6 Ways To Avoid Wedding Planning Anxiety And Look After Your Mental Health

As far as big life events go, marriage is often touted as one of the most stressful. Weddings require a lot of planning and patience. It’s a once in a lifetime thing, so it’s only natural to feel some weight on your shoulders during this time.

Whether it’s during the arduous planning stages or the task of keeping up appearances on the day, there’s a lot to think about.

If wedding planning is taking its toll on you mentally, here are some tips on how to deal with wedding planning anxiety and look after your mental health.

1. Leave yourself enough time to plan everything properly.

A huge part of the anxiety around wedding planning is trying to get your perfect day set in stone in time for a deadline.

The planning stages will fly by as the date marked on your calendar creeps closer and closer. It is easy to let this get the best of you as the days, weeks and months go by.

Trying to rush planning one of the biggest days of your life is a recipe for anxiety. It is best to book the big things early like your venue, photographer and wedding entertainment. Once these building blocks are in place, you can start to tend to the smaller details like your décor, flowers and cake.

2. Stop comparing your wedding to those you see online.

The pressures of perfection are all too real with weddings.

Glossed up and filtered Instagram galleries of flawless couples and magical moments. It’s natural to want this. If anything, you are probably inspired by these photos of idealised weddings.

Taking inspiration from these weddings is a good idea, but don’t let the sense comparison overwhelm you. Your wedding should be yours, not a carbon copy of someone else’s you’ve seen online.

It’s easy to look at other people’s weddings and think that every single moment was perfect from beginning to end. Remember that you are seeing an edited version of events.

We edit our lives to fit into neat little packages and stories. These ‘stories’ suit the way we digest and breakdown information, especially in a world driven by social and modern media. This is why you see what looks to be perfection in other weddings but is in fact a polished, alternative reality of what really occurred.

3. Don’t feel guilty if you’re not enjoying wedding planning.

It’s a myth that every couple enjoyed the entirety of their wedding planning process.

From having to confront difficult relationships with friends and family members, financial stresses, the strain on your relationship with your fiancé and the pressure of expectation, there are a number of reasons why it might all become too much.

It’s not all roses and accepting this is a huge part of avoiding wedding planning anxiety.

It’s likely you’ve only planned one wedding in your life and it will probably remain that way! No one is expecting you to be an expert at this, so don’t expect this from yourself.

No one has ever told you how much to pay for a wedding DJ or what to look for in a wedding dress. There is so much to learn so forgive yourself for not taking it all in at once.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with not enjoying the planning process of your wedding. It’s more common than you might think.

4. Make things easier for yourself

Remove the stressful parts of your planning and go the easy route.

There is nothing wrong with doing this sometimes. You really don’t have to DIY every aspect of your day or have the most unique and incredible handmade cake.

Figure out what’s most important to you on your day and direct your focus towards that. If you’re not bothered about the other parts, it’s likely your guests won’t be either.

Make sure you get help from your venue. Ask your wedding venue questions and request supplier recommendations or packages. This can remove so much worry from your planning in an instant.

5. Embrace the imperfections of your day.

No wedding goes off without something going slightly array.

The sooner you accept this and also learn to embrace it, the better. The reality is, these mishaps and moments that don’t slightly go to plan are the ones you will remember the most.

These imperfections and are what make your day unique and special to you. Learn how to turn your imperfections into highlights and you will have much less anxiety about how your wedding day will go.

6. Surround yourself with stress free people

When it comes to initially planning your wedding, it can seem a little overwhelming with so much choice and information to take in.

In a stressful time you need helpful and stress free people – which is exactly where your closest friends and family come in. With all the other stresses that go hand in hand when organising a wedding, why worry so much when someone else can take the pressure off you?

Take a time out. Using all of your energy on planning a wedding isn’t good for your relationship or your mental health.

Your friends, family and loved ones are always there to confide in and use as a support group.