Wedding planning (usually) these days can take anywhere from a few months to a few years. This is a significant chunk of time to spend debating about budgets, bridesmaids dresses, food choices, and invitation fonts with your family and in laws. Sometimes it can come easily and is a naturally fun process for some families! However, more often, it is fraught with tension and emotion (who knew your dad cared so much about the salad course selection….!?). We’re here to help with a few tips for keeping your cool and minimizing drama throughout the process. These are our Four P’s to stay Drama Free!
1. Prioritize Much like with your budget, we recommend prioritizing your selections when it comes to choosing vendors/options. If the menu is really important to you and your fiancé, but your mom really wants a different invitation style than you would prefer, consider compromising on the invitations and letting her “win” that choice, so that you can stand your ground when it comes to the menu selections.
2. Perspective Remember- some of these things may feel like life altering decisions in the moment but at the end of the day, they’re just details! Try to keep it in perspective when making selections and you feel things getting heated. “It’s just flowers. It’s just flowers. It’s just flowers.” Focus your aim on marrying your partner and then everything else becomes icing on the cake- suddenly the heat from those arguments dissipates.
3. Patience Try to maintain patience with all of those involved in the process. Maybe they are stressed (or don’t realize how stressed you are!). Maybe they don’t understand why you would prefer things to be a certain way during the ceremony, and you’ll need to explain it to them… again. If you’re excited to get planning underway it can be hard to maintain patience but if you can take a deep breath and take your time, that can often save a lot of drama. If you have patience and talk it through or maybe explore other options, even just showing the other party that you are putting effort in can sometimes make the difference between peace and .. er… not so peaceful discussions.
4. PLANNER. The most important P of all in our humble opinion! A wedding planner can be a perfect “fall guy”. The wedding planner is a fantastic buffer and neutral third party to help settle disagreements or offer practical advice on selections. If you hire a wedding planner you all trust, you know you have someone on your team who is rooting for you and will guide you (and your family!) through all of the hurdles ahead. Everyone is able to take a deep breath once you have a planner at the helm and that minimizes the drama before it even begins.
Alexandra Martin - NSWE Events
Photos courtesy of Alexandra Lee Photography
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