So, welcome to Blog 8 in my wedding planning and advice series! So far I've covered as much as I can think of leading up to a wedding - choosing suppliers & venues, timings, picking a wedding photographer, to name a few.

Now I am covering something more practical, everyone knows weddings can be mighty stressful so I'm talking today about how to minimise that stress, prepare for all possibilities and generally help chill you out before the big day.

Here's my bullet point list of how to keep your stress levels DOWN:

Keep the to-do list in manageable chunks and tackle one thing at a time - This is such a good one when you're feeling overwhelmed with things to do. Putting a list together gets it all out in front of you so you can see exactly what you have left to organise or sort. Then break it up into manageable chunks whether that's by priority, or date it needs doing. Either way 4 small lists are much easier to digest than one massive one. It also helps when you want to...
Ask for help – People LOVE to help! Once you've got your lists go through and work out what you can delegate to other people, or what they can help with. Bridesmaids, friends, parents, relatives - people will be excited about your day and eager to take the pressure off you. Just ask!
Work with people you trust and have good communication - One thing you do not need is uncommunicative suppliers that add to your stress and worry. Picking professional people you trust is key in making you feel relaxed and like everything is in hand. If this is someone's full time job, they know what they're doing and can take the responsibility for you.
Give yourself plenty of time - Nothing piles on the pressure like only giving yourself a weekend to make 150 favours. Be reasonable and realistic about what you can achieve and spread it out over a longer period. That, or delegate.
Listen to other people who are experienced and trying to help - Sometimes people's advice can be really useful, especially if they've been through planning a wedding before, attended lots or work in the wedding industry. If your caterer tells you you need 3 hours for the sit down meal, trust them and plan around that.
Don’t listen to people who TELL you what to do - On the flip side, don't listen to people who try to boss you about and change your schedule because of them and their needs. If you tried to please ALL your guests completely you'd end up having a meltdown and not having the wedding you want. Accept that, shrug off their forced opinions and move on...
Spend some quality time together with wedding chat off limits - This is a really important one I think. We tried to do this every week or so and it was actually very hard as everything seemed to come back to the wedding! But having some quality time not talking table plans or flower colours and just having a laugh is a great way to relieve some stress. Go for a drink or out for dinner and try and forget about the wedding for an evening.
Get an event or on the day planner if you know you might struggle - If you're stressing about the day because it's a DIY affair and there's a lot to do on the day - hire someone in or get designated friends to do jobs on the day. You won't be wanting to clear glasses or put away furniture on the day and getting someone in to take off the pressure and make sure everyone is where they need to be, will ensure you can just enjoy yourself.
Don’t read too much crap on the internet - This, this and this again. There is SO much out there telling you what to do and how to do it (yes I appreciate that I am doing similiar!) making sure your bridesmaids outfits match, having three types of wine glasses for each person ... filling your head with unnecessary stress about the day. I keep reading about things I apparently had to do that I hadn't even thought of! Nothing made my head explode more.
Get Wedding Insurance - I always, always suggest to people to get wedding insurance. It doesn't cost that much and it covers you for everything that could go wrong - illness, cancellation, breakages. It's thing you don't want to think about but are actually a real possibility. If you had to cancel your wedding for some reason last minute (it does happen) most suppliers will have it in your contract that you still have to pay the full amount even if it's not going ahead. Wedding insurance can give you peace of mind that you'll be covered if anything did happen.

REMEMBER IT’S JUST ABOUT YOU TWO

This one is big and bold because it's the most important. Make sure you get some perspective when things feel like they're getting on top of you and remember why you're doing this - not to impress your friends, please your parents or show off - it's about marrying your favourite person in the world and everything else really doesn't matter.