear working document that tells people what they need to be buying for you. Of course, in the modern world, it is going to be commonly the case that many people find that asking for a cash donation is what they require.
A lot of people live together before they get engaged, which means that they have already accumulated all the stuff that they need, and a cash donation can go a long way towards a honeymoon or some other major and special purchase like this.
Following Tradition to the Letter
While it is nice to have some tradition baked into your wedding, you cannot simply assume that your big day is going to follow the type of format that has been seen over and over again. Instead, you can make the vow to create your own traditions and organize the type of big day that is special to the two of you and is not all about pleasing other people.
All of these are among the common wedding planning mistakes that are certainly going to be worth avoiding. So, now is the time to take them into account. Although it can be a stressful time for many people, if you take the steps to plan with plenty of time, you can account for many possible stresses, and give yourself the best chance of enjoying your special day to the fullest.