Manage My Wedding Podcast

Top 3 Tips for Stress-Free Wedding Planning MMW 208

• Yvette Sitters • Episode 208

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Dreaming of a wedding that perfectly captures your love story without the stress that typically accompanies the planning process? Let's turn that vision into a reality with today's episode, as we lay out the vital first steps to planning your ideal wedding. We discuss defining a wedding vision that truly resonates with both you and your partner, and I'll let you in on how to sidestep the financial pitfalls that catch many couples off guard, ensuring your budget is as realistic as it is robust. You'll walk away with strategies that not only align with your wedding dreams but also with your wallet, making for a calm planning experience from the get-go.

Then, we get into to the nitty-gritty of timelines and delegation. You'll learn how to plan a timeframe that'll keep you two steps ahead at all times, and discover how the right tools, like the Manage my Wedding App and the Calm Bride Planner, can simplify your life and ensure you still have time for your social life. I share insights on how to effectively delegate tasks, and with the help of our weekly wisdom on the podcast, you're equipped to navigate the path to 'I do' with ease. So let's get into the heart of stress-free wedding planning, and turn the dream into a day to remember.

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Yvette Sitters:

Welcome to the Manage my Wedding podcast, where we believe your wedding is the most important time in your life and you deserve to feel supported and organised when planning the wedding of your dreams. I'm your host, yvette Sidders. Hello, welcome back to the Manage my Wedding podcast. Oh my gosh, it is a brand new year. Happy new year to everyone. This is the very first episode for 2024. I hope everyone had the most wonderful festive break and I hope everyone's super excited to be back planning their wedding or starting out.

Yvette Sitters:

No matter where you are at, there's so many people that in getting engaged over that Christmas and New Year's period and it's such an exciting time. So just a huge congratulations to those of you who are newly engaged. The highs that come with just getting engaged is just the best feeling in the world. I remember it so clearly and that feeling in your tummy and sharing it. I've got the biggest grin on my face right now just thinking of it. But then, unfortunately, there is a reality of oh my gosh, where do I start? What's next? There's so many people telling me what to do, everything costs so much money, and the reality of all that kind of kicks in at some point. So today I thought you know what I'm going to start the episode and I'm going to give you. Firstly, I'm going to give you my top three tips when you start planning and then I'm going to give you my top three tips if you are part by through planning and you know All of these kind of resonate really for any stage you are at, but Particularly for where you are, you'll be able to resonate with some of these things because they're pretty common for most people wedding planning and they will help you because, as I said, you know it is so exciting when you get engaged and I do not want to take that thunder away from you because if you're newly engaged and you're listening, you're like, oh, but I'm still so excited and I cannot wait to plan. And some of you just love the planning part and get so hooked on it. But you know there's always little things along the way that will kind of throw us and make us think I just want to throw in the towel and not do this anymore, but it is worth it.

Yvette Sitters:

I have to say wedding planning is so worth it. Everyone's like, oh, I would just spend that much money. But I look back and have absolutely zero regrets, and not just because I'm a wedding planner who's been in the industry for 23 years, but I speak to all friends, family, those who have just gotten married, all the thousands of brides I've helped, and they say exactly the same thing that it is the best day of their life, it is magic. They would, they have no regrets, they wouldn't go back and do it again any other way Sometimes, apart from saying no to family and friends more and doing what you want. But you know, everyone is always so grateful for that day and, as I said, it is worth it. It's so worth it.

Yvette Sitters:

So what are my top three tips when you start planning? Well, the first thing is always to define your priorities and define what you do and do not want, getting your wedding vision crystal clear, and this is at all stages of wedding planning. I've talked about it in many episodes. It's actually the very first lesson of the calm bride planner course and I do actually share, share, share, share, share, share that first lesson at the moment. It won't be there for long, but at the moment you can actually watch that lesson for free without joining the calm bride planner. It's in my free workshop called the secrets to success for wedding planning. Actually, I'm going to link it straight into the show notes so that you can watch that. You will find it. If you're don't want to go the show notes, you can find it at manage, my wedding academycom forward slash secrets.

Yvette Sitters:

But honestly, it is really important. It's a really easy, quick lesson. It will help you map out exactly what you do and don't want. It will get you and your partner on the same page and it makes your planning so much easier. It cuts back your planning time, cuts back decisions. It cuts back money and time. That is so important right now time and money. We never have enough time and no one has enough money in the world right now. So those things are very important. So please go and watch that for free. But basically, when you know what you do and don't want and you know that with your partner, when something comes up as a task that you need to do straight away, oh, I don't need to do that task because my partner and I decided that was not part of our wedding vision. Or you're negotiating with a bender and it's much easier to know what you do and don't want from them because you know what your wedding vision is. So so many people waste money and hours of time because they don't have this to find at the start. They don't know what their dream wedding actually looks like and should be, and then we tend to waste money and that's when you do have regrets. So it's best to not have regrets. And also, once you have that wedding vision and it's everything you ever imagined after the wedding is when you will hear people say that was the best wedding ever, because you were glowing, you were happy, you were looking your best, you just you and your partner are so happy because the wedding was exactly what you wanted, and people see that, they feel that and they remember that forever. So please I cannot stress enough please go and do that lesson. As I said, it is for free at the moment. I don't know how long it'll be there because I will be taking it down at some point.

