Planning a wedding from scratch is a big responsibility, with a lot of time put into arranging everything and figuring out how to execute the wedding of your dreams. It can be really fun to plan the wedding of your dreams, but it can also be a very time-consuming task, and if you’re working a 9 to 5 job, this can mean trouble.

Now, it might seem an impossible thing to pull off, but many brides manage to plan the wedding they’ve always dreamt of while working a full-time job too. So, if you’re about to embark on this wedding planning adventure and you have to balance it with your 9 to 5, then this is for you. Here you’ll find all the secrets of those brides who’ve managed to do the impossible task of planning their wedding on a full-time job.

START AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
Did you just get proposed to recently? Then you’re right on time to start planning your wedding and figuring out everything you need for your wedding. Start thinking about where and when you’ll get married, as well as the general style of your decoration and how many guests you’d like. Having these abstract ideas in your mind beforehand will save you a whole lot of time.

ORGANIZE EVERYTHING
Before jumping into any specifics and start booking vendors, you need to organize everything you can beforehand. Make a document or spreadsheet with all the things you need for your wedding, everything that comes to mind, as well as approximate prices that you can later pinpoint to have your budget figured out.

Having everything neatly organized and written down will not only make the information more accessible, but it will also help clear your mind of all the information about your wedding planning, like dates, prices, places, and ideas that could fill up your headspace and ultimately end up stressing you out and making you feel more tired.

TEAMWORK IS KEY
Planning a wedding is not something a single person can do on their own, so if you want to survive this process, you need to team up with your partner and distribute the stress, tasks, and responsibilities between you two. Have your partner contact half of the vendors or do the things that can distract you from the planning process, and you’ll see how it gets easier.

Also, if you have a good friend or relative who is keen to help you with planning, accept the help! You never know when you’ll need another set of hands or someone else’s headspace. You can also include in your team a wedding planner or any other vendor with expertise that can help you on your journey.

KEEP THINGS SIMPLE
If there’s anything about your wedding that can be done simpler, then go for it, don’t even think about it. Do you have a friend you trust who can offer a service for your wedding? Hire them; does your venue have an all-included bundle? Take it; can you easily fulfill the role of a vendor by doing it yourself? Then do it. Of course, DIYs can be time-consuming, but not every DIY is about taking a trip to a crafts shop and spending your weekend following a youtube tutorial.

You can do things yourself to avoid the hurdle of looking for and dealing with vendors, one of these things is lighting. It might seem like a very technical and difficult thing to do on your own, but with Ship Our Wedding, you can rent easy to use, quality equipment for your wedding lighting, whether it is our DIY pipe and drape or a DIY drape backdrop; with these rentals, you will easily take care of your wedding’s lighting and save time you’d otherwise spend looking for vendors, figuring out dates and prices and paying their high prices.

GET ALL THE TIME YOU CAN
If you haven’t used your paid time off work, this is the moment to use up those benefits. Many 9 to 5 jobs include policies that allow you to gather all your paid time off and use it as needed when you desire, and this presents a great opportunity for your wedding planning process.

You can use this amazing benefit along your planning process whenever you need to meet with a vendor or have a tour of your venue and also save some days off for the week before your big day. Use those days before your wedding to relax and have some time for yourself, but also to make sure everything is running smoothly and deal with any inconvenience that may arise.

FIGURE YOUR PRIORITIES
Every wedding is as unique as the couple who is getting married, and each couple has different needs when it comes to their wedding. Some will feel like getting all of their relatives to their wedding is a priority, while some others want a great band at the reception, and if you’re religious, you might want to book a certain church or ceremony.

All of these things will depend on what you feel is necessary for your wedding, and you should cater to those needs. Make sure to secure all those things you consider indispensable to the wedding of your dreams, and when you have already gotten all of that figured out and taken care of, you can move on to some other parts of the planning process.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
Finally, we have to highlight the importance of taking care of yourself during this process because it can be overwhelming and stressful to balance all of these different things that go into planning your wedding and having a full-time job.

You can schedule some time for a spa visit, maybe a hair appointment, or just a day out with your friends. These things will keep your mental health in check and allow you to clear your mind before continuing planning your wedding, making your journey way smoother than it could’ve been.