Wedding Plan: Time's NOT running out.

Yes. Planning your wedding is stressful. Yes. You need to book things in advance. But if you plan your wedding right from the beginning, you can help prevent your brain from exploding. That means, from the moment you get engaged, go ahead and start the planning research!

Coincidentally, my friend just got engaged last week and she has asked me to help her plan her wedding. So what's the caveat? She wants to get married in 4 months. First off, if this ever happens to you, don't EVER tell your friend that it can't be done. On top of just stressing her out even more, the fact is, it can be done! Yes, you will have to let go of some things, and you really will need to keep an open mind, but that's just all a part of having a short engagement.

Image from hbaphotography.com

So what is it that I recommend to every one of my newly engaged friends? Work off a wedding timeline!! If you are not generally an organized person, this is the one thing I strongly urge you to take control over. Believe me, a timeline will allow your brain to wrap your head around everything you need to do and will keep your wedding planning on track!

Google "wedding timeline" and a whole list of websites will pop up to assist you on your journey. The one I personally like to use is from weddingcram.com.

As you can see, the list of tasks needed to do for your wedding is on a certain time schedule in order to ensure you do everything you need to. In the case of weddingcram.com, your planning spans over a 12 to 16 month period. So what do you do if your wedding is significantly in under a year? ... say in 4 months? Simple: adjust the wedding timeline to fit your needs! For my friend, I took the timeline from weddingcram.com and figured out her own wedding timeline in which she needs to get certain things done. You can use what's already there as a guide to know how early and how late you can start on something. Before you know it, you will have your own wedding timeline that you feel comfortable working with.

Tips on your wedding timeline:

• Remove any tasks that do not pertain to you. Maybe you don't feel the need to put an engagement announcement in the newspaper - scratch it off. Or maybe you aren't having an engagement party - scratch that off. The more tasks you can scratch off from the start, the better you'll feel about the amount of things you have on your list. Think about it: the list originally has just under 100 things to do. I guarantee that you won't need at least 25% of what's on there - Bam! now you're 25 steps closer to completing everything!
• Do not jump ahead! This is probably the most useful advice I can ever give a bride-to-be. Stay within the schedule on your wedding timeline. Seeing how much more you have to do will only stress you out! And if you take on too many tasks that you can handle, you'll be ready to kill yourself. Each task is within a specific time range for a reason - so follow it!

So, I hope this is a good start for you to begin your journey to your wedding. Simply having a timeline will work wonders on your planning and will prevent you from having as many freak outs as you should!