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Upstate NY Weddings – Our Stress Free Tips!
As you have started planning, I am sure that you have realized the pressure and stress that go along with it. Most couples experience this with their Upstate NY weddings. All the moving parts can overwhelm even the most organized person. After photographing over 200+ weddings, I have found this these tips to be the most essential to having a stress free wedding. Read on to learn how to be stress free at you upstate NY wedding.
#1 Tip: Get Help.
It sounds so simple. Having it all on your shoulders is not fun or fair, and it will probably be the one thing that you will look back on and want to change.
Let me expand a bit more on what I mean by, “get help.”
You have two options when it comes to help, hiring help or asking your friends and your fiancé.
Wedding Planners
The best option is to hire people to be in your corner. By hiring others to help you, your friends will thank you because they will get to have fun with you on your wedding day, instead of decorating or making sure that the wedding is following the timeline. Plus professionals have years of experience and you benefit from all those lessons learned in the past. Click HERE to see our list of the best wedding planners for Upstate NY weddings.
What sort of professionals should you hire? I think the two most important are: Wedding planner, and a day of coordinator. The planner will help you with all of the pre-wedding planning and help you find great vendors. Click HERE to see our top list of wedding vendors for Upstate NY weddings.
Day of Coordinator
The day of coordinator is just that, for the day of the wedding. I like to call them the, “problem solver.” When problems occur, they will be the assigned person to solve them. Nothing is worse than when a problem occurs (and they do) and then it falls on the bride and groom to solve it. It causes stress that could be easily avoided. The goal should be that on the day of the wedding, you should have not to worry about anything other than having a great time.
If you decide to have your friends help, that’s totally cool too! Just know that you will still have to be the wedding planner, organizing everything. What I recommend is to ask your bridal party, who is willing to help you. I recommend asking first, before assuming that someone wants to help. Once you have your willing volunteers, you need to assign them specific jobs. Maybe your MOH (maid of honor) is your day of emergency contact and day of problem solver. Then you can assign two of your bridesmaids to be responsible for decorating the ceremony and reception site. No matter how you organize it, just make sure everyone has an assigned job and they know what that job’s expectations are.
TIP #2: Use a checklist and a planning guide.
If you have hired a planner and coordinator, they should provide these for you. If not you can find these on Etsy. It’s all just too much to write on a basic spreadsheet or to remember. Write it all down, and put it in a binder. Make it a habit to keep everything wedding related in that binder.
Click HERE for a great wedding planner on Etsy.
TIP #3: Sample Timelines!
Check out our custom sample timelines below! First decide what season you are having your wedding, then decide on a first look or not. Then go choose the most applicable timeline for your event.
- Spring Weddings – Use the summer template, then adjust the times back for the earlier sunset.
- Winter Weddings – Use the fall timeline and move the times back an hour or so. This adjusts for the very early sunsets in the winter.
Fall Wedding – Traditional (no first look)
Fall Wedding – With first look
Spring and Summer Wedding – Traditional (no first look)
Spring and Summer Wedding – With first look
TIP #4: Choose Your Mindset (Most Important)!
As humans we struggle to consider that our mindsets could be a cause of stress. I am absolutely guilty of this. The word mindset is a bit vague so to be more specific, let’s talk priorities.
Step #1 Write down your priorities for your wedding day. Then consider, are any of them unrealistic? In the big picture view, the only priority should matter is that you get married and enjoy the time with the people around you (in my opinion). If you adopt this as your only priority, you will have a great wedding.
Here’s an example:
You have always dreamed of a clear sky blue day for your wedding ,with a sunset that will be remembered for years. You wake up on your wedding day by opening up the curtains expecting beautiful weather, instantly realizing that outside the window it’s raining. Some people could let this ruin the entire day, but if you adopt the mindset as we talked about before, the rain will become a non issue. I look at it like this, the day of your wedding is exactly how it was meant to be, even if its not how you pictured it.
Also, it is good luck for it to rain on your wedding. Think about this, without rain, the plants will not flourish. Rain is what grows this world, and if it rains on your wedding day, its just the world wanting your marriage to grow as well. Just my two cents.
Looking for a Upstate New York wedding photographer to capture heartfelt moments and joy? Click HERE to learn more about Known Together.
Hopefully this helps!
Much love,
-Blake
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