With all the chaos of a wedding and all the planning that goes along with it, you’re bound to make a mistake here or there. It’s normal. No one can ever have that perfectly planned, smooth sailing wedding. And surprisingly, there are universally common wedding planning mistakes that most people make, without even realizing just how common it is. Here’s a list of the wedding planning mistakes that you need to avoid.
Wedding Planning Mistakes You Need to Avoid
When it comes to your wedding, you need to look out for these common wedding planning mistakes, that you should avoid. Mistakes can be costly both financially and with your time. And avoiding these situations will guarantee that you also avoid the consequences and the stress that goes along with it.
Not Giving Yourself Enough Time to Plan Your Wedding
A quick elopement that’s rushed and barely planned, may work perfectly as a romantic wedding plot for a movie. In reality, nothing ever just ‘falls into place’ when it comes to planning a wedding. But still, a lot of couples decide to rush through their wedding plans, not realizing how stressful this situation can get. Not giving yourself enough time to plan for a wedding is a big mistake.
You need to guarantee that you and your partner have enough time to plan for everything that requires time for your wedding day. It’s ideal to have at least 6 months of planning time for your wedding day. This will give you enough time to book venues, finalize clothes, vendors, the cake, entertainment, invite guests, and, most importantly, prepare your wedding license to be signed. Learn how long you’ll need to plan a wedding from the article ‘stages of planning a wedding.’
Not Setting Your Budget Before Doing Anything Else
If you find yourself eager to buy your wedding dress, reserve your dream venue, book your favorite photographer and videographer, but you have yet to set your budget, then this is a recipe for wedding planning mistakes. It’s hard to know how much you should spend on certain aspects of your wedding plans if you have yet to confirm your wedding budget.
The mistake is booking certain things for your wedding and then realizing that you can’t afford them because you have yet to confirm how much you can afford for your special day. You need to set your budget as soon as you can before you move on to the next steps of planning your wedding. This is best done with a wedding planner. Which perfectly sets us up to the next big wedding planning mistake.
Not Hiring a Wedding Planner
A lot of couples assume that a wedding planner may just be an unnecessary additional expense. It’s easy to think that you can plan a wedding all by yourself. But unless you have experience planning events around your area, or will be happy with a really simple and lowkey wedding celebration, it’s not as easy as it may seem.
A wedding planner has the expertise and experience to build a good wedding plan, work around a specific budget, and call upon the right people and vendors to make your wedding ideas come to life. Without a wedding planner, you’ll personally have to dedicate a significant amount of research time to get the best deals, make the right decisions, and complete your wedding plans, within the time frame and budget you are aiming for. And this is a lot of work even before the planning starts.
Not hiring a wedding planner is one of the most common wedding planning mistakes people make. And it is one that you should avoid. You don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money on a wedding planner. You can hire someone or a team that’s just starting up, but still has sufficient experience to give you the wedding you want. What’s important is meeting with different wedding planners and choosing the one that you feel will help you create the event you want, within the budget you want to work with.
Hiring a Friend as Your Wedding Planner
It is also not the best idea to hire a close friend as your wedding planner, unless you can guarantee that you both have a great friendship where you can be honest and brutal with one another, without this affecting your relationship. The problem with hiring a friend for your wedding planner is that it’ll be hard for you to disagree with your friend’s professional opinion if this is not something you’re happy with.
It’s the same principle as never doing business with your friends or family. You will be placed in really challenging and emotionally draining situations, and you need a professional as a wedding planner, rather than a friend.
Not Planning the Timeliness of Your Invitations
With all that is happening with wedding plans, it’s easy to make one of the simplest wedding planning mistakes. To send your wedding invitations at the wrong time. You want to be able to give your guests enough time to plan for your wedding. This can be requesting time off from work, booking a place to stay near your venue, buying gifts and clothes for the occasion. This is as much of a special event for them as it is for you, and they would want ample time to be able to prepare for your wedding. The ‘stages of planning a wedding’ will teach you exactly when you should send your invitations out.
It’s ideal to send your invitations at least 6 months before your wedding date. This will give your guests enough time to confirm if they can attend your wedding date and enough time for you to gather the final count of wedding guests for your wedding planner. This timing is important for you as well as your guests as you will need to also inform your venue, your caterers, and wedding day vendors, what the final count of your guests will be.
