Don’t sweat the small stuff, and what is the “small stuff”?

We meet a lot of brides. They have different personalities, different interests, different venues, different dress ideas, different time frames, different *everything*. We also meet a lot of family members and friends of those brides and therefore we hear many, many opinions and pieces of advice directed at those brides. The most heartwarming part of this is that those people have the bride’s best interest at heart, they love her, and they want her to be as happy as humanly possible. Sometimes though, people will be certain that what makes them happy will also be what makes the bride happy. Not always the case. Surprised? Think… Do you and your sister have the exact same taste in shoes? Your best friend has the exact favorite food you do, right? Your mom watches all the same shows you do and you laugh at exactly the same jokes, huh? One or more of those could be true, but my point is that what makes others happy won’t necessarily always make you happy.

So I’ll give you a clue to de-stressing the wedding process. Try making a list (even if it’s a mental list, although I recommend putting it to paper or iPhone note) of what components are most important to you concerning your wedding. Break it down into “I’d basically cry if this didn’t happen”, “This is pretty important, and I’d be fairly upset if it was missed”, “This is reasonably important, but I wouldn’t be crushed if it didn’t come together”, and “I mostly don’t care about this at all but someone said once if you have a wedding in North America you must do this or bad stuff will happen to you… or something.” You can name your categories something different if you don’t like mine. But stay with me here… as things come up and loved ones make suggestions… as complete strangers make suggestions… as you are bombarded with opinions from every direction… put those components into your categories. This will prioritize your decision making and also help you with budgeting. If your dress is really important to you (cause clearly I think it should be) then put that in your top category, make the decision on it first, and give it the attention it deserves. If having a clown tie balloon animals at your reception is at the bottom of your list… on second thought… we need a whole other category for that… unless you’re into it, then put it in the top category.

Do you see what I’m saying? Other people can make a really big deal out of elements of the wedding that aren’t important to you at all. If you don’t know where it falls in priority of importance to you, then you could get sidetracked and your focus could be stolen by something you don’t really care about. That stinks. Especially if it makes you miss doing something else you really cared about. Keeping your categories and referring back to them as you get overwhelmed will keep you focused and on track. Your list will look different than anyone else’s and so will your wedding. That’s what interjecting some personality into the process is all about. The key point: What’s important to *you* is important, what’s not important to *you* is the “small stuff”. Don’t sweat the small stuff.