Planning a wedding or a special day event, like vows’ renewal, commitment celebration or even a Life Landmark celebration can be overwhelming, confusing and at times even frustrating as this is something you may not be doing regularly.

Based in our experience, we have put together a list of 10 common mistakes you should avoid on your planning process, to ensure it runs smoothly so it is pleasant and enjoyable to you.

1. Not defining a wedding/event vision

Before you start your planning process, you should define in a clear way your vision for the wedding or event and what you expect from it. Then, once you have this in your mind, start searching for inspiration.

2. Not looking into your finances at the beginning

Before any contacts with vendors are made or even visits to venues, it is important that you take a realistic view of the budget you have available. This will avoid some constraints that may occur, such as forcing you to decline a spectacular venue because suddenly you realize you really cannot afford it.

Check our 5 Tips to help you save on your wedding or event budget

3. “Saving the date” sent out prior to booking your venue

We all know that there are no weddings or events in which 100% of the invited guests confirm their attendance. This never happens!

However, it is important to be careful with your guest list management. Do not take anything for granted, so, come up with a preliminary guest list, then visit venues and only after you confirm a venue and are aware of their capacities should you send a “save the date”. Doing it this way, you avoid the dilemma of having to un-invite someone who received the save the date.

4. Involving lots of people in the planning

It is absolutely normal to ask our friends and family for a second opinion or some tips regarding the wedding/Event planning process. Specially to those who have gone through this process recently. There is nothing wrong with that at all! The tricky part comes when you start asking for advice from lots of people and end up in a situation where you really do not know which advice to follow anymore.

5. Not trusting your selected vendors

We have seen this happening and it does not make the couple feel better or less worried. In fact, this creates tension between the different parties involved. Before you select a vendor, you should carry out a deep research including reading reviews, make all questions that come to your mind, compare with other vendors of the same category and service level. This is totally understandable. However, once you pick and settle an agreement with your vendor, respect their work methods. Take a collaborative approach, present your ideas and let them come up with their suggestions to make it happen.

6. Constantly searching for inspiration and ideas

At some point in the planning process, you will need to stop doing this to avoid having you putting your decisions on hold or even, second-guessing your initial decisions.

7. Unrealistic time management

A balance is needed. You do not need to do it all at once, but you also shouldn’t relax too much and leave everything to decide last-minute. Do it all at once is not ideal because it limits your research time, and it is important that you feel that you are making the best and most educated decisions. Doing it all very last minute, may also mean that you don’t get exactly what you were thinking of, that you are left with the limited available solutions and also, little room to negotiate with the vendors.

8. Not delegating

Not everyone likes to delegate tasks, we get it! But, you may need help at some point so don’t wait until you are struggling to keep your head above water. If you feel like you may be needing some help in the near future, then go ahead with it. Delegate a certain task to someone you rely on and trust them. This can either be a professional service or a family member or a close friend.

9. DIY everything to save costs

This can be a risky decision that may result in an increase of your anxiety during the process. Obviously, you can opt to do some DIY, but always keep in mind that if things are not turning out as you envisioned, you will get tense, spend more time fixing it and lose sleeping nights until you get it right.
So, sometimes you really need to put it into perspective and understand if you are definitely saving costs (and enjoying it) or if you should hand out this task to someone else.

10. Not preparing the wedding/event day run sheet to use and not sharing it with the vendors

You should look at this run-sheet as your bible! The document that has everything single detail of your big day. This includes logistics information such as:

• set up/dismantle times,
• delivery and collection times and procedures,
• final numbers,
• décor details,
• menu
• and so on.

It must be shared with your vendors at least 4 weeks in advance to let them review and come back to you with any comments or suggestions

I hope these tips are useful to you and please do remember that journey of planning your wedding or big event must be a pleasant memory! Take a look at more helpful planning tips here. tips here.