Stress-Free Wedding

Hiring a Professional Wedding Planner

One of the most effective ways to minimize wedding stress is to bring a good wedding planner on board to help lighten the load. Many brides-to-be won’t even consider a planner due to budget concerns or issues with control, but if your goal is a seamless wedding process and stress-free wedding day, then hiring a wedding planner may be just what you need.

Some of these things might not apply to you, but generally, you will need to consider most of them.

The Earlier, the Better

As you may already know, stressful times can begin very early on in the process, so getting a professional wedding planner involved as soon as possible makes a difference. This will allow you to move your focus onto other things and still feel confident that everything is being taken care of according to your wishes.

Taking Big Responsibility Off Your Plate

When you try to DIY your wedding or even take on a large portion of the pre-wedding tasks yourself, your plate fills up with activity very quickly. With a wedding planner, you get to hand off many of the more time-consuming tasks that only end up draining you and taking time out of your day. Invitations, communicating with various vendors, making payments, tips, color schemes, seating charts, and many other details can all be managed by an expert.

You’ll also have all the help you need when the big day arrives, which is the one day you should not have to think about anything else besides getting married and being with your family.

You can’t Google experience

It’s essential to keep in mind that wedding planners do this for a living, and a few Google searches aren’t going to make up for their experience. They have insider knowledge that you don’t, can offer advice on some of the trickier wedding situations, and have troubleshooting capabilities in case things go awry.

If your goal is a stress-free wedding, then it just makes sense to outsource some of the wedding planning duties to a professional. By no means do you have to give up control of your wedding, and you’ll likely feel an even greater sense of control by having an experienced planner bring it all together for you.

Whether you decide to utilize the skills of a wedding planner or not, you can minimize the stress of your actual wedding day by keeping it simple.

Keeping Your Day Simple

You may not think the KISS principle of ‘keep it simple, stupid’ would apply to your wedding. After all, isn’t this the one day where you get to be as extravagant and elaborate as you want? The answer is yes, this is that day, but it doesn’t mean you need to make the day’s events overly complicated.

Keeping it simple will allow you to enjoy your wedding day in ways you likely haven’t considered, and will keep your stress levels at a minimum. Most brides find that their wedding day goes by much faster than they had anticipated, and those who do opt for simplicity are usually happy they did.

Along with hiring a wedding planner, here are some ways you can simplify your wedding day:

Plan your wedding day as early as possible

By having a basic structure of your wedding day nailed down as early as possible, you can work out many of the kinks in your wedding day before they happen.

Example: Many of the weddings we photograph have some form of party bus, due to the large bridal parties. A vehicle that has commercial plates can’t take parkways. Knowing this in advance will allow you to allocate more time for travel, so you don’t run late.

If you are going to a park, the last thing you want to find out is that you need a permit 2 weeks before your wedding.

I would highly suggest sitting down with your photographer about a month – 6 weeks before your wedding to go over the details of your day.

Book the Right Vendors

Let’s face it. You get what you pay for. If you found your wedding photographer off of Craigslist, chances are, they have no idea what they are doing. Cheaper is not always better. Hiring the right photographer, videographer, DJ, Limo company, and hair and makeup teams are going to be essential for having a stress-free wedding.

Choose your Decorations and Favors

Some people really go all out when it comes to wedding decorations and favors, but you can lean toward simple and still have as much of an effect on your guests. Candles and simple flower arrangements will give just as much ambiance to your venue as more complex, elaborate decorations.

Smaller Bridal Parties

We have photographed 1000’s of weddings, and we love bridal parties as much as the next wedding photographer. However, the bigger the bridal party, the more likely you are to have a bit more stress on and before your wedding day.

For guys, a bigger bridal party might not be a big deal. However, for girls, it might mean you wake up 3 hours earlier to do your hair and makeup – this could be the difference between an 8 am start time and a 5 am start time.

Schedule a Consultation with Your Photographer

When you are busy planning a wedding, time often tends to be your worst enemy. No matter how far in advance you seem to get the process started, time closes in and starts adding to your overall anxiety level.

The time paradox is evident in all aspects of your wedding planning, including your wedding photos. With so many other things to do, it’s easy to overlook this component and let it linger on the backburner for a while. But it would help if you remembered that it is your photos and videos that will tell the story of the biggest day of your life.