Yvette Sitters:

The second top tip for when you start wedding planning is to set a realistic budget, and the reason that I say realistic is because we actually don't know, when we get engaged, what things cost and we just kind of pluck a number out of thin air. If you go back, actually, and listen to episode 206, two episodes before this. I actually talk about this in detail and how to get around it but we pick a number that we think we can afford, or it's the number that the financial number that our parents gave us or whoever's inputting to our wedding. Then we work out what we can afford for the year or however long you're planning for, and we set that as a budget. Then, as we go, things don't cost what we thought they might cost, or they cost more or whatever, and the budget is no longer realistic, because it's actually not what things cost when you run out of money. So you've got to know how to set a realistic budget and if you go back to episode 206, I explain how to do that. So if you've just got engaged, yes, it's amazing to know how much money you have to spend. That is super important. But you know, once you define that wedding vision and you know what you do and don't want, then you can work out if your budget can afford that or not, and that just will make the planning so much easier and more stress-free. Because the number one issue well, there's two main issues actually that occur when we're wedding planning, and that is firstly, money and finances, and second is family and friends' opinions. So if you can avoid those things and be on top of it, then you are just going to enjoy planning so much more.

Yvette Sitters:

And my third top tip when you start planning is create a timeline, now a timeline as in create a timeline in your calendar for when you're going to work on your planning. Set that time aside If you're like okay, my partner and I are home every Tuesday and Thursday night together. They're the nights we're going to wedding plan and then on Saturday mornings, when my partner's playing footy, I'm going to do all my girly things for the wedding, whatever it is. Try and put that time aside so that you actually can stay on top of your planning and stick to that. And I know things will pop up like you'll get invited to a friend's bed they didn't even miss it, great. That week you move that night to Wednesday or whatever it is that you need to do. But always stay ahead, because what happens is we put that time aside and we're like, oh no, I don't need to do anything tonight because I'm ahead.

Yvette Sitters:

But what happens is those final three months. They usually are the most stressful because all these tasks creep up that we don't realize. So the further ahead you stay of planning, the more enjoyable the planning is going to be. And then, on the wedding day, you're going to wake up fully refreshed, looking amazing, because you haven't lost any sleep doing all those last minute tasks. So I'm sorry if I'm sounding like a downer. I'm listening to myself going oh my gosh, I'm saying all the negatives, but I really want you to enjoy your planning. I really want you to remain calm and feel organized so that the wedding date is magic for you. That's why I'm just sharing all these things. So they're my top three tips when you first start planning. Now the top three tips if you are part way through planning, and please keep listening if you're at the start of planning, because these will also help you as well.

Yvette Sitters:

Now the first one and oh my gosh, this is just so, so, so important, like cannot stress this enough is delegate tasks. The reason I say delegate tasks is because there are so many you do not want to do it alone, and some of them may not be enjoyable to you, or some of them might take so much longer than you think, or you might be a little bit of a control freak like me and think, no, I want to do it all myself, but as you get closer to the wedding date, you realize whoa I actually. I should have got some help. So delegate some tasks, especially if you do not have the Manage my Wedding app yet. Please go and get that. It is free. It is the heart and soul of my business and I just have so much passion for the Manage my Wedding app because it will help the kind of tasks that are coming and what's next, and it will help you manage your guest list, manage your budget and help you manage your wedding timeline on the day. But what you can do is you can scan through the to-do list that's in there and you can go.

Yvette Sitters:

Okay, what are the tasks I really don't want to do on there that I can hand over to somebody else, especially things like, for example, you might be like I like music, but I do not have time to pick 200, 300 songs if that's what you're going to do. Sometimes we have amazing musicians and bands who can help guide you, but if you've got a friend who loves music is always the person that plays the best music, knows how to get everyone on the dance floor or if your partner loves music, you can hand that task off. Or there might be something like guest favours which can take so long to pick often a waste of time because people leave them behind. You can give that to your mother-in-law. Then she say to her look, I want to give everyone chocolates to take away, whatever it is. There's heaps of podcast episodes where I talk about guest favours and give you ideas. So let's just say it was I want chocolates and I want them with our wedding date and our name. This is what I want them to look like. Everyone in the law is happy because she feels included. That's important and she goes off and does that job. That's going to save you hours that give specific guidelines when we do these things. So you're telling her the colour, not the size so much, but the colour, what you want it to have on it, that you want to chocolate or peppermints or whatever it is, be Pacific, because then they will go and organise what you actually want and come back to you with some ideas.

