Your wedding day is a huge event that involves lots of planning, multiple vendors, and friends and family from all over the place coming to celebrate you. As much fun marrying your best friend will be, your wedding day can also cause unnecessary stress, especially if you’re already prone to anxious feelings.

 Fortunately, your special day doesn’t have to be stressful. There are simple things you can do to keep your big day nice and chill.

Invest in a professional wedding planner or coordinator

The biggest thing you can do to ease your wedding stress is to hire a professional planner or day-of coordinator. Professional planners handle all the details, from ensuring your wedding party is lined up and ready to walk down the aisle, to making sure your day stays on schedule and goes off without a hitch. A coordinator can even help set up and coordinate your vendors. Basically, they do anything necessary behind the scenes to make sure that your wedding day is as flawless as possible. If you can afford a planner or coordinator in your budget, it’s definitely worth the investment.

Choose vendors you love and trust

It’s essential to hire vendors you can trust to meet—and even exceed—your expectations. If you meet a photographer or florist whose personality just meshes with yours and who completely understands what you’re going for, book them ASAP! And on the flip side, if you pick up on a weird vibe or find yourself doubting a vendor, keep looking for your perfect fit. While you should definitely do plenty of research on all your potential vendors, let your gut have a say.

Add buffer time into your schedule

One of the biggest mistakes couples make is failing to give themselves enough time to get ready, take group photos, and otherwise leave space for events during their wedding day. While everyone will try their hardest to go by the schedule, minor issues are bound to pop up and your wedding day likely won’t stick to your carefully detailed timetable. That’s why you should always schedule some extra buffer time to ensure that going a little over your allotted time won’t completely throw off your whole day. Your wedding planner, photographer, and dj will all play an integral part in formulating your final timeline.

Consider doing a first look

A lot of the nerves couples feel on the wedding day come from not seeing each other. After all, who better to comfort you than your best friend? While it’s totally fine to stick to tradition and wait to see each other till you walk down the aisle, don’t be afraid to consider a first look, especially if you know you’ll be feeling nervous. Nerves are absolutely normal, and seeing your partner before your ceremony can do a lot to ease those anxious feelings and get you both smiling and ready to say “I do.”

Plus, allowing for couple/ bridal party/ family picture time BEFORE the ceremony reduces a lot of the time constraints on the rest of the day. It provides more options for the timing and location of pictures, too, which is especially valuable if the weather doesn’t cooperate.

Keep everyone in the know

You definitely don’t want your guests asking you a hundred questions on your wedding day, so be sure to do your best to keep everyone informed. This is where a wedding website comes in super handy! You can provide directions to your venue, information about your reception, and anything else your guests need to know. It also doesn’t hurt to have a specific person who people can go to for any additional questions, so they don’t text and call you or your partner when you’re just trying to prepare for your big day.

Go with the flow

The best thing you can do to keep your wedding day stress-free: Accept that something will go wrong. Your day likely won’t be completely perfect, but remember that you can’t control every little thing and just take the mistakes in stride. Do your best to enjoy each moment as it comes and remember what your wedding day is truly about: celebrating the love that you and your partner share.

We’re excited to be the Quad Cities region’s FIRST all-inclusive wedding blog and vendor directory! We are celebrating all things love in the QCA and helping couples plan their happily ever after!

Dream it. Plan it. Love it.