Marriage vs a Wedding

Planning a wedding can be overwhelming. You have many to-do lists; venues to visit, dresses to try on, cakes to taste, flowers to choose, and many more things on top of that! Therefore, you ask yourself “where do I begin” and “how do I not drive my self crazy planning my wedding.”

First sit down with a pen and paper and write down all the emotions you are feeling. This is a great start, you’re mentally preparing yourself for marriage first. Then you can prepare to deal with the task of getting to your big day, and actually enjoy the process!

Some things you may be dealing with emotionally are:

·Becoming an adult, because marriage means you are mixing what you want in life with the things that your other half wants. You are agreeing to come to a compromise.
·Letting go of being single is also something you are going to have to work through, for some people it is an easy decision, for others it takes some time to get used to!
·Fears about marriage and commitment, some people have them, and others don’t, but ask yourself this, you may not realize you have these fears until you think about it.
·What is a wife? (Or a Husband) Ask your partner what you each expect from the other. Sit down and really talk about what you both want in life. Do you both want children? Are you both going to work? Where do you want to go in life, and so on.
·Wedding day issues…what do you expect to happen, what do you want to happen, and what are some things that may go wrong? Preparing yourself for these will help to alleviate stress!

It is important to really recognize what areas are affecting you the most, so you can start to process the emotions that are linked to that issue. Once you recognize all these issues, it’s important to work through them one at a time. This will help you stay focused when the sense of being weighed down arises.

When you have prepared yourself emotionally, you still have to plan your wedding! This is when you have every friend, family member, co-worker, and stranger on the street telling what to do, and how YOU should plan your wedding! Write down what you and your spouse expect. Pick your colors, places you may want to get married, guest size, etc., and make sure these decisions are made by both of you first. Then you can start letting friends and family get involved. Planning a wedding should be fun and exciting, and preparing yourself mentally is a great start.
-Candice Graves, En Vogue Events Lead Coordintor