Don’t want to use part of your limited budget on an expensive wedding planner? Check out these 10 wedding tips for the bride planning the big day on her own.

A wedding planner can cost between $250 and $15,000. For this reason, many brides and grooms prefer to put this money towards the wedding and choose to do most of the planning themselves.

If you’re planning your wedding, this post is for you. Read on to learn all the top wedding tips you need to know when you’re planning your big day.

Taking the Stress Out of Wedding Planning With Some Wedding Tips

Your wedding is about celebrating your commitment and love. But while this is an exciting time, it’s also a stressful one. It often seems like you’re continually making decisions about major details, including the cake, the venue, the music, the guest list, food, and of course, bridesmaids dresses.

As soon as you feel like you’ve crossed one thing off your list, you’ll need to move on to the next. This can make it easy to feel like you’re not making any progress.

These 10 wedding tips will help you stay organized and keep the stress at bay:

1. Focus on the Guest List

The first step is to consider the number of guests you think you’ll need to invite. This will have a massive impact on your budget, so if you’re hoping for a lower-cost wedding, it’s a good idea to think carefully about whether that second-cousin really needs an invite.

Now’s the time to think about your child policy. Will you be allowing kids at the wedding? Or maybe just kids involved in the wedding? Or perhaps kids over a certain age?

2. Set a Budget

Once you’ve nailed down your guest list, you’ll be able to find a suitable venue based on your numbers. Sit down with your fiance and discuss your ideal budget. Be sure to set aside 10% of your budget for any unexpected expenses along the way.

If your parents or your spouse’s parents want to invite extended family, are they willing to contribute to the cost of the wedding? Having frank discussions around these things will make the rest of your planning much easier.

3. Plan your Date

Before you lock down your planned date, check if it falls on the same day as any other events.

Charity walks, conferences, and other local events can impact hotel room availability and traffic.

You’ll also need to take the weather into account. You don’t want guests leaving early when the heat gets too much in your summer tent or freezing winter loft.

4. Keep Organized

When you’re planning your own wedding, the organization is key. You’ll need to track costs, keep copies of contracts, file receipts and invoices, and have countless details and wedding tips at your fingertips.

Google Docs and Evernote are two great tools that can keep important information accessible and consolidated. Otherwise, a wedding planner journal or binder can also work well.

5. Ask For What You Want

Once you’ve chosen your wedding vendors, they should be a great source of advice. You can use their expertise to explore exactly what you’re hoping for from your wedding. A vendor like Thames Weddings will make it easy to know exactly what you need to do at every stage of the planning.

You should have an open and honest dialogue with your vendors, so they can tell you what can work based on your budget.

If you want to negotiate the cocktail hour, food, flowers, or anything else, bring it up before you sign on the dotted line. This is when vendors are likely to be most accommodating.

6. Consider Challenges

No matter how many wedding tips you read, even the most well-planned wedding will have things that go wrong. The best thing you can do is prepare for any eventuality.

This is why preparation and organization are so important- logistics can quickly become overwhelming.

Think about who will be cueing the band, who will take leftover cake and alcohol, who will put out the place cards, and more.

7. Take it Step-by-Step

It’s a good idea to plan out your wedding planning. That means creating a schedule so you can tackle each part of the planning logically.

Don’t hire vendors before confirming your date. Don’t pick your cake before you decide on flowers, and don’t hire a band before you choose a location.

8. Be Realistic

As you get closer to your wedding, you’re likely to look at your to-do list and feel stressed out and underprepared.

That’s why it’s a good idea to start making some cuts. Keep in mind that these cuts shouldn’t be important things that you don’t really want to do like confirming last-minute details with vendors or picking a song for your first dance.

However, most couples have a few tasks like baking cookies for their wedding gift bags, hand-painting signs or creating Pinterest-worthy place cards.

Cross them off your to-do list and you’ll notice that you have more time and energy to think about the important things.

9. Be Cash Smart

This is one of the best wedding tips if you’re hoping to avoid financial stress after the wedding.

The average wedding costs more than $35,000. Of course, your wedding doesn’t need to cost anywhere near this.

Avoid going into debt for your wedding. It’s better to have a long engagement and plan your wedding for later on than to risk the stress and potential fights over money.

Be sure to set aside 10% of your budget for any unexpected expenses along the way.

It’s also a good idea to take advantage of credit cards which have great rewards programs. You can use these cards to pay for your wedding (immediately paying them off with cash) and accumulate thousands of airports which you can use for your honeymoon or a trip in the future.

10. Keep Perspective

When you’re wrapped up in wedding planning, it may feel like it’s the only thing happening in your life. But you have plenty of other things to focus on, and these things will still be around after your wedding.

Don’t get so caught up in planning your wedding that you neglect your relationships with your friends, family, and fiance.

Your wedding won’t be 100% perfect, and that’s ok. Just keep it in perspective and you’ll be sure to enjoy the day.

What Do You Think of These Wedding Tips?

Planning your wedding can be fun, stressful, exciting, and overwhelming all at the same time. By using the above wedding tips, you’ll be able to stay organized and relaxed so you can enjoy the process.

Feeling romantic or looking for advice? Check out some of our articles about love and romance today.