Lessons Learned While Wedding Planning #1

I’m starting a new series that I think might be beneficial to my readers. I know there are a number of you out there who are getting married soon or plan to at some point in the future. There are so many things that I picked up while planning a wedding and I wish I had known them before. It would have saved me a lot of heartache.

Determine who you want to have the ultimate control/decision-making ability during the entire process.

This may be the most important thing you do while planning your wedding. It was a lesson I learned early on and fast, and one that never really got ironed out in the whole process of planning.

There are usually 2 to 3 options here (maybe more depending on your family dynamic; divorced parents can play a big role here as I have seen in the weddings of friends): you, your parents, or a wedding planner. There are situations where those involved can be on equal footing, but that takes impeccable communication skills. The chances of that being the case are very slim and there needs to be someone who knows that they can act in the interests of the bride and groom, without having to consult them on every tiny decision (unless you have decided that every thing does need to be approved by you, the bride).

Without this decision being made and letting all parties involved know who can act and who has the power to write the checks, you need to be prepared for a lot of phone tag, back-and-forth, “are you sure you’re okay with this?” dealings that take up more time in the end than if you intrust these decisions to someone you know has your best interests at heart.

My advice if you are the picky type like myself and are planning a large wedding (I have no idea what the scale is. We sent out 450ish invitations, 2 blanket church invites at different churches, and ended up with around 350 or so in the church) is to be prepared before. Know what you want, have photos ready, and be prepared to hire someone to do the dirty work. Unless you have an extensive group of devoted friends and family who are willing to give up a month’s worth of weekends to help you make this thing happen, you are going to have to turn it over to someone else. This will spare you a lot of unnecessary stress.

For a smaller wedding (100 or less) I think you could manage it yourself. (Looking back, I wish I could have done that, though I would never want to exclude someone who wanted to attend our weddng from doing so.) And again, if you are very particular this may be the way to go. If your engagement is long enough and the guest list short enough you can do this. It will be less expensive, but there will be work.

There will be more! I learned a lot while planning our wedding. If you have any particular questions you’d like answered, feel free to leave them in the comments or email me at liz @ misswisabus.com

Related posts:

1. Wedding Plans
2. Wedding update!
3. All This Did Was Make Me Feel Spoiled