We’re coming to the end of Wedding month on the blog and I wanted to end it with the things I learnt whilst wedding planning. The whole year and a half of planning the day was a wild ride and I’d like to think I have some invaluable lessons to pass on to you.
You do you.
Don’t let anybody else tell you how or what to plan for your day. I know people can get quite forceful when it comes to weddings and what they expect from your day but ultimately, it’s YOUR wedding, to celebrate and solidify YOUR love, so you do you. Think eloping would be best for you for cost and to keep politics at bay? Do it! Want your ceremony at a registry office but your parents want you to have a church wedding? Book up that registry babes! You only get married once, have the day you and your partner want and you won’t regret it.
Know you’re not going to please everybody
I learnt this the hard way. There is no way you will ever be able to please and satisfy everybody – with venue, location, invite list, seating plan, food, drink, timings etc, so do what is best for you and your partner. The day is about you and the right people will support in your decisions that you’ve made together as a couple.
In my personal case, we wanted a childfree wedding (with the exception of my niece) but some of my wider family didn’t respect the decision that G and I had made as a couple (despite giving ample time and suggestions to help make this work – e.g. a year’s notice, offering to pay for a hotel room + a babysitter etc). In the end we made exceptions for some children (other than my niece Genie, who always going to be our guest) to ensure everyone stayed happy but in the end learnt that even that wasn’t quite enough. So remember that again, the day is about YOU, and YOUR love and if people aren’t happy with your decisions, hopefully they will still be respectful enough to allow you to have the day you want.
Have a budget and stick to it
Weddings are PRICEY. I would recommend sitting down before you book anything and doing some research to see how much roughly everything will cost, so you can work out a suitable budget. It really takes a lot of time and research to find the most cost effective options as the price gets hiked up as soon as the word wedding is involved, but stick with it! Wed2be are fantastic for affordable dress options (also second hand like eBay), you can upcycle a lot of wedding props and there are fantastic Facebook groups around the concept of affordable wedding ideas so you can save some money.
Don’t sweat the small stuff
It can be easy to feel completely overwhelmed with all the options, decisions and little details of the day but remember what the day is really about – you and your loved one. No one will notice if things go wrong on the day and no one will care if you skip on the wedding favours – they are there to support you both as a couple so don’t spend too much time fretting over every little detail.
I’ll be back next week to finish my wedding content off with a run down of the traditions we broke and also tips on wedding dress shopping!
Lots of love to you all,
Katie x
