It can be difficult to stay realistic with your wedding planning, but it’s still an important thing to strive for.
It’s easy to get caught up when planning a wedding. What with Pinterest, movies, and all the wedding related items we see on a daily basis, one would assume that every wedding is just magic. The thing is that wedding magic doesn’t just happen. And, it’s not always that feasible. Yes, every wedding has magic in it, but it’s not all roses and peonies, most of the time.
At the end of the day, it’s important to stay realistic with your wedding planning. This means taking into account what you’re planning, and how easy and affordable it will be for you to do so. It does not mean giving up on your dream wedding. To stay realistic with your wedding planning takes thought, intention, and guidance.
How To Stay Realistic With Your Wedding Planning
This post is going to share with you how to stay realistic with your wedding planning. The purpose of it is to help you plan the wedding you and your partner want, while not messing up things like your bank account and mental health. This is meant to be a grounding post, the kind that will help others see what is possible for them and their situation. If you stay grounded while wedding planning, you’ll be planning your wedding the right way.
Let’s get into it!
DOCUMENT YOUR PRIORITIES
The first tip to stay realistic with your wedding planning is to know your priorities.
Understanding, and then listing out, what is most important to you will help you see where to spend the most time and money. For example, photography may be more important to you than alcohol. Knowing this will help you allocate more time to finding the right photographer, more of your budget for photography, and more time for actual photos on your wedding day, than you would for your wedding bar. Conversely, if alcohol isn’t that important, you may be led to find a venue that limits your alcohol options, or you may host a dry wedding to save costs.
You see where I’m going here?
Knowing your priorities is key to staying realistic. It’s not realistic for most engaged people to spend tons of spend time and money on absolutely everything.
HAVE REGULAR CHECK IN’S WITH YOUR PARTNER
You know what keeps me grounded? My partner.
Yes, it can be fun to go a little nutty planning a wedding. Creating Pinterest boards. Spending hours in rabbit holes of research and inspiration. All of that is great, but when it comes to your vision and actually making decisions and signing contracts, your partner is key. So, have regular check in’s with them. Discuss what’s next with your wedding planning journey. Talk about the overall vision, or changes to it from what you once wanted. Hear their feedback, and then continue planning.
KNOW YOUR BUDGET
You know what can get really real, real fast? Blowing your budget.
How do you know if you’ve blown your wedding budget? Well, if you don’t have a budget, it can be difficult to tell. So, know your budget. Understanding how much money you have to spend on your wedding will allow you to make informed choices. By default, attempting to stick to a budget will allow you to stay realistic with wedding planning. Even better if your partner is watching the budget, too.
DO YOUR RESEARCH ON HOW MUCH THINGS COST
To stay realistic, we have to do our research. This is super true when it comes to how much stuff costs.
When you’re planning a wedding, you can’t ignore the costs of things. They are what they are. And, if you don’t know the fair market value of things, you may overspend. This, in and of itself, will not keep you grounded. Overspending can have a snowball effect, the kind of thing that causes people to throw all caution out into the wind and go into debt to fund their weddings. Or, blow their life’s savings.
Knowing how much things cost will allow you to properly create a wedding budget and make wise choices as you plan your wedding.
CREATE A PLAN OR CHECKLIST
One way to stay realistic with your wedding planning is to actually make a plan.
What does this look like? Well, you can make a long list of to-do’s and deadlines to complete them. Or, you can create or utilize one of the many free wedding checklists you can easily find online. The key here is to know what you need to take care of, from start to finish. Once you know that, you can plan out when you will do, and in what order. The highest priority items get done first, and then the lower ones get done last. Doing this prevents you from spending time and money on certain things at the wrong time.
BE CLEAR WITH THE EXPECTATIONS YOU HAVE ON OTHERS
Sometimes a little communication can go a long way.
Have a vision for how your bridal party will participate in your wedding and pre-wedding events? How about your family? Are you expecting certain actions from them, but have never talked about it? What about your partner? Do they know what you need or want from them?
If not, it’s time to get organized with your expectations of others and start talking to them about it.
By doing so, you’ll get feedback from those around you. Information on what is actually feasible. Intel on what others are capable of, realistically. You may also get validation that your vision is aligned with theirs, which also keeps things based in reality.
