What's your best piece of advice? OM's & Planners!

Enjoy it all.

The engagement, the planning, the event.

I was lucky enough that our families get along, there were very few stresses and I didn't really care too much about colour schemes, things matching, etc. - and I certainly get that that's not the case for everyone. But, where you can - and even when you feel you can't - try to enjoy it.

While planning, I didn't really stop to think about what I was doing; I just got on and organised. It's now when I look back that I think how I should have savoured it all!

Don't tell too many people your plans.... someone will always have their say and disagree with you. It's difficult not to upset anyone, so you may as well ensure you and DH are happy with your choices.

If you're paying for your wedding, do what you/your partner want.

Also, once you make a decision, move on. You can obsess over every little detail for years on end if you allow yourself to do so!

All of the above. Also... if something is important to you don't trust a friend or family member to Do it even if they insist. Come the day they might just forget/mess it up/decide something else is better. All with the best of intentions but the end result is you haven't got what you wanted and no chance of redoing it. If it's important to you hire someone to do it.

Agree with all of the above, especially Pooba, I feel very similar & wish I'd embraced everything so much sooner! And then the usual take 5 minutes with your husband at some point to just take it all in, sooo many people told me to do this but we got so wrapped up in the day we didn't, I really wish we'd gone back to our room for 5/10 minutes and just relaxed before the rest of the party kicked off!

xxxx

I'm not an OM yet (2 weeks today!!) but I'm completely stress free because everything is DONE. I mean, everything! It's such a nice feeling to just look forward to it and have a whole weekend this weekend where we don't have any wedmin to do at all! So my advice for anyone in the earlier planning stage is, ignore other people if they say you're doing things too early- we've had our wedding bands nearly a year, I chose my dress 17 months before, I haven't had to buy anything wedding related in over a month. We paid off all our bills 2 months ago (although actually that was pre-brexit strategy as we were worried currency would crash, turned out to be a good call for an Italian wedding!!)

so id say, it's never too early!!

I love that picture!! ??

Haha I love that picture too!

lots of people advised me to make sure I "sit back and take in everything and savour the day because it goes so quickly". This was actually really good advice which I did remember on the day and it made me consciously sit back and appreciate all that was going on. Especially during the wedding breakfast, it was so lovely to look around the room at all our friends and family enjoying themselves.

As the others have said, try and enjoy the whole planning process, as it's the only time you'll do it and it'll be over before you know it!

Learn to delegate! I am a big control freak but this whole wedding planning process has taught me how to delegate! You have to let people help you otherwise it's too stressful/too much to do on your own. I wanted to do everything myself so that I knew it was done exactly how I wanted. On the morning of the wedding our venue wedding co-ordinator put out all the decorations, table plans etc. I was determined that I wanted to check it all but in the end I didn't have time. But what I realised was that in the end it didn't even matter. It all looked perfect but on the day I didn't even care about the little things anymore, it was suddenly all put in perspective! All the stressing over the little things seemed to silly! Easy to say in hindsight though!

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Cannot relate to this enough - if you're not having a budget free wedding, I would most likely stay away from these.

They give you some unrealistic ideas/wedding envy.

Make sure you have everything laid out neatly and in order when getting ready. This especially applies if you're getting married away from home. I've said this before, but I was scrambling around getting stuff out of bags and it wasn't good. I didn't have time to put a vintage brooch I had bought specially on my jacket, and it irritates me to this day.

Also to take off the tags from all of those items of jewellery those ones with little cotton ties can especially be a pain.

Don't forget the stickers on the bottom of your shoes.

Take the flowers out of water plenty of time before you need them otherwise water will drip all over the dresses it can be hard to dry it all off in-between the stems.

If you have a lace up dress just allow a little bit longer than you planned, you may of had a practice but this time the pressure is on and the person doing it has also had her nails done too and under pressure mistakes can be made, it wouldn't be the first time i have seen them get down to the bottom and realise there is a D loop spare or a button loop spare when you get to the top of a button up dress and have to start all over again.

I agree with ALL the above! Great advice. I wish I'd had a rough timetable written out with a checklist for the day I got ready & include the phone number for the car picking you up. Although I arrived on time The car was late so I was searching for their contact number which none of my BM/mum had. I also forgot to put on my garter (something blue).

Also have a list written with the photographer of what exact photos you want. My TOG was pretty new & thats likely the reason, but I was bitterly disappointed. I ended up with no family portraits at all! I grabed one with my 90yr old nan as she walked past, & another with mum, but absolutely none with me, hubby & the family. We had planned portaits outside, but due to rain had to go inside. I dont know if this thew her, & I never thought about it, but keep a list of the pics you really want.

My dress is a lace up back and this is stressing me out!

The wedding dress shop have recommended that when I go for my fitting that I have someone film me being laced into it! But that means I'm relying on my mum and daughter to help me on the day and bless them, they're not very good at things like that! I'm hoping that my photographer will help and not be freaked out by me asking him!! Haven't warned him yet, I don't want him cancelling on me ? !!

Anna xx

The best thing to do is have a couple of practice do-ups, the biggest debate I always see is "now what did the dress lady say I have to do with the ends" so before the day remind yourself of what you want to do here, there are usually 3 options.

Tie into a knot and tuck the long ends into the inside of the dress (a hand goes up from the inside while the ends are pushed in from the top where the knot is) don't worry if the ends are really long - just cut them down to knee length, you dont want to be tripping over them. Some people don't like the idea of cutting the ends down a bit and so opt to tie in a loop and a knot that dangles down inside, I don't know why they come with such looooong ribbon.

Finnish as a bow but get it right in your mind before hand how big you want the bow, ends then tucked in as above.

Finnish as a bow but the two ends are left out, this one is the most tricky because you have to make sure that you are finishing with the two ends the same length, with the two other options it doesn't matter as the ends are inside the dress.

Narrow lace - or ribbon is the easiest to work with.

Are you having your hair and make up done? Both my MUA and hairdresser asked me if I wanted them to stick around and help with the dress

Another one to add to the thread;

DIY with caution

I have spent 7 hours DIY'ing just one element of my wedding today. 7-gosh-darn-hours! Hunched over a table cutting out bits of paper and trying not to slice my hand open with a Stanley knife.

Be realistic when you first start planning - do you even enjoy being crafty? If you don't - look at alternatives!

A few people have said it's never too early for preparation. I would mostly agree with this with the exception of possibly the most important thing- buying the dress! I have seen lots of people on here who have regrets about buying the wrong dress for various reasons. I think if you buy it too early you are left with a lot of time to think about it and even if you're not actively still looking you can easily end up seeing another one closer to the time that you prefer. Lots can happen in the meantime to change your mind. I bought a dress a year before and the next 6 months were the worst of my life. To say the bare minimum I lost almost a stone with stress totally unrelated to the wedding and unforeseen so even if I had wanted to stick with the original dress, it no longer suits my body shape. Proceed with caution ladies!