15 Tips for a Wedding That Goes to Plan

Your wedding day will be one of the biggest days of your life. Don’t stuff it up!

Weddings are a beautiful thing. It’s the most important day of many peoples’ lives (depending on how many times you get married…) But, behind the scenes, they can be chaotic!

Planning your wedding can be overwhelming and stressful. There are many moving parts to think apart, such as invitations, flowers, catering, and music.

The dozens of details, both big and small, means there are bound to be at least a few hiccups along the way.

But, the better planned you are, the more likely the wedding will go to plan, and not many things will go wrong!

Read on for 15 tips to help your wedding run smoothly.

1. Wedding day survival kit

The bride can often assign the maid of honour to prepare a little emergency kit for the ceremony site and reception.

According to Inside Weddings with some extras, things to include in a wedding day survival kit are:

• Sewing kit
• All sizes of safety pins
• Emery board
• Bobby pins
• Wipes
• Goo Gone
• Double-sided tape
• Chapstick/lipstick
• Baby powder
• Breath mints
• Deodorant
• Floss
• Small mirror
• Band-Aids/first aid kit
• Indigestion product
• Paracetamol
• Feminine products
• No-sew iron hemstitch
• Stain remover pen
• Duct tape & superglue

“Some recent weddings, I have been to have basic first aid/sanitary items, sunblock and insect repellent around the place.”

2. Scheduling the day

Create a timeline for your wedding and then stick to it! With no plan, the day will be chaotic. To minimise stress, know precisely how you want the day to run, from lunch to the photos to the running order of the speeches.

Ensure the wedding party has an itinerary, such as when and where hair and makeup are, and the photographs.

“Having an actual timetable for the day that the bridal party and anyone else who needs to know has. Where people will be, at what time and for how long. It’s hard to keep in contact on the day because everyone is so busy.”

3. Flexibility

Although having a plan is essential, it’s also important to be flexible. If timings don’t go to plan, you don’t need to freak out — it's completely normal for some things to go longer and some faster than expected.

Allow for more time flexibility for certain parts of the wedding, such as moving the speeches forward if the caterers are running slow.

Give the power to somebody you trust to make decisions around changes or shifts within the timeline, to make the event seamless without any major delays.

4. Delegating control and tasks

On your wedding day, the last thing you want is to stress out about the finer details of the day yourself.

By delegating overall control of the day to a bridesmaid or somebody else you trust, it allows you to enjoy your day and look after any potential drama.

“Allocating a person to keep things to a time schedule is a good plan. Often the MC takes up this role. It takes the pressure off the couple so they can just enjoy the day. The day can go really quick, so you need someone to run it.”

“Have close friends/family you trust in charge of important jobs. Make sure they know what the expectation is. This is super important so that everyone knows what their job is and can handle when something unexpected does take place (i.e. the uncle you didn’t want to come).”

Getting help

If you are ready and willing to accept help with your wedding from loved ones, the better the experience will be — for everybody! Your wedding will be easier to plan, and it might even keep the cost down. People close to you might have connections that can help that you never considered.

You could delegate different responsibilities to people in the bridal party to look after without you micromanaging. Think about the talents and skills of your friends and family and assign them accordingly.

It’s a day to enjoy, not to control.

“Know who is in charge of packing / cleaning up at the end of the night so that you can ditch the night to your hotel; when you want to know, all your bits and bobs will be collected.”

“Have clear jobs for everyone, so you have all facets covered and not having to worry about them. Rope in the extended family and give them little jobs. People like that.”

Transport

Often wedding venues are in the middle of nowhere, so calling an uber last minute isn’t always a viable option for attendees.

A popular method is to organise a bus for guests from the nearest town where the guest accommodation is likely to be. Then, provide your guests with transport information on your invitations.

The newlyweds should have a taxi arranged for pick up at an allotted time. You don’t want to get to the end of the night, tired and sore feet from dancing, and have to wait for a taxi to come to pick you up.

Have a realistic budget

One of the first wedding planning tasks is setting your budget. Be realistic and don’t think you can afford what you really can’t.

The perfect wedding shouldn’t be an unaffordable one. Budget for an amount that doesn’t send shivers down your spine and stick to it.

There will be must-haves for your wedding — but try to keep that list short.

You don’t want to end up regretting the time, money and effort you spent on your wedding. You’re better off starting your married life with cash in the bank.

Plan your budget with your fiancé and allocate funds to each component.

“Actually stick to a budget that’s affordable… If a $100 vase gets broken by a drunken guest and you think you’d be upset by it, then you’ve exceeded your budget.”

