Organize your wedding without a wedding planner
While knowing that 90% of the future brides and grooms do not call upon a wedding planner. That’s a lot of couples who organize their wedding themselves. And I know for most of you that organizing your wedding without a wedding planner is simply because you really want to keep control and you like to do it. For others it is purely a question of budget which is quite legitimate. On average, a wedding planner costs around 10,000 dollars for a full service organization, and financially, it’s a problem.
However, it is quite normal, wanting to organize everything yourself does not mean doing less well than a professional, quite the contrary. You just need to know how to prepare your wedding efficiently and serenely.
The most common problems you encounter as a future bride and groom
Over the past few months I have had the opportunity to talk to most of you. The future brides and grooms who wanted to organize their wedding without a wedding planner. Very often, you launch into your wedding preparations, still carried by the euphoria of the proposal and the project of realizing the most beautiful day of your life. But when it’s time to get serious about the organization, it’s panic time.
Not knowing where to start
You don’t always know where to start. What are the things you should plan first? What should you book first? etc… So you start a little bit of everything at the same time and in the end you miss a lot of essential things that you will have to catch up on later. The problem is that it is certainly the first time that you get married and you don’t necessarily know what to do, what the whole wedding organization contains.
Being lost in the amount of things to do
You also find yourself lost when you see the amount of things to plan and do to prepare your wedding. Of course, when we attend a wedding, we always find the basics: the famous guest book, the Photo Booth, the guest gifts, the centerpieces etc… And it seems normal, even logical. But when it’s your turn to organize your wedding, you didn’t imagine that all this required logistics and preparation.
Being afraid of forgetting something
Another problem you face is the fear of forgetting something in your wedding preparations. And to realize it on the big day or at least when it’s too late. It’s normal, of course you want everything to be perfect on this beautiful day. Of course, you are not used to organizing your wedding every 4th morning and so forgetting things can happen.
Not having time to organize your wedding thoroughly
I imagine that you work, whether it’s during the week, the weekend, during the day or at night. And you probably don’t have infinite time to devote to your wedding preparations. You know that you will have to spend time on the organization of the D-day on your free time for several months. And your biggest fear is that your wedding won’t be ready in time.
You procrastinate on important tasks of your preparations
This is a recurring problem! You wait until the last moment to make the transfers to the providers, to tackle the DIY, to imagine the animations… Finally, everything that concerns decisions related to the global organization of the wedding. You tend to change your mind along the way and you lose time on the progress of the preparations. And you risk not getting what you really want.
Project yourself in the organization
Yes, it’s hard to plan when your suppliers don’t answer you until a few days later… Sometimes it’s also hard to realize the cost of certain wedding services. You want a provider who is professional, reasonable in terms of costs and with whom you will have a good feeling. Without them, it is complicated to imagine the success of your wedding at 100%. You are told to hurry to book your wedding service providers, but how do you know if it is the right provider for you?
Maintain the budget
Well, don’t panic, on average all the future brides and grooms exceed the initial budget by 15%. This means that you are completely normal. The most important thing is to estimate your budget well beforehand and be aware of the real costs of a wedding.
What not to do if you decide to organize your wedding without a wedding planner
Now it’s time for me to talk about the solutions that don’t work when you encounter these kinds of problems related to the organization of your wedding. My goal is not to rub salt in the wound, of course. But rather to explain why it doesn’t help and worse can get in the way of your wedding preparations.
Do thousands of searches on the internet, blogs and wedding books
Simply because you will waste a lot of time! You can imagine: “How to make a table plan”, “What to put in the invitation”, “How to respect your wedding budget”, etc… You are not finished and you might find that you can find everything and its opposite. Sometimes the advice is totally divergent depending on the blogs or wedding sites you follow. In the end, you don’t know who to believe and how to move forward in your preparations efficiently.
Take into account the opinion of everyone and your family
Of course, that their opinion is important and you want to hear that your wedding was beautiful from your loved ones. But I also know sometimes that taking everyone’s opinions into account: Mom, Mother-in-law, already married girlfriends etc… It can put you in an uncomfortable position. There are two rules to follow: 1. Don’t feel like you are being taken away from control of your wedding or being influenced. And 2. Your intuition is always right, trust yourself to what you feel and what you really want. This is the best way to plan a wedding that feels like you.
Spreading yourself too thin in your wedding planning method
I know that for most of you, your desk or drawer looks like a pile of loose sheets, to-do lists written in 3 different notebooks, a “Wedding” folder on your computer desk, appointments written on your phone and on your agenda, notes taken so you don’t forget anything on posts-it. And so on. Well, in the end, you may forget important things or miss out on some great ideas you had. One word of advice: CENTRALIZE. And follow each step of the preparations in a chronological way!
Trying to cut costs at all costs while forgetting the essential
I see you coming with your false good ideas to reduce the costs of the wedding, or to start to buy the decoration and to book some providers by forgetting important details… No no, no need for plan B, no need to compare and see elsewhere how it goes, you sign or you put the card in the VSE. You have time to choose! If you start your preparations in a chronological and organized way I assure you that you will not be stressed by time. You just need to have the right method of organizing your wedding.
Thinking that the quality of a service is only in the expertise of the professional
No, no, no… And unfortunately you can have the best provider in the world, if you don’t guide him he won’t guess for you. This is certainly where the issue is crucial, a provider who does not have enough information, or not enough details can make a mistake in the realization of his service. And on the day of the event, it’s disappointment. You are 80% responsible for the quality of each provider. 10% is due to the expertise and experience of the professional and 10% to the feeling you have with him. So it will be important to communicate with him clearly and efficiently.
Wanting to do too much to ensure that your guests will like it
We come back to the hyper-control of your wedding and the need to channel your ideas and inspirations. Don’t forget that “too perfect” is the enemy of good. And you will certainly change your ideas several times, that’s normal. The goal is to succeed in ordering your ideas, succeed in following through with your ideas, and refine them if you have the time. Unfortunately, if you want to do too much, you can end up disappointed with the result and lose pleasure in your wedding preparations.