Yvette Sitters:

So delegate tasks. I've got heaps of podcast episodes and I've got a delegation checklist as well. All these things really help because I go through and I highly recommend like there's different stages of planning with different things you can delegate, especially on the wedding day, because you do not want people coming up and tapping you on the shoulder for things. You need to delegate everything out. So just constantly look at that list and constantly say what can I delegate out to make my life easier? Only those of you who are control freaks like me Please listen to me when I say this. It's worth it. So that's number one.

Yvette Sitters:

Number two is stay organised, and honestly, I know that's easier said than done, but as the wedding planning progresses and goes on, the details can become overwhelming. That's why I highly recommend you use tools like the Manage my Wedding app, which is free, or you get the Calm Bride Planner, which is my step-by-step course where I guide you through videos, through every tool and template. I give you absolutely everything. I help you do things quicker. I help you overcome dealing with any issues that you're going through. You get support from me. It's just so worth it. I'm gonna link both in the show notes, but you need things like this to help you stay organized. So make sure that you have a tool that you are using, that you always go to keep on top of things. Don't use too many, because what I find is if you use too many, then you get confused with the order and the things that you're doing and keep track of everything in one place.

Yvette Sitters:

In the Calm Bride Planner, I suggest that you set up a Google Drive where you keep everything, because Google Drive you can put on your phone as well and you can search for things really easily. But you can set it up with your wedding email as well, so that your work email or your personal email is not getting hammered with supplier emails or spam from people you got quotes from and didn't go ahead with. And you can set it up say it's Matt and Julie wed 2025 or whatever you want it to be, at gmailcom and that's the email that you use for everything. It just keeps everything in one place and you also get with that the free Google Drive. So it just makes sense. I'm telling you it makes sense. If you've already got an email set up or an email you wanna use, you can still set up a Google Drive. So get a Google account.

Yvette Sitters:

As I said, if you're in the Calm Bride Planner and you're listening to this and you haven't done that yet, please go and do it. I tell you exactly how to do it in the course, but you can keep everything there. You can keep images in there of ideas that you've got, you can keep all your contracts that you have with your suppliers so that you can refer to them whenever you need to. And, as I said, it's just so much easier and it will save you so much time in finding things. Gone are the days of paper trails and carrying around all these big folders. If you have it in your Google Drive, a supplier could phone you or you could be at the venue organizing something, and you can just go and find it in there and go oh, you don't have to do that, hold on, that's at home. Just makes everything easy. And you can share things as well. From there too, you can hit the share button and emails to someone directly Makes life so much easier. So that's my second tip.

Yvette Sitters:

My third tip is manage opinions Gracefully, I suppose, is the word I'm going to use today. Everyone wants to give us their two cents worth for our wedding day. Everyone has an opinion, everyone has advice, everyone wants to tell you what to do. Actually, go and listen to episode let me look 1-4-3, episode 1-4-3 is called Family Constantly Putting in their Two Cents and I help you navigate that. In that episode I talk about why family are putting pressure on you, how to be clear with your partner, on how to handle the objections that you get from family, knowing exactly what you will say when opinions are pushed on you, and how to find the easiest solution to keep everyone happy. So go and listen to that.

Yvette Sitters:

It's also a very big part of the Calm Vibe Planner course, where we help you come up with guest rules so you know how to respond to people with the right words that keeps them happy and stops them harassing the two of you. And, trust me, it does happen. So, yeah, just manage the opinions gracefully. With more decisions that are made, you're going to account for different opinions from families and friends. It's just what happens. You've just got to politely thank them for their input, but you've got to stay true to that wedding vision that you set at the start. So just learn to manage opinions gracefully, nod your head and say thank you, and it will just maintain such a more harmonious planning process and keep the relationships intact. I know that there's some family and friends that won't happen with, but we usually know who they are before we get married. So that's what I wanted to talk about today. Let's just recap quickly. My top three tips when you start planning are define your priorities with your wedding vision and set a realistic budget, and then create a timeline in your calendar of when you're going to work on your planning. And my top three tips if you are partway through planning is please delegate tasks, stay organized and use a tool like Manage my Wedding App or the Canberra planner and manage family and friends opinions gracefully. So I hope that has helped you get started.

Yvette Sitters:

Please subscribe to the podcast so that you can get our weekly Monday morning podcast straight there in your podcast.

Yvette Sitters:

If you are on Apple Podcasts, you just hit the plus follow button. It says and if you are in Spotify, you hit the plus add button to your library button and it will automatically give you our episodes every single week, so you don't miss any, because I tell you what you need support in your wedding planning. You have not done this before. You've got a full-time job. This sometimes can also feel like a full-time job if you don't have the right support, and all I want to see is you get the wedding of your dreams and do it with calm and ease and organization. So please go ahead to ManageMyWeddingcom and download our free Manage my Wedding app to start with, if you have not done that yet, and I wish you all the very best with your planning. Again, a huge congratulations to those of you who have just gotten engaged at such a magical time and, until next time, enjoy being engaged and staying stress-free and organized while planning the wedding of your dreams.