HAVE A SYSTEM TO TRACK EXPENSES
I know I shared about budgets earlier, but a budget is no good if you don’t track what’s spent.
Here’s the thing. Once you know what you can spend on your wedding, and have a rough idea of how much things cost, you need to check in along the way as you spend money. You may underspend in one category and be able to splurge more than you thought in another category. Or, you may overdo it on something and need to adjust accordingly. Either way, tracking what’s coming in, and out, is crucial. So, create a spreadsheet. Use an app. Ask your partner to get involved. Just have a system that works for you.
TALK TO SOMEONE WHO RECENTLY GOT MARRIED
You know what gives us a dose of reality? Learning from the experience of others.
To stay realistic with your wedding planning, talk to people who recently got married. Ask them what went to plan. What ended up different than they expected. Find out what they would change, if they could go back in time. Learn from others and you’ll have a more robust and realistic plan for your own wedding.
TRY A DIY TEST RUN BEFORE ANY PROJECTS
When it comes to DIY projects, you need to proceed with caution. This means that before you invest a ton of money into supplies and set aside valuable time to put something together, you need to be sure you know what you’re doing.
If you are able to do some sort of DIY craft for your project that you have never done before, do your research. Ask a crafty friend to help. Look at YouTube tutorials. Delve deep into the planning of it before running off to your local craft store, spending hours on something, and then realizing you can’t use it.
You’ve been warned! And, if you need more tips on this subject, check out this post.
DON’T NEGLECT YOUR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH
There is a big link between crucial thinking and our health. Both mental and physical.
When we are stressed, our bodies and minds pay the price. This can impact our ability to think clearly. Without that ability, we can become obsessed with details that just don’t matter. Or, we can make poor decisions. So, while you’re planning your wedding, keep your mental and physical health care going. Find time to relax. Connect with your partner. Spend time with friends. Exercise. Eat right. Nourishing your mind and body will aid you in many different ways.
MAKE AN ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN WITH YOUR PARTNER
Oh, okay. An accountability plan. What does that even mean?
Well, an accountability plan means being transparent with someone else. It’s about committing to certain things, and then checking in to make sure you are sticking to them. With regards to wedding planning, you could set a timeline with your partner on when certain things will get done. And then, you check in with them as the tasks are accomplished. Or, you set a budget and again, check in with your partner on what’s been spent and what the plan is for the rest of your budget.
Having your partner stay involved will help you both stay grounded and “in check”, so to speak.
LISTEN TO THE ADVICE YOUR VENDORS GIVE
You know who gives great advice about weddings? Experienced wedding professionals.
Here’s the thing. You may have a grand idea for your wedding. And, you may need help from a vendor to make it happen. If they point out any flaws in your idea, listen to them. Yes, at the end of the day, this is your wedding, and vendors will do what they can, within reason and contract, to make it exactly what you want. However, vendors will also let you know what may not go according to your plan, and why. This means you may need to adjust your vision, or accept that things may not turn out as expected.
BEWARE OF WHAT YOU SEE ON PINTEREST
Okay, last tip to help you stay realistic with your wedding planning.
Pinterest is among the worst offenders when it comes to prompting engaged people to plan unrealistic weddings.
If you’re not aware of what Pinterest is, you can check out this post for more information. To sum it up, Pinterest is a collection of curated posts, photos, and videos of beautiful ideas. Weddings are not the only focus on Pinterest, but they are a big one. And, the photos and videos of weddings on Pinterest need to be taken with a grain of salt. They are not always the best depiction of reality.
Many photos on Pinterest are professionally staged and shot, and not every wedding is even a real wedding. Plus, even if the photos are from real weddings, budgets, locations, and vendors are all different. Pinterest can cause you to compare your wedding to the opposite of reality.
THOUGHTS ON HOW TO STAY REALISTIC WITH YOUR WEDDING PLANNING
Friends, in order to stay realistic with your wedding planning you need to be intentional and organized. Don’t neglect the planning aspect of your wedding. This means setting a realistic budget, doing your research, asking for opinions, and not planning in a silo. It all comes down to being thoughtful about what is possible. Hope this helps! Happy wedding planning!
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