5 Things Nobody Tells You About Wedding Planning

You're engaged (during COVID!), and everyone is offering you advice. EVERYONE. Your parents, in-laws to be, siblings, friends and co-workers are an ever-present peanut gallery offering their well-intended thoughts about everything. Advice is good, but, when it comes to a wedding, it can hit a fever pitch and quickly morph from helpful to hellish. Here are five (actually helpful) things to remember during the wedding planning process.

1. Remember to enjoy your engagement. You’ve said "yes," now enjoy a window of time to just celebrate the amazing news. Give yourself at least a few weeks to just be engaged before diving head first into wedding planning (and take a few deeps breaths!). It's important to savour this exciting time in your life without being bogged down with stressful decisions.

2. Don’t sweat the dress, you will find the one! Securing a venue will likely be the most stressful task on your to-do list and once you’ve got that done, everything else will fall into place (including your dress). There are lots of choices out there and lots of places to shop—today there is more selection than ever when it comes to styles and retailers. Shop with an open mind and know that while it might take you more than a few appointments to find "the one," it will happen.

3. Schedule some alone time on your wedding day. “It’s amazing how fast your wedding day flies by,” says just-married Chantal. “You have to carve out a little time for just the two of you. Even if it’s five minutes, take a quiet pause, have a drink together and enjoy your time away from the crowd.”

4. Book a private photo session before or after your ceremony. “The highlight of my wedding day was when we were alone with our photographer after our ceremony,” shares newlywed Jessica. “We were laughing, crying and enjoying the moment—those photos are my absolute favourites of the day.”

5. Enjoy the best celebration ever—you planned it! Make the day count and be present and a part of all the details you planned for.