Photo by With Love & Embers
Your engagement is a very special time, but it can also be a really stressful one. Even the most centered woman can go a little nuts planning a wedding. Between dealing with both families, vendor meetings, and doling out money in amounts you never before fathomed, the wedding stress can quietly build, not showing it’s face until it’s too late.
Of all times thought, this is not the one to be overly stressed. Wedding stress can come with some unattractive side effects. Dark circles, sallow skin, weight gain, and fatigue do not look good on a bride.
Personally, I’m already a very anxious person so I knew I was there was a big possibility I was going to be a high-stress bride. However, I know too well how sick anxiety can make me, not to mention how much it shows on my skin. So I took some measures and adopted some wellness practices to help to reduce my stress while planning.
Five Tips to Manage Wedding Stress
1. Time Management
Some brides can easily develop the habit of talking about the wedding 24/7 with their fiancé. Especially early on, ideas are constantly floating through your head, but there’s no need to plan it during all hours of the day. It’s going to stress you out, and the person who has to hear about it the most – your beloved fiancé.
Instead of talking about songs and linens when they popped into my head -- which was all the time – my fiancé and I set weekly meetings to discuss all the ideas and decisions. I made an agenda to make sure we got stayed on track, and came to the table with links, moodboards, and Excel sheets, ready for discussion. This helped us have clearer communication since we were both in the same mindset and ready to talk wedding.
As we got closer to the wedding, we held our meetings more frequently, but they were a really efficient way to make sure we were staying focused. It started as a practice to keep from stressing out my fiancé, but ended up preventing me from thinking about it all the time.
2. Eat Well
Photo from New Age Nesting
You’re probably already doing this on account of the dress, but eating well is about more than just watching calories. Beauty very much so comes from within, so if you’re putting junk in your body you’re not going to be your best glowing self for your wedding day. There’s a lot of information out there on
what kind of diet to have and exactly what to eat, but it doesn’t need to be complicated.
Cut out inflammation-causing foods like dairy and processed sugars. These foods can make you break out and bloated. Instead, focus on a plant-based diet full of fruits, veggies, and whole grains.
Drink a ton of water, like 8-10 glasses a day. While wedding planning, I upgraded the size of my water bottle. It was heavier to lug around but I found I was drinking 3 times more water than before because I didn’t have to fill it so often.
Detox. If that word sounds scary, don’t worry. Detoxing can be as simple as starting the day with a warm lemon water and having a green smoothie with breakfast. For the smoothie, I mix kale, spinach, celery, green apple, lemon, and ginger with some coconut water. After a couple weeks you will actually notice how your skin glows, and so will everyone else!
3. Know When to Say No
You can’t even begin to imagine how many options are going to be thrown at you throughout planning: some of them will sound complicated, some you won’t even like, and there will be some you won’t be able to afford.
You don’t have to do any of them. Your guests will enjoy what you have planned, and will not notice if you’re missing a photo booth or chocolate chip cookie shooters.
If it doesn’t feel right, if it doesn’t make you happy, and if you can’t afford it, just say no. The fewer details you have to plan, the easier this is all going to be.
4. Practice Self Care
You’ll soon find so much of what used to be your spare time is now consumed with wedding details, and you’ll be dying for that time back. Some of my favorite self care practices are yoga, meditation, and journaling. Any time I take a couple minutes to be alone and look inside of myself, I always come back refreshed.
If that stuff is too crunchy for you, there’s always face masks and warm baths. Self-care to manage any wedding stress could be as simple as getting out of work on time for a pedicure or spending the afternoon watching your favorite movie instead of washing the dishes.
5. Enjoy your Engagement
Photo by With Love & Embers
If self-care is important to happiness and balance, then consider this couple care.
You and your fiancé are going to be spending a ton of time together, but all the visits and tastings are going to get less and less romantic as time goes on. Carve out time for dates – real dates outside of the house that don’t involve wedding talk. Your engagement isn’t just a time for planning a memorable event together, it’s a time to develop a relationship you will have for the rest of your life.
The closer you two get during the engagement, the stronger the bond will be as you take your vows. Put as much effort into nurturing your relationship as much as you are into wedding planning, and you will be set for the most romantic day of your life.
Photo by With Love & Embers
Gab is the voice of New Age Nesting, a conscious living blog - for more about her path to living a balanced life and tips on existing with purpose, check out New Age Nesting.