Write lists

Lists help to ensure that you don’t miss any critical details. Brainstorm everything you can think of about your wedding and then compile lists of the different components of your wedding.

The process of writing the list will give you a visual breakdown of tasks to handle for the wedding.

For example, when choosing your guests, you should write down everyone you’d like to be there. Then once you have budgeted, you can narrow down the list from there.

Use professionals

Don’t take on more than you can handle when planning your wedding.

If you’re comfortable and experienced in particular areas such as flower arrangements or ordering catering, there is no harm in looking after it yourself. However, you should hire professionals to look after the critical tasks that really matter to you.

You don’t want to add extra stress if you don’t know what you’re doing, so save your energy for where it counts.

To help ensure your wedding day is something like what you envisioned, you could hire:

• flower arrangers to decorate the wedding
• a DJ or band to get people dancing
• an MC to keep people engaged
• a professional photographer to capture special memories
• a wedding planner to look after all the details

“Outsource every job and detail — So you turn up, have fun, and leave.”

Don’t stress over the finer details

Don’t be a Bridezilla.

Your ability to let things go and let others take care of some wedding details depends on your personality. For some, it’s their worst nightmare, while for others, they’re quite prepared to let someone else look after everything.

Don’t obsess over insignificant details when planning! Focus on getting the basics right.

The day is about getting married to the person you love and sharing that with friends and family. A wedding is not about living out a fairy tale.

“People stress over small details…. the colour of napkins is NOT important…really. Relish being with friends and family. Celebrate and enjoy the love of all around you. Things go a little astray, laugh!”

“Bring a relaxed attitude and remember to have fun. Know that nothing runs perfectly, which can ultimately make it more perfect! We had an outdoor wedding with rain and wind, and we just went with it! Made our photos more authentic and less ‘posey’….”

Invites

How many people you invite to your wedding will obviously significantly impact the cost. It can be a tough decision to decide who gets an invite.

Ultimately, your budget will decide the total number of guests. Don’t let the number of guests you want to dictate your budget! You want to save money going into your wedding.

Create a list independently of your partner of everyone you would LIKE to come. Once you set the budget, you can then come together and whittle down your lists to a number that fits and try to keep it to your closest friends and family.

“Don’t invite people you don’t want there.”

A Children-minder

Decide early on whether you’re inviting children to the wedding. If you have friends and family with children, it’s probably best to allow children and have somebody assigned to “hang out” with the kids. A cool uncle or something.

If possible, have the child-minder seated with the kids to help make them feel more included and make sure they don’t get too crazy and take care of their needs.

“There needs to be stuff for kids to do; we had about 20 kids come to the wedding, and we absolutely loved having them there.”

Guest seating escort cards

To make it easy for guests to work out where they’re sitting, provide escort cards telling guests where they are seated. Place the cards on individual seats with the guest’s name. Alphabetically organising these will make it simpler for guests to find their cards.

If using a signboard with tables, seating can be more customised; but list each table alphabetically to make names easier to find.

“I’ve been to weddings that don’t have this at tables, and it can be awkward for both the hosts and guests.”

“Try to have seating at the wedding. Weddings can feel like it’s dragging on, and people get over the ceremony when they have sore feet from heels, and all they can think about is sitting.”

Loosen up and relax

A wedding can be very stressful! But it doesn’t have to be. On the big day, take some time out. Breathe.

Make sure you’re rested up for your big day. Sleep is a vital part of your well-being on your big day. You will automatically be more stressed if you are tired and run down.

A glass of wine (or maybe a shot) and a chat with friends can really help take the edge off.

But make sure you’re careful with alcohol — don’t drink too much! Of course, you should have some champagne and celebrate, but overdoing it can ruin your day. Make sure you drink plenty of water if you decide to have a drink or two.

“Relax and have fun, remember marriage is about love and bearing your soul to your best friend. It is not the dress, venue or cake.”

Don’t forget why you’re there

Don’t turn your wedding into a chance to impress the people closest to you. Yes, you want them to have a good experience; but, the day is about you and your wedding.

The vows and staring into your partner’s eyes is what you’ll remember. Not if the flower arrangements were perfect. Your loved ones will be happy to experience that with you.

The other stuff isn’t so important, so don’t let it stress you out and forget what the day is ultimately all about.

“Concentrate on the marriage and not the wedding.”

Conclusion

This article has discussed 15 tips to help you have the “perfect” wedding day.

Little snippets of advice have also been provided by my friends and family to help you plan and execute a wedding that runs smoothly.

Your wedding could be the biggest day of your life, so hopefully, these tips help you to have a beautiful day to remember!

Thanks for reading.

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