How to Plan a Wedding When Your Schedule Is Already Packed

How to Plan a Wedding When Your Schedule Is Already Packed If you’re trying to manage a career, you know that planning a wedding isn’t exactly going to make your life easier. Planning a wedding takes dozens of hours, if not hundreds, and trying to fit that into your already-busy schedule can be a nightmare. Fortunately, there are some strategies you can use to plan your wedding effectively, no matter how many other things you’re trying to juggle. Pick a Future Date (and Start Planning Early) Your first and best strategy is to pick a date for the wedding as far in the future as possible. Depending on you and your fiancé’s plans, this may be easy or difficult to accommodate. If you’re excited to get married, you may be tempted to choose a sooner date, but the more time you give yourself, the less stress you’re going to experience. Even if you choose a date a year in the future, don’t delay planning the wedding; start planning immediately, even if you do it in bits and pieces. Every step you take now is a step you won’t have to take when the wedding gets closer. Schedule Just 15 Minutes a Day If your schedule is overloaded with work and other commitments, you may find it difficult to find time to plan the wedding. Most people try to schedule a day to knock everything out at once, but this approach can stress you out even furtherâ€"and make it more difficult to accomplish everything. Instead, try scheduling just 15 minutes a day to focus on the wedding. Most people can find 15 minutes, whether that means canceling one small daily obligation, waking up a little earlier, or going to bed a little later. During those 15 minutes, don’t focus on anything else; just try to accomplish one specific goal for your wedding. Choose the Right Online Registry Finding an online registry and registering your items is an especially time-consuming process, but it goes much faster if you rely on a multipurpose online registry like Amazon, which gives you an enormous selection of potential products, and is convenient for your entire guest list. The right choice can easily shave hours off your planning time, and be more convenient for your guests as well. Rely on Friends and Family Members Though you might like the idea of having the final say on everything and remaining in control of the situation, it’s important to realize that you don’t have to plan everything yourself. Your friends, family members, and especially your fiancé will be willing to help. It may take time to explain your intentions, set ground rules for what others can and can’t plan, and review others’ work so they fit the grander theme, but you’re going to save time in the long run. Try to delegate things that aren’t as important to your grand vision, like the table decorations, or the type of chairs for the venue. Opt for All-in-One Solutions While planning a wedding, you’ll be in contact with multiple specialist vendors, but some vendors will inevitably be able to offer multiple products and services at once. For example, you might find that a venue also offers live entertainment, saving you the step of booking a separate act. As much as possible, consolidate the services you’re going to use; it will save you research time initially, and save you time every time you have to follow up with your reservations or have a question to ask. Plus, you’ll likely run into fewer coordination hiccups. Hire a Wedding Planner Though it will add to the total cost of your wedding, don’t write off the possibility of hiring a wedding planner. These are professionals who are dedicated to making the wedding planning process as seamless as possible. They’ll be able to offer you plenty of options, do the hard work for you, and keep everything organized so you don’t have to worry about it. Planning a wedding doesn’t have to be a job on top of your current career responsibilities and goals. This is one of the most significant events of your life, and it should be fun rather than a frustrating chore. The more time you give yourself, the more proactive you are with scheduling time to plan, and the more you delegate to other people, the less hectic the planning process will beâ€"and the less it will interrupt your brilliant career plans.