Singaporebrides | Weddings 101

October 2023

7 Easy Ways To Prevent Wedding Planning Burnout

By Audrie Soh

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Feeling overwhelmed with your wedding planning? Follow these seven ways to prevent a wedding planning burnout.

Planning a wedding is a unique and beautiful experience that every soon-to-be-wed couple should enjoy and celebrate. However, planning a celebration of this size is no easy feat. With the amount of decisions to be made, details to consider and deadlines to meet, coupled with your daily obligations, wedding planning can be time-consuming, stressful and overwhelming for any couple, ultimately leading to an unpleasant experience.

Wedding planning burnout can take a toll on your well-being and rob you of the joy you should feel on your wedding planning journey. To help you avoid this, we’ve put together seven easy ways to prevent a wedding planning burnout.

1. Remind yourself that it’s okay not to have a perfect wedding

Before you dive into your wedding planning, set the intention for your celebration. Remind yourself that your wedding day is a celebration of your love and commitment to one another, and the future you are building together. It will be perfect regardless of whether things go according to your plan because you are marrying the love of your life and that is all that matters.

When things start to feel a little too much and you feel the beginnings of a burnout, stop what you are doing and take a deep breath. Remind yourself of the intention you’ve set for your celebration, and focus on the ultimate goal and outcome of your wedding, instead of the obstacles you are facing in your planning.

2. Take Things One At A Time, Starting From The Most Important

You might feel all ready to tick the items off your wedding planning to-do list at the beginning, but as time goes by, you start to feel a little more anxious and overwhelmed as the list of to-do things seem never-ending. Instead of trying to tick off more than one task on your to-do list at a time, try to focus on tackling one task at a time, starting with the ones that are most important.

Sit down with your spouse-to-be and decide which are the top three priorities on your to-do list. Typically, couples tend to prioritise the booking of their venue and essential wedding vendors such as photographers and stylists over the less important ones, since they tend to be fully booked during the peak wedding season or on popular wedding dates. So, if you are planning to tie the knot during these times, you might want to prioritise the booking of your wedding venue and essential wedding vendors ahead of others.

3. Set realistic goals and have realistic expectations

Don’t set yourself up for failure by having unrealistic expectations and goals for your wedding to avoid feeling stressed or pressed for time. Set yourself up for a positive outcome by going to work once you have a wedding date. A celebration as grand as your wedding is not going to be planned within a week or even a month, so don’t procrastinate and start drafting up a to-do list and a timeline the minute you decide on a wedding date, or if you can’t wait to start, you can even begin right after your proposal!

Next, instead of setting unrealistic deadlines, speak to other brides-to-be or a wedding vendor for a better understanding of how much time each of the tasks on your list requires, so you can plan feasible deadlines. You might also want to factor in extra time for the tasks, in case of unforeseen circumstances.

4. Know when to Step away from wedding planning

If you find yourself starting to feel overwhelmed with juggling the mountain of tasks on your to-do list and your daily activities, it’s time to take a step back from wedding planning and go on a self-imposed wedding ban for a few days, or even a week! Use this time to relax and rejuvenate yourself by doing the things you love. Go out and have fun with your friends, practice yoga or work out at the gym to get your adrenaline rushing, or just go about your day-to-day activities as usual, minus the wedding planning.

Once you feel recharged and ready to tackle your wedding planning, you’ll be in a much better frame of mind to make decisions and be more productive with your tasks, reducing any feelings of overwhelm.

5. Delegate or outsource tasks to your spouse-to-be, family and friends

Planning a wedding is no easy feat, and you need all the help you can get to avoid feeling overly stressed or overwhelmed. Share the responsibility of the wedding planning tasks with your spouse-to-be by dividing the tasks according to your skills or expertise.

Seek help from a family member or friend for smaller tasks such as running errands on your behalf or coordinating with your bridal party on important dates and tasks to free up your time for more critical planning items on your list.

6. Schedule regular date nights with your spouse-to-be

Wedding planning takes up a lot of your time and attention, which may result in lesser quality time for you and your spouse-to-be. This may worsen any wedding planning stress or burnout that may be creeping up on you, so to prevent that from happening, try to schedule regular date nights so you can reconnect and destress together. It also gives you something happy to look forward to in the midst of planning a wedding, which may help lessen your stress levels.

You can plan a movie date, go to the gym together, or meet up with mutual friends for a night out – what you do and where you go does not matter as long as you follow one rule: no wedding planning talk during your date night.

7. Hire a professional wedding planner so you can enjoy your wedding journey

Like your wedding day, your wedding planning journey is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience. You should enjoy your time as a bride-to-be instead of being stressed out over liaising with a number of vendors. If you’ve tried all the above coping techniques we’ve suggested and are still finding it difficult to remain calm, you might want to consider hiring a professional wedding planner to help with your wedding planning.

A wedding planner will be able to take the bulk of the coordination and planning off your shoulders, even if you engage one mid-way, so you can better enjoy your unique experience as a bride-to-be. You can hand over the tasks that require the most coordination and planning, such as the styling of your wedding or coordination of the actual day set-up, and continue with the more fun tasks such as dress shopping and fitting, and choosing your wedding flowers.

Credits: Feature image from Felicia and Jonathan’s Lively and Colourful Wedding at The Alkaff Mansion and The Church of St. Francis Xavier by Sloth Creatives Weddings.

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