10 Ways To Have a Stress Free Wedding Day

We can’t stress enough to our clients that their memory and experience of their wedding day is more important than any little detail that may go wrong. In 10 years you won’t remember if the seating chart was wrong, or a napkin wasn’t printed right, or a particular color flower wasn’t available, and you really wont remember that little bit of dirt that got on your dress during your photo session ! Haha. But you will remember how you felt that day. You will remember the look in your partners eyes, the nerves you felt walking down the aisle, the joy when you kissed after saying “I Do”. These are the things that matter.

Here are 10 ways to eliminate stress and things that just dont matter from your big day ! And two of Seattle’s best wedding planners chime in with their professional advice on deleting stress from your wedding day.

Remember that your wedding day is about you and your fiance, and your preferences and comfort are top priority. During your wedding planning process and your wedding day, there are going to be a lot of opinions coming from vendors, family members, and friends, and it can become truly overwhelming to try to accommodate everyone. By recognizing that you cannot please everyone, and realizing that you don’t have to please everyone, you can let that expectation go and that can relieve so much stress!

Hire help. Yes, it is strongly encouraged for you to hire a coordinator to manage your wedding day and make sure everything is executed smoothly, but we also highly recommend that you hire either a full-service caterer or hiring event staffing if your caterer does not automatically come with staffing. Being able to arrive and depart from your wedding without having to worry about set up, break down, or cleaning anything removes so much stress and allows you to fully be present and enjoy yourself.

To get in touch with Alyssa about planning your stress free wedding day check out her site here www.pacificengagements.com

Madison from Cottrell & Co. Events :

Trying to please everyone is a fast way to feel let down. So instead promise yourself and your partner that all decisions will be sort of (well, selfish). Make your wedding decisions based on your wants and needs and don’t worry about what others may expect of you or what they may think. Just do you ! Don’t like cake ? then don’t have any ! Prefer pizza to salmon and chicken ? Then have pizza !

We all know those family members or friends that focus too much on the negative. Maybe they nit-pick how you look or roll their eyes a little too much. Keep these people away on the big day ! If they have to attend, seat them at a distance and don’t have them in your getting ready room or in your formal portraits. Maybe it sounds cold but it only takes on snide comment to put you in a down mood and there is no room for that on this joyous day !

Pick and choose things that are important to you. If you try to do every wedding day activity, tradition, or trend all in one day it will be too crammed. Leave yourself time and space to just enjoy the day, chat without a time limit, and relax. A lot of our clients don’t do garter tosses, bouquet tosses, tons of speeches etc anymore. It’s good to pick what matters and focus on that.

4. Don’t have your bachelorette party the day before (or even 48 hours before) your wedding day. Trust me ! Hangovers don’t help you feel your best. And your skin will thank you for putting a large gap between the bachelorette party and the wedding day 🙂

5. Hire vendors you trust ! So you dont feel the need to micromanage them. Your wedding shouldn’t feel like a full time job. If you hire vendors you honestly trust that have been in the industry a long time and have glowing reviews, then you should be able to sit back and let them do their jobs, so you don’t have to.

6. Hire a planner ! seriously, this should probably be #1 but these are not in order of importance. This is the number one best way to eliminate stress. A good planner with experience can take all the things off your shoulders, and they do so with a smile and a great attitude ! Check out some of our favorite planners here. 

7. Focus on the meaning of the day. It’s not a movie production, a performance, or a fashion show. Its a celebration of love and of this relationship you built with your partner. So don’t let any pressure or outside influence take away from the true meaning of this day.

8. Add in lots of buffer time ! Have your wedding planner make sure you have time to run late in your time line. Having a time line that leaves no room for error or lateness is unrealistic and leads to unnecessary stress. It’s much better to have too much extra time than not enough.

9. Do one or two trial runs with your hair and makeup team ! How you look can often be a direct reflection to how you feel. If you love how you look you will feel confident and great and ultimately super happy on your big day ! So make sure you communicate what you like and don’t like about your hair and makeup to your artist.

10. Do an engagement session ! Just like a trial run with your makeup artist, your engagement session is a trial run with your photographer. To see how they photograph you. To learn about what side is your “good side” if you like your laughing out loud smile, or prefer a more laid back smile. Getting practice with your actual wedding photographers is invaluable to feeling more confident with them on the wedding day.