5 Com­mon Mis­takes to Avoid While Plan­ning Your Wedding

Recently, I was asked to speak about 5 COM­MON MIS­TAKES TO AVOID WHILE PLAN­NING YOUR WED­DING on Tele­vi­sion Jamaica (TVJ). If you did not see this inter­view, I want to share it with you.

1. Assum­ing that you can plan your wed­ding by your­self. It is not uncom­mon for Brides & Grooms to believe that they can pull together their wed­ding plans all by them­selves. After all, it is their wed­ding!!! How­ever, you must have the time required to ded­i­cate, research and plan your wed­ding day. Many cou­ples work 9 to 5 jobs and sim­ply do not have the time required to research the many wed­ding options, and to book, make pay­ments, etc. Cou­ples who plan on their own soon find that they are over­whelmed, frus­trated and tired and the wed­ding is no longer looked at as a joy but a bur­den. So it’s best to engage help and I highly rec­om­mend the ser­vices of a pro­fes­sional wed­ding planner.

2. Think­ing it will cost too much to hire a wed­ding plan­ner, and so you don’t !!!. While there is a cost to hire a wed­ding plan­ner. This will be well worth it and sometimes less when com­pared to the cost of the tele­phone calls, site vis­its, time off from work and the stress and worry that you may endure when you plan your own wed­ding. In addi­tion a wed­ding plan­ner knows the wed­ding land­scape and can pro­vide answers and guid­ance for all the wed­ding con­cerns you may have.

3. Stop try­ing to repli­cate some­one else’s wed­ding. Make your wed­ding, YOUR wed­ding. You def­i­nitely want your wed­ding to be remem­bered for how unique, dif­fer­ent, enjoy­able and fun it was. Incor­po­rate ideas in your wed­ding that rep­re­sent you. If you like salsa music, then incor­po­rate this in your first dance. Don’t plan your wed­ding based on all you have read or seen on the inter­net. The wed­dings that are remem­bered are the ones that are unusual and fun.

4. Don’t lie about your bud­get or as we say in Jamaica, “don’t put your bas­ket where you can’t reach it”. It is always best to talk to your plan­ner or among your­selves about your wed­ding options and cost, then make a bud­get and decide on how you are going to pay for the wed­ding. Be real­is­tic, you may like tall & big flo­ral arrange­ments, but the bud­get can­not accom­mo­date this. Ask for sug­ges­tion on less expen­sive options. Many cou­ples really do not real­ize how expen­sive wed­dings are and are many times sur­prised at the total figure.

5. DIY doesn’t always mean cheaper. Pin­ter­est has fooled brides into think­ing that they can do any­thing just by look­ing at a pretty pic­ture. If you weren’t crafty before your wed­ding, you’re prob­a­bly not crafty now. “Do it your­selves” doesn’t mean that you should make the brides­maids dresses on your own. What it means is that you do not buy the Dress at that fancy Bridal store, but you go buy the fab­ric, etc. and you take same to a dress­maker and have her make the dresses. This way, in the end, the dress will not look cheap and you have pulled it all together yourself.