Planning Ahead Always Works Best

When you schedule a consultation early on with your wedding photographer, you can work out all the details and build a soft timeline for how things are going to go on the big day. If you make a point of getting this done at the beginning of the planning process after you’ve secured a venue, it won’t creep up on you later, and you will end up with the very best opportunities possible.

Beautiful Wedding Photos take time

It’s important to note that this is much more than “taking some wedding photos.” There is a wide range of factors to plan and consider to get all of the images you want. During your consultation, you can work out all of the details and customizations you want, but generally, wedding photos can include:

• Rings, shoes, dresses, and similar details
• Preparation photos (including hair, makeup, etc.)
• First look and daytime couple shots
• Individual portraits
• Wedding party photos
• Immediate family photos
• Ceremony venue
• The ceremony
• Reception venue
• Couples session
• Room shot
• Nighttime photos
• Cake cutting
• Parent dance
• Bridal party photos

Solidify your wedding timeline at least 4 weeks before the big day  

When you don’t have a plan, you plan to fail – this is a tried and true statement. Your photographer is so much more than a person that takes pictures. They are there to help guide you to having the wedding of your dreams. We take pride in putting together great timelines that will not only get you the best photos possible but the best experience as well.

Let’s face it, your hair and makeup team will leave you the day of the wedding, your limo driver will leave, you will talk to your DJ for 5 minutes the day of your wedding. Your photographer is the only person who is more focused on you having the wedding of your dreams than your spouse. Why? Because if you look stressed and worried, it will show in your photos!

Take the time and sit down with your photographer, and we will help you put together a realistic timeline. You don’t want to leave these types of things for the last minute.

5 Tips for Dealing with Difficult People While Planning Your Wedding

We’ve all heard the term before…you may have even encountered one at some point. And while combining the words “bride” and “Godzilla” was probably a joke initially, there is nothing funny about a bride-to-be that takes on that Bridezilla persona.

Quite often, it’s ‘Momzilla,’ ‘Friendzilla,’ or the dreaded soon-to-be ‘Mother-In-Lawzilla’ that is responsible for ramping up the stress level and forcing you to transform. In some cases, it may even be all three!

But unless you plan to run away with your beloved and exchange vows in a one-on-one scenario, other people are going to be part of the process. Here are 5 tips to help you deal with challenging people and keep your wedding about you.

1 – Set Clear Boundaries & Expectations

This is your day, and if you want to keep it all about you, then you will need to set crystal clear boundaries and expectations. It won’t take long after you’ve made your wedding announcement to figure out whom the difficult ones are going to be.

At this point, you need to communicate clearly about what you expect and what you will not tolerate during the process. You can still be loving, but your message needs to be firm, and it needs to be precise. This day is yours, and that’s that!

2 - Pick Your Battles

That being said, it’s never a good idea to get stressed out over every little thing. Keep in mind that these people are trying to help, and you can decide which aspects to push back on and which to let go of. If it isn’t going to affect the overall feel or dynamic of the day, it’s probably ok to relent.

3 – Give Them All a Defined Role

Before they reach in and take over certain aspects of your wedding planning, take the time to assign specific roles to each person that’s close to you. That may be your Mom, new Mother-in-law, bridesmaids, maid of honor, sisters, etc. Make your task list as early as possible, then encourage each person as they complete it. This is an excellent opportunity to outsource some of those tasks you aren’t keen on completing yourself.

4 - Don’t Argue with Reality

The reality is that there are people who are going to be challenging to manage throughout your wedding planning. When you start arguing with this reality and get in “this should be” type of mentality, you’re setting yourself up for a stressful experience. Set boundaries, be firm, assign tasks, but also accept that everyone is different and try to appreciate them for who they are.

5 – Be Flexible Without Altering Your Vision

Sometimes the problem with giving in a little is that you end up giving in a lot. When this happens, many brides-to-be end up resenting the people that prevented them from having their ideal wedding.

The truth is, no wedding is going to go off entirely without a hiccup or two, so flexibility is a must. But it’s also essential to keep your vision in mind so you can manage all the people and their expectations and still have the wedding of your dreams.