Five Things You Should Know When Planning a Last Minute Wedding
by Ella Hendrix
There are a whole array of reasons why people decide to tie the knot at the last minute. Whatever the reasons are, it can be a daunting task. We hear a lot about how wedding planning is so stressful, but, although it is a special day, as long as the essentials are right, the rest of it shouldn’t have you tearing your hair out. It also doesn’t mean that you can’t have a magical, marvellous wedding day on a short timeline!
With a little planning, help from friends and family and a willingness to be flexible, you can make your wedding day just as special, beautiful and memorable as you would have if you’d been planning it for years.
Finding a Venue
One of the most important decisions that you’ll have to make is where you actually want to get married. At short notice, it isn’t always possible for you to get the exact venue that you have always imagined and you may have to compromise on your desired date. However, that doesn’t mean that you still can’t get the perfect venue for you.
When you are organizing a last minute wedding, you can often find venues which will help you with some of the organisational aspects of the wedding as well as the decoration. They might be able to offer decoration ideas, contacts for musicians, help with the paperwork or wedding planners if you need them. This can take a lot of the pressure off you, giving you the time and energy to spend on other aspects of your big day.
Make a Checklist
One of the most essential things that you should do when you are planning a last-minute wedding is to set up a checklist of everything that needs to be done and organized. By needing to do everything as quickly as possible it can be easy to overlook or forget some things, and a checklist will help you to avoid these situations.
You can find useful wedding checklists online, meaning you don’t need to carry all of that information around in your head!
Try to be Flexible
If you don’t have long to plan a wedding, you are going to have things that aren’t quite going to be how you imagined. It might be that you don’t get the venue that you had always imagined, some friends won’t be able to attend or the flowers that you love might not be available. Although some of these might be disappointing, it’s not the end of the world.
Try to remember the reasons why you’re getting married in the first place. Just because one little detail isn’t exactly what you’d always imagined doesn’t mean that the day will be a disaster – and your guests probably won’t even notice.
Help and Advice
You will almost certainly be flooded with people wanting to help you to plan and organise your wedding as soon as you make the announcement. Whether they want to organize the flowers, help you to get the wedding outfits or help make decorations, make sure that you take the help if it’s offered to you. Of course, not all advice and help is welcome, but try to take it where you can as you’ll be grateful to share the load a little.
You might also want to consider using a wedding planner to take the pressure off. You can tell them the details of what you are looking for in your wedding, as well as the budget and they will be able to help you to make your dreams come true.
Technology
Using technology is a great way to make things happen quicker and more easily. You can research almost every aspect of your day on the internet (including musicians – they will almost certainly have some YouTube videos that you can watch). This will save you time in the long run as you won’t have to drive around to different shops or places.
You could also use social media to set up groups allowing you to communicate wedding invitations, let your guests get to know each other and to share photos afterwards.
Anyone can set up musical playlists to get ready to, organize a honeymoon or book hotels in minutes at the click of a button these days.
Organising a last-minute wedding is always going to be stressful. However, there are ways of cutting down on the stress and reducing the amount of work that you need to do before the big day. With a little organization, resourcefulness and letting some of your close friends and family take the strain you can enjoy preparing for your wedding day and look forward to the rest of your life together.
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Article from guest contributor Ella Hendrix.