The Biggest Wedding Planning Mistakes You Should Avoid

Everyone wants their wedding to be perfect and run as smoothly as it can, but for those high expectations to come to pass, a lot of planning and admin is required. Unfortunately, it’s during this process that many disastrous mistakes are made. While some of these issues are inevitable and unavoidable, there are so many more that can be prevented with some careful preparation and management. No bride wants something to go wrong with their wedding, so here are thirteen mistakes that you should avoid for a wedding day with only one hitch.
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Forgetting Your Guest List

When you first get engaged, it’s understandable that you would be excited and want to start planning all of the fun things right away. However, before you do any of this, you’re going to have to take some time planning your guest list. After all, almost every wedding decision you make will be determined by your number of guests, from seating arrangements to the catering company. Never assume that an invitee won’t attend, as this could cause some serious issues later on.

Doing It All Alone

Planning a wedding is a complicated, long, and inevitably exhausting process, which is why many couples choose to hire a wedding planner to help them out. If you can’t or won’t hire a planner for whatever reason, you shouldn’t have to handle all of the preparations on your own. It can be nerve-wracking to let go of the reins, but you need to trust that your partner, friends, and family will do what they can to help you. Doing everything alone can ruin the experience for you.

Overwhelming Your Future Spouse

You can and should be excited about planning your wedding, but you can’t expect that your partner will want to talk about and help you plan the big day every moment until it’s over. After all, there’s only so much that a person can take, even of a good thing. To keep anyone from getting overwhelmed and avoid any unnecessary arguments, you should assign nights you talk about specific aspects. You should also decide on times that wedding talk is off limits.

Listening To Everyone’s Opinions

As helpful as family and friends can be throughout the planning process, they can also get you incredibly frazzled. Your wedding day is supposed to be about you and your partner, so don’t let the opinions of others keep you from having the day of your lives. You will want your guests to enjoy themselves, of course, but you shouldn’t sacrifice your happiness and the things that you want to please other people. Be a little selfish for a change and make your own decisions.

Skipping The Wedding Videographer

While your opinions are the most important, there is one that you should listen to: You need a videographer. If you’ve already hired an amazing wedding photographer, you might not see the need to capture the big day in video too. However, a video would let you hear exactly what you and your partner say during your vows, show the entirety of your first dance, and capture candid moments of your guests too. Without this service, you might miss these special moments.

Booking Without Researching First

Once you know roughly how many guests will be attending your big day, you’ll need to start booking your suppliers and vendors as soon as you can. However, you need to do plenty of research before this is possible. Don’t hire the first catering company or wedding photographers that fit into your budget, as this could leave you with work that you’re less than happy with. Instead, ask for referrals, read reviews, check certifications, and shop around for a while.

Hiring Friends Over Professionals

When a friend tells you that they can sort out your wedding menu or DJ the reception for free or at a reduced cost, it can be quite tempting to accept the offer. After all, you only have so much money to go around, so it makes sense to cut costs when you can. However, even on a tight budget, it’s often better to go for a professional than someone that thinks that they are. This also means that your loved ones can enjoy your big day instead of having to work it.

Spending Over Your Budget

With the sheer number of things you have to book and buy for a wedding, planning a wedding budget can be an absolute nightmare. That being said, not budgeting your big day is so much worse and can lead to you running out of cash before everything is sorted. To avoid spending more money that you can, you need to add some extra money on top of your budget for unexpected expenses. You may also need to look for ways to cut costs here and there.

Trying To Micromanage Vendors

When you hire a vendor, you need to explain exactly the type of vision that you’re after. However, once you’ve done this, you need to let them go ahead and do their jobs. It can be tempting to try and control every single detail of your big day, but, after your first meetings, you need to take a step back. If you don’t trust that they can do their jobs properly, then you should find someone that can. Otherwise, you can stop stressing and focus on the things you do need to control.

Buying A Smaller Dress

Everyone wants to look their best for their wedding, but you shouldn’t buy a dress too small for you hoping that it will fit for the big day. This will only ever result in unnecessary stress, as well as a dress that doesn’t fit you properly. With that in mind, it’s vital that you avoid this dress shopping mistake and instead find a gown that fits you at your current size. If you do slim down during the wedding planning, then you can always have the dress altered at your final fitting.

Planning The Schedule Poorly

Your wedding day shouldn’t feel like a rush. Instead, it should be a calm and happy occasion that flows naturally from activity to activity. Unfortunately, this won’t happen if you plan your wedding day schedule poorly. If you give yourself too little time for your hair and makeup, photographs, or the ceremony itself, the whole day will become stressful, and you won’t enjoy yourself as much. For this reason, you should check how long everything will take and give yourself plenty of time.

Letting Speeches Drag On

One boring or bad speech can quickly kill the good vibes of your wedding reception, leaving you and your guests bored and frustrated. To avoid this, you should make sure that anyone giving a speech understands exactly how long they’ve got to talk. Ideally, this should be no longer than around ten minutes. It’s also a good idea to ask that they write their speeches down and practice them beforehand. This stops improvisations from turning into pointless rambles.

Worrying About Other Weddings

Weddings are supposed to be as unique as those getting married. With that in mind, it makes sense why many couples freak out when they see that someone else has the same outfit, band, venue, or flowers as them. That being said, you should avoid this at all costs. Instead, look at your day and find ways to make similar details personal to you. For example, you could accessorize your dress with a sash or switch one flower for another in your bouquet.

​Things can always go wrong at your wedding, but, hopefully, with these tips, you should be able to keep the disasters to a minimum.