Top Ways to Reduce Wedding Stress: Part Three

And my final three tips on keeping the wedding stress at bay...If you missed the first two parts, read them here and here.

7. Slow Down! Look, I know what all of the magazines say about having to have such and such booked by 17 months and 13 days before your wedding and so on, but it simply isn't true. Sure, it is nice to get everything done and over with, but I think most brides miss the point with those planning timelines. They are guidelines that try to break apart the process so you are focusing on just a few things every few months, which is what I recommend. Focus on one thing at a time. When you are done with that one thing, go onto the next. If it helps, break each section of the planning to do list into even smaller sections so you aren't overwhelmed with your huge list, but please, under no circumstance, try to focus on all areas of the wedding planning at one time. It will drive you crazy and it's just unnecessary.

8. Know When to Call it Quits. If you feel yourself getting worked up, acknowledge it and then take a break. Catch a movie with your sweetie, grab a cocktail with your best friend or head to the spa with your mom. The only rule is no wedding talk. It will be hard, but distracting your one track mind for a bit will definitely leave you fresher and more reasonable to deal with whatever stressful situation you are facing at that point.

9. Maintain Perspective. I wrote a longer post about this topic here, way back when, but I simply believe that what makes a wedding day perfect is your decision that it will be so. I don't care if the cake comes with the wrong flowers or if the steak is overcooked, only you decide how to handle these mishaps. And, only you can decide if you are going to let these things stress you out, or worse, ruin your wedding day. Or, will you be the bride that decides her wedding day will be absolutely magical no matter what happens. The decision is up to you, but no matter what, I guarantee, if you always remember what's really important about your wedding day, everything else will seem secondary and rarely get to your calm demeanor!