Pre-wedding jitters are one thing but trying to plan a wedding with anxiety is a whole new challenge and one many brides face.
Your wedding is supposed to be 'the best day ever' and planning it should be the most fun part, but whats supposed to be an exciting time planning out your perfect day can quickly become very overwhelming. So many brides out there struggle with anxiety, so if you're an anxious bride, you're not alone. Here are some helpful tips to try and reduce the stress and get you back to feeling excited!
Get a wedding organiser/planner/notebook
Pinterest is a great tool for planning out your dream wedding but social media and screen time are not so great for anxiety. All the impossibly perfect pictures we see spread across our newsfeeds can add to the planning pressure and distract you from the things you actually want. Get hold of a pretty notebook or splash out on a fancy wedding planner (like this one from Paperchase) and physically make lists, notes and doodles. Not only is it therapeutic but writing things down gets things out of your head and onto paper. Seeing everything written down in front of you will also help you get organised, rather than trying to keep everything in your mind.
Give yourself time
One of the major things with anxiety is the want to postpone things until they absolutely have to be done. Particularly with the less romantic and more nitty gritty bits, its easy to bury your head in the sand and hope it gets done somehow. Not only is this not ideal for wedding planning (vendors get booked up well in advance!) but it also doubles the amount of stress you feel when you actually have to do it. Take your new wedding organiser, write a list of everything that needs to be done (or find a handy guide online to copy) and put dates down for every part to be completed by. Factor in a little more time than you think you'll need so that your covered if anything takes longer than expected and that way you'll have plenty of time to relax nearer the day.
Write a list of everything that needs to be done and put dates down for every part to be complete by
Make goals and targets
Following on from the timing part, make yourself a set of goals to complete. Take each part of your 'to do' list and break it down further into individual parts. For example, sorting stationery could be split into 'sort save the dates', 'decide a theme for stationery', 'sort main invites', 'List on-the-day stationery needed'...etc. Once you've broken it down, put a time limit or date on everything to work towards. Don't beat yourself up if you don't make this date as its more of a guideline but having something to aim towards will give you that motivation needed to get stuff sorted and, if you're anything like me, you'll find it oddly satisfying ticking things off your list! Having a basic plan written out will make it easier to see things getting sorted and put your mind at ease that you haven't forgotten anything.
Enjoy your hen night!
For some people with anxiety, social situations are the absolute worst! So the idea of a crazy hen night surrounded by hundreds of people in a noisy location is enough to have you breaking out in a sweat. But your hen night is a night to celebrate you and your best friends, so it can be anything you like! There's a lot of pressure on women to have big, fancy parties or go abroad with a huge group of friends, which is great if that's what you enjoy, but it's not right for everyone. Make sure your Maid of Honour or bridal party know exactly what you want, whether its a chilled out spa day or a pizza night with your mum and 3 closest friends, and plan something you can actually enjoy rather than trying to live up to 'the norm'.
Whether its a chilled out spa day or a pizza night with your mum and 3 closest friends, plan something you can actually enjoy
Visualise the end goal
I'm not saying you should think away your wedding day but sometimes visualising the end goal can really help ease up those nerves. Picture yourself leaving the ceremony, married to the person you love, happy, relaxed and ready to party with your nearest and dearest. No matter what has happened in the build up, how much you've worried or the little things that maybe didn't quite go to plan, you'll be leaving your wedding ready to start a whole new chapter of your life with someone you love by your side. Always remember this whilst your planning and let that moment of bliss when you realise everything has fallen into place lead you through those more panicky times.
Your wedding is all about you and your partner and if one or both of you feel anxious, it's hard to enjoy all the little things leading up to the day and easy to forget why you're getting married in the first place. Push aside tradition, Pinterest weddings and the things you think you should be doing and plan a day that makes you happy.
For any advice around your wedding stationery, drop me an email or message on social media for a free chat to help guide you through the process.