Not Giving Yourself Enough Time to Fix Your Marriage License
The one document that will make your entire wedding day official, is the most important document that you need to fix before your wedding day. And a big wedding planning mistake many brides and grooms to-bo make, is not giving themselves enough time to fix the marriage license.
It may seem simple and straightforward to acquire a marriage license. But this is a big misconception most people have. The reality is, there’s a lot of paperwork involved with requesting for a marriage license. And there’s often a long process to it before you can actually receive it.
On the other hand, a marriage license that has not been signed is also limited to a time before it expires (between 30 to 60 days). You’ll need to get it within the month prior to your wedding day, to guarantee that you actually can sign your marriage license on the day of your wedding.
It’s all about planning the timeliness of getting your marriage license with your wedding planner. You’ll have to have enough time to file all the required paperwork, but also not so soon that your unsigned marriage license expires before your actual wedding day. Prioritize learning what the requirements are to get a marriage license before you plan this.
Not Booking Your Accommodation Ahead of Time
On your actual wedding day, it’s ideal to book hotel rooms for you and your entire entourage. It’ll be easier to organize the hair, make-up, and outfits of your bridesmaids and groomsmen if everyone’s under the same roof (and only a few steps away from one another). This is why it is important to book hotel rooms for the day of your wedding. Learn more about how to find the perfect venue and accommodations for your wedding from the article ‘How to plan a destination wedding.’
The big wedding planning mistake is not booking these rooms ahead of time. Leaving it just a few weeks before the wedding day will lead to certain problems. First, you may not have any hotels near your venue that have rooms to spare for your entire wedding party. The prices of rooms available may be too expensive, too close to the date. And, you may not be able to learn which hotels offer the best deals for your wedding plans.
You should give yourself at least 4 months ahead of time, to book your hotel rooms for your wedding day. You wouldn’t want to have a confusing, complicated, and stressful experience when you and your entourage are preparing for the biggest event of your life.
Not Considering the Weather
With all the chaos of your pre-wedding months, it’s a common wedding planning mistake to completely forget to consider the weather on your actual wedding day. Before everything is set and booked, you need to make it a point that you confirm the weather conditions around the wedding date you are aiming for. Check weather updates constantly, and avoid seasons when you know there’s a big chance for a lot of rain. As much as you can, avoid hurricane or rainy seasons as these can completely jeopardize your entire wedding day.
Not Giving Time to do Dress Rehearsals
We know that you’d want to avoid any additional problems or tasks to do with so much already on your plate before your wedding day. But you should never forget to give you, your partner, and your entourage the time to have your dress, hair, and makeup rehearsals. It’s really important that you all get the first chance to see and confirm that your dresses and suits fit perfectly before the day of the wedding. There’s nothing worse than an ill-fitting outfit, and makeup and hair that you’re not happy with, but have no choice wearing on the day of the wedding.
What to Do to Avoid Wedding Planning Mistakes
If you want to avoid these wedding planning mistakes, you can do these extra tips to help keep things on the right track. Your wedding will never be perfectly planned, but these tips will help you get close to a near-perfect experience.
- Get as much help from your wedding planner as you can: Don’t micromanage everything that’s involved with your wedding. That’s your wedding planner’s job. If you’re working with an experienced wedding planner, they are used to learning the vision and ideas of their clients and bringing this to life on the day. And you need to trust that they have more experience planning weddings than you.
- Give yourself the right time to plan everything: Don’t let anything be rushed. If it means waiting longer for your wedding, then so be it. It’s really important to give yourself the right time to plane everything so that you never make decisions that are rushed. You need enough time to learn about all of your options when it comes to your wedding day. You’ll also need the time to really enjoy the planning process. There’s nothing worse than experiencing stress and chaos with a rushed wedding and feeling completely exhausted at your actual wedding day.
- Make a comprehensive list of everything you need to do: Before you even start planning, booking, or creating anything for your wedding, you should sit down with your planner to make a comprehensive list of everything you need to do. You need to make it a point that you and your wedding planner fully understand what you want for your wedding day. This includes what the decorations will look like, the feel of the music, the type of food you want, and the overall theme you are aiming for at your wedding day. From this, you can make a comprehensive list of everything you need to do to make this happen.
Conclusion
These mistakes are easily avoidable if you make sure that you stay as organized as you possibly can. Having a wedding planner with you will help a lot. And trusting the process, the people around you, and taking your time doing everything you need to do, will help you avoid making these big wedding planning mistakes, leaving you with nothing but bliss and joy during your wedding day festivities!
