Biggest Wedding Planning Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Hi everybody its Claire from Claire Ashley Beauty. I have another wedding advice video and column for you guys. Today I thought I would share with you our top wedding planning mistakes and how to avoid them.
Let’s go ahead and get right into it. The first mistake you want to avoid is not having a game plan for your wedding day. When you first get engaged you just want to soak it in. You’re kind of just like what just happened to me? It all feels so good and you want to really process everything – drink champagne and have fun 🙂
It is important to come to terms of the fact that wedding planning is a big process.
It’s very daunting too so you want to make sure you set up a game plan. We could not be luckier at the time we are living right now to plan our weddings, because there are online resources that are free such as Wedding Wire or the Knot. They are my absolute favorites because you can go on the websites and actually give yourself a timeline with benchmarks on what you need to book.
It also gives you a lot of options on browsing vendors in your area and it’s just this very easy space to navigate and to understand what weddings cost. It also tells you when you need to be booking certain vendors by what time. These are all the things that I was really frightened by in the beginning so this just gives you a really good outline.
You can get an app with a checklist and all info that is in one place. It really helps to put it in your mind and put you at ease when you’re starting the wedding planning process.
The second mistake to avoid is waiting to figure out your guest list. Your wedding guests are actually a really important component of your wedding planning. The wedding guest list really does dictate your wedding venue size.
If you want one of this beautiful venues but it only holds 75 people in a small space and you’re not going to be able to have that 200 invited that you and your fiance are hoping to have. You need to make sure that your guest list is able to fit the size of the venue and also your budget.
Getting a rough draft of your guest list is super important because it’s going to really dictate a lot of other decisions in the wedding planning.
Our third mistake when planning a wedding would be to book your wedding vendors too quickly. I was definitely struggling with this at beginning because I felt like it was a very competitive market. Â I live in the DC area and everything moves quickly so I found myself being so quick with it that I wasn’t really thinking things through.
You don’t want to rush your selection and you want to really do your research. You want to look at online reviews and check vendors out. You can look on Google reviews, the Wedding Wire website and establish who fits your needs.
When looking at different wedding vendors keep in mind your budget. Read the reviews so you can really see what people say in the testimonials so you’re getting an unbiased opinion about that vendor.
The fourth mistake is not realizing about the hidden costs. For instance when you are wedding dress shopping and you set aside $1,500 for your wedding dress. You go in and you find your dream dress and its $1,500 you might feel like you’ve made your budget. What you don’t realize it is that there’s alterations involved which can tack on a couple other hundred dollars. There could be a shipping fee or if your dress is out-of-state there might tax or a delivery fee.
My next wedding mistake that you want to avoid would be not doing a wedding make up or hair trial. I think it’s so important having a trial beforehand and meeting with beauty vendors and get to know them a little bit.
You want to make sure you look and feel your best on your wedding day.
I know we all want to feel and look amazing and that it’s really important to have that done beforehand. It gives you a chance to play with different ideas and see how they turn out in real life. It’s also a great idea to do your wedding makeup trial on the same day as you do your pre-wedding photoshoot.
The next common mistake I think we’re all guilty of is comparing our wedding to others. You don’t want to get caught up in what other people are doing or feeling like it’s so much better than you. Stop looking at Instagram and feeling like your wedding will never be like that or will be worse.
A lot of things on Instagram are very much over the top and often staged or over stylized. Stay true to your own style, your own taste and your own vision for your wedding day. Don’t feel like it’s not good enough. Focus on what you and your fiance love. Make it your own and make it special and that’s its going to be unique because it will reflect you as a couple.
The next wedding mistake I learned the hard way is not having a plan B. You never know about things like whether on the day of, if it’s going to rain so you should be prepared. You have to have a backup plan.
If you are not prepared for it is going to cause a lot of anxiety on your wedding day and you don’t want that. Luckily if you hired experienced vendors, for example a top Toronto wedding photographer like Avangard Photography, they will come up with a backup plan for you so you are ready and prepared for any eventuality.
Next mistake I would recommend avoiding is trying to do everything yourself. I touched on this in the last video where I talked about wedding planning. It can be too much to take on all of this by yourself. Â If people want to help you and to be a part of your wedding day could be a bonding experience between you and your friends.
It’s also okay to ask for help if you’re feeling stressed or burdened. You can alleviate any sort of stress if you push and delegate some tasks to other people. You friends and family will be so happy to do it for you and help out on your big day. You also should consider hiring a professional wedding planner if you budget allows it.
The last thing to avoid planning your wedding would be to not try to please everyone around you. You’re going to have a lot of people giving opinions and sharing their thoughts on all aspects of wedding planning.
You should be open to all options and ideas but at the end remember that the wedding day is a reflection on you as a couple so stay true to yourself and at the end you’ll feel the best about the outcome.