Hey, you. Yeah, you, the bride and/or groom that is engaged. Want to know a secret? Of course you do. No one should feel confident when they plan a wedding.
Don’t feel bad, though. It is an extremely big task with the pressure of 50-plus people expecting to be blown away.
However, this can be a fun process and hiccup-free! What you need to think about is being aware of the potential pitfalls. Lucky for you, we’ve listed 10 common mistakes most wedding couples will make and how to avoid them.
10. Forgetting What is Important
Wedding day expectations is the best day of your life, but the reason you’re doing it is to start a life together with the person you love. When you are planning, arguments will occur. This is not how you want to start married life, is it?
Keep the wedding in perspective. Schedule date nights where wedding chat is banned! It is the rest of your life together that is most important.
9. Not Eating on the Day
It’s easy for the bride and bridal party to skip breakfast and lunch. The trouble is it could leave you feeling awful when standing up at the altar. Even for the groom on the day, you might want a beer or two to calm the nerves, but make sure you have eaten something or you could find yourself losing awareness when it comes to speeches.
On the day, you’re likely to miss the canapés. When greeting guests, ask the caterer to set you aside a few nibbles. This’ll be enough until the meal.
8. Rejecting the Wedding Planner
A wedding planner can be worth their weight in gold – relieving stress and solving problems. A problem people have with a wedding planner is that they think they’re just for celebrities. This is false. There’s planners for every kind of budget and wedding style. If money is tight, a wedding planner might be the first thing to go. However, bear in mind a wedding planner could save you money because they can get great deals using their suppliers and venue connections.
7. No Hair and Makeup Trial
Don’t do anything drastic like going from dark brunette to cool blonde right before the wedding. Also, don’t leave something as important as how your face and hair will look in every photo to chance, unless you’re Angelina Jolie. Remember, you will want to look at these pictures forever.
Book a trial in for around three months before the big day. This will give you time to play with ideas!
6. Overdecorating
You do not need those glittery lights you saw on Amazon at 2am, ok.
There’s three simple things to consider:
- Find out the decor already in the venue, and how much space is on the tables
- Speak with a florist – they often have centrepieces that can be enough
- Draw yourself a plan of how you envision the room – don’t let it get too busy
Honestly, less is sometimes more when it comes to wedding venues.
5. Inviting Too Many
Wouldn’t it be swell if you could invite everyone you know to your big day? Unless you have Harry and Meghan’s bank account, that’s unfortunately a pipe dream.
Expect 10-20% of your guests to not attend the day when sending out the invites the traditional 6-8 weeks in advance. Create two lists to stagger your invites. When you’ve heard back from the first list, then send out the second list.
4. Not Calling in Favours
An easy way to save money is to borrow friends’ talents. Know a great cake maker? Top of the range DJ? As long as you don’t take advantage, they could be happy to help. There’s no harm in asking, guys.
3. No Wet Weather Plan
It’s Great Britain. You’re telling me you haven’t planned for if it rains?
If you’re planning on marrying in the garden of a venue, speak to the coordinator to see if there’s a backup room that they could quickly dress and put chairs in if the weather turns. Damp guests and a muddy aisle isn’t the look, guys.
2. Including Traditions for the Sake of It
Wearing white, tossing your bouquet, not seeing your partner before you go to the altar and cutting the cake are not things you have to do for your wedding.
2021 is all about mixing and matching traditions that are actually meaningful, modern and fun! Think about what empowers and speaks to you and as the couple.
1. Blowing Budget Early
What a surprise at number one, eh? Blowing the budget in general is never ideal, but finding yourself broke six months before the wedding day is panic city! Money is a tricky conversation to have, and it needs to be an honest one with your partner.
Yes, weddings are super exciting, but that doesn’t mean you start ordering everything you see on Pinterest. Make a realistic budget, start saving month-by-month, find your venue, decide your theme and work backwards to budget everything else.
