What To Do When You’re Completely Overwhelmed With Wedding Planning

I’m just going to come right out and say it, wedding planning is overwhelming.

Because there is SO MUCH.

And no matter where you are in your wedding planning or what kind of wedding you’re planning, you’re going to get completely overwhelmed with wedding planning at some point.

Or at many points!

Because it’s not just wedding planning that can overwhelm you.

Life can also be overwhelming.

Just look at COVID and the state of our country. That is a lot to handle.

And that combined with wedding planning can just push you over the edge.

And I really don’t want that for you!

So, I’m going to help you combat overwhelm with 4 easy tips. And what’s great is these tips will also help prevent you from feeling overwhelmed in the future as well.

4 TIPS TO COMBAT AND PREVENT YOU FROM FEELING OVERWHELMED WHEN WEDDING PLANNING

TIP #1 – TAKE BREAKS

When the overwhelming feeling hits you, the first thing you should absolutely do is take a break. Take a step back and just breathe.

Seriously.

Just walking away for a little while helps tremendously.

Stepping away from wedding planning really helps to clear your head. And more importantly, it gives you some separation from the emotion.

Because weddings are super emotional.

And when the emotions are intense or get piled on top of each other (like with COVID), you feel overwhelmed.

But when you take a break, the emotion has a chance to die down. You have a chance to calm down.

So, go do something else, anything else.

Go for a walk, hug your partner, watch an episode of Friends, take a nap.

You could take a break for an hour, a day, a week or even a month.

Take the time you need so that you can come back refreshed.

And to help prevent overwhelm, take wedding planning breaks regularly.

Maybe spend every other weekend working on your wedding. Or if you have a chunk of free time (like the summer) work hard during that time and then take a break.

Do what makes sense for you! Because when you take breaks and build that into your planning, you’ll be much less overwhelmed.

TIP #2 – BABY STEPS

Part of what makes you feel overwhelmed when wedding planning is all the emotions. But the other part is the sheer amount of work you have to.

When you start thinking about all the things you have to get done, the people you have to hire, the steps you have to take… your eyes get wide and that overwhelming feeling just hits you.

It hits you hard.

And it’s easy to either put your hands up and do nothing or start dreaming of eloping.

While you can do nothing, you also won’t have a wedding. And while there’s nothing wrong with eloping, that’s likely not what you want otherwise you would have planned that from the beginning.

So, instead of looking at the huge list of things you need to do or the massive checklist you found online, start with just one step.

Breaking wedding planning into tasks and then into steps, then baby steps makes everything much more manageable.

Maybe planning your wedding is overwhelming, but you can email 3 venues. Or call your mom to set up a time to chat about your wedding budget. Or ask your best friend to be your maid of honor.

Because you can do that one thing.

That one thing is achievable. It’s not scary. It’s easy even!

And then when you take that baby step and complete that one thing it’s easy to take another baby step, and another.

And before you know it, you’ve planned your wedding.

Now this is definitely something you should employ when you’re overwhelmed with wedding planning, but using this throughout your planning is even better.

Because that means you’re always just taking little steps along the way. And nothing will feel like too much.

TIP #3 – HAVE A PLAN

Baby steps are key to preventing that overwhelmed feeling. But they only help if you know what baby steps you need to take.

So, you also need a plan.

You need an organized plan to get you from where you are through to the end, to your wedding day.

And you need a plan that will help you break down that huge list into tasks and steps. And then baby steps.

Now a plan is more than a checklist or a timeline.

A plan is a full blown guide with the tools and info you need to make it easy and not overwhelming.

Which also means you want a guide created by a professional so that the information is reliable and based on experience, like with Passport to Joy.

Because a plan is only as good as its source.

And while you can also put a plan into place once you’re overwhelmed, once again it’s better to start with one.

It will just make the entire process easier and prevent you feeling overwhelmed in the first place.

TIP #4 – CELEBRATE

Taking breaks, baby steps and having a plan will help tons when it comes to getting overwhelmed with wedding planning. But, there’s one more thing that will also help and that’s celebrating.

Because when you’re happy, it’s hard to feel overwhelmed.

Unless you’re overwhelmed with joy (wink).

So celebrate when and where you can!

Celebrate the big moments and little ones. Celebrate your wins in life and in wedding planning. And celebrate your decisions.

Because every decision you make is also a step towards your end goal, your wedding.

And decisions can be hard and overwhelming. So when you make decisions and move forward, that is a win!

And let’s not forget the biggest thing to celebrate, your engagement and your decision to marry your partner.

That’s both a huge thing and something you should celebrate every day.

Celebrating will relieve that overwhelming feeling and focus your feelings towards something happy. And when you remember to celebrate each other and being with each other all the time, feeling overwhelmed about your wedding planning won’t be nearly as much of a thing.

Because you’ll also remember the important reason behind all the planning, each other.

So, take breaks and celebrate, have a plan and take it in baby steps.

Think of these 4 tips like a good dose of wedding self care.

It will not only get rid of the overwhelm, but will make wedding planning and your life a lot happier too.

Ready to have a solid plan for your planning? Become a Passport to Joy member today!