by CATEGORY

meet hope →

Destination wedding & portrait photographer fascinated by stories & people. This blog is the home for some of my favorite things — from weddings, engagement sessions, branding & more personal things.

Grab your favorite cup of hot tea(or coffee), and stay a while.

Hi! I'm Hope!

Every bride wants to have a stress free wedding experience right? I mean, this is the day you have been dreaming about since you were a little girl, & had the pretend wedding in your room with all your stuffed animals as your witnesses. It’s kind of a big deal. So it makes perfect sense that you want everything to flow seamlessly, everyone to be happy, and most importantly you want to make it, joyfully, down that aisle to your best friend. The one who will be with you through thick & thin. Your secret keeper, & confidant. To the man you will soon call husband.

But in life when does anything flow seamlessly? It would be amazing if it did, but let’s be real, Murphy’s law tends to kick in pretty hard sometimes. (Anything that can happen, will happen.) So how can you make the wedding planning process a little less stressful? I’m about to show you the 5 ways that you can do that.

Create a wedding timeline

— Planning your wedding 6 months to 1 year out is the best & most effective way to avoid stress. It gives you enough time to save up for unexpected wedding expenses you may not see coming (dress alterations, extra people that may come to reception, etc.) & you can book your favorite venue, photographer, etc. easier. For example: Local venues such as The Barn at Heritage Farms are already booking for the year 2020, & spaces are filling up fast.

Hire A Wedding Planner

— Outsourcing all the little details to a wedding planner will probably take the most stress off of your wedding experience. There are a lot of professional wedding planners out there for every budget type. So let’s go ahead, & debunk the myth that you have to be super wealthy to have a wedding planner. You do not. You simply need a vision for your wedding day, & your planner will help do the rest. Of course they will run things by you to make sure it’s exactly what you envision. But, best of all they will make sure you stay within your budget!

Hire Professional Wedding Vendors

— Okay, I know this seems like common sense, but hear me out. A lot of people like the skimp on things like hiring a professional photographer, making the cakes on their own, playing music from a cell phone as they walk down the aisle & at reception, etc. And the number one phrase I hear after they’ve had their wedding is, “I should’ve hired a professional” The last thing you want on your big day is to regret a decision you made. I know that when my clients come to me I have a full system ready to go, including, contracts (so they know I will be there on their big day, it’s extra security for them), payment options, a style guide for their engagement session, and very soon they will all be receiving a bridal guide, etc.

Stop Trying to Please Everyone

— The sooner you stop trying to please every. single. person in your family, the happier the experience. I know it can be hard sometimes. All you want is peace, & you always have those one or two family members who wants to object to every. single. thing you want. I have those people in my family too. Take what they say with a grain of salt, & just keep pushing forward. You want to be able to look back on your wedding experience with fondness, not sadness that you didn’t get to have what YOU wanted for YOUR wedding.

Stop Comparing What You Desire Against Someone Else’s Big Day

— We’ve all heard that quote that starts out like this, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” But boy oh boy how true that really is my sweet friend. It’s okay to look at Pinterest & gather ideas for the theme of your wedding, but when you start changing every single little detail to match someone else’s big day you’ve seen, that’s where stress, anxiety, and regret come in to the picture. This is YOUR wedding. It’s YOUR vision. Don’t try to copy what someone else has already done. When you look back at your wedding day, I want you to smile on it. I want you to be able to have wonderful memories with the people you love the most. I don’t want you looking at those photographs of your wedding with sadness, and stating, “I wish that I had gone with the vision I had, & not what she had.”