It's Possible to Handle the Pressures of Planning a Wedding While Working Full Time

Few events in your life are going to involve as much detail and take up as much of your time as planning your wedding. Even with a relatively-small wedding, there are going to be hundreds of decisions to make, items to buy, and schedules to coordinate. If you have a lot of free time and an army of willing relatives ready to help you, your job will be a bit more manageable. However, if you're trying to work full time and do the planning yourself, the job has just moved to another level. You may feel like having yourself cloned, because there's too much work for one person to do, and you hate the thought of arriving at your wedding day looking as stressed and exhausted as you're beginning to feel. Fortunately, there are a few tricks you can try in order to make the whole process go much more smoothly and cause less stress. You'll find that there are ways of handling the pressures of planning a wedding and working full time.

Organization is the key to smooth wedding planning. My daughter is the master of organization, and I learned a lot of things from her while she was planning her wedding. I would have thought that all of the meticulous records and schedules she developed would have taken more time instead of less, but I was wrong. She spent some extra time in the early months creating these things, and they made a world of difference as the date of the wedding approached. By doing research online and in bridal publications, she was able to come up with a plan of action that she thought would work for her. She gave herself plenty of time to get things done, and she never left anything to chance or up until the last minute. If a magazine gave her a wedding schedule to follow, she'd automatically move back all of the times they recommended. If, for example, a canned schedule said to order flowers three months in advance, she'd change it to four months. By giving herself plenty of time, she never felt pushed and hurried. Even if something didn't happen as she'd anticipated, there was still plenty of time to have the situation remedied.

One of the first things she did was to divide all of her thinking into four separate parts: rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception, and honeymoon, and she set up separate binders for each of the events. Every piece of information she gathered -- ideas, receipts, punch recipes, samples, or whatever -- was accumulated in her binders. If you decide to set up your own binders, make sure to include some paper as well as some of those clear pockets where you can place loose items. By organizing everything that pertains to each event in one place, you'll always know exactly where things are, and you will never have to cope with the frustration of something you need being misplaced.

Another planning trick she used was to label large plastic totes for each of the four events. As she purchased items for the various events, she would put them into the appropriate totes. If she needed to recheck something she had purchased, she knew exactly where to find it. When the wedding date arrived, she was able to send the totes to the various venues with her attendants so that all the things she needed for that particular event were where she wanted them to be. If you are having all of your events in different places, this can be a real timesaver. No more running between venues trying to locate missing items.

When you're working at handling the pressures of planning a wedding and working full time, there's no need for panic. Try organizing your time and efforts, and you'll find that the job has just gotten a lot easier. Relax! Your wedding will be perfect!