It’s three days before your wedding, and you are almost pulling your hair out from wedding stress. While getting engaged and fulfilling marriage is an exciting event, the culmination of planning details and crescendo of stress associated with your wedding can cause a meltdown for many bride and groom. The planning stage of the wedding, whether the event is a small one involving close family and friends, or a gala affair of 400 people, is a tedious yet all important aspect of a successful wedding. Here are some tips and advice we have accumulated over the years that may help you reduce your wedding stress.

Plan your Wedding Early:

Almost without doubt, those who begin planning the wedding details earlier experience less stress later in the game. The more clear and concise the details are the better position the bride and groom are in during those critical days leading up to the event. Starting early can mean choosing a generalized wedding theme, and then brainstorming for the most important aspects associated with it – the location for the ceremony, reception. Gathering resources – help from friends and family, and possibly help from a wedding consultant and coordinator – really help solidify the plan.

Take Time for Yourselves:

Don’t ever forget the reasons why you and your spouse are doing this – for love and for devotion and commitment. Many spouses lose focus of this as they follow through with their wedding planning details. Remember that no wedding is ‘perfect’. Keeping the love and excitement right through the wedding is also very important. Some things you can do to unwind during the planning stage may be:

Talk with close friends a lot. Tell them your frustrations, your concerns, your expectations of how this wedding should flow. Talking your wedding through from beginning to end can really help reduce wedding stress.

Spend romantic time with your spouse. Plan a surprise one-night ‘date’ and promise yourselves to not talk about the wedding whatsoever during that time. Pretend almost as if you are back to the stage of dating and keep it fun, mysterious and romantic. Break your date up into two parts – one where only ‘body language’ is allowed, and one where talking and socializing about anything not about ‘weddings’ is emphasized. Stay away from busy places.

Hit the gym, go for long walks (preferably away from people – beaches and hikes work very well) Many people can significantly reduce stress by staying active in sports if possible during the wedding planning stage.

Take long, hot baths, and pamper yourself with anything and everything you can during your bath. Spas, saunas and anything of the sort are great at this time.

Trust in your faith of your friends and family. They want your event to pull off with a bang as well.

Stick with your wedding plan from the beginning, but always ebb and flow with last minute changes. The wedding plan, while a very important guideline to follow, it simply that – a guideline.

Always remember, the biggest part of reducing wedding stress is having fun!