"A Brides Guide to a Stress Free Wedding"

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing some ideas that will help "brides to be" minimize their stress levels when it comes to managing your wedding.

Planning and organizing for your wedding is all part of the process. It can be a lot of fun engaging parents, family and friends to help plan your wedding. However, managing people can also cause anxiety and stress leading up to and on your wedding day.

Doing a little advanced planning and setting some expectations with your bridal party, parents and friends can make all the difference in the world. Always keep in mind this is your day. We see too often members of the bridal party thinking it’s their day, when infact, they are here to support you. When choosing your bridal party, set the expectation early that you expect them to be a part of the process and just not part of the party. Assigning simple task can make your wedding day stress free and amazing.

Tip number 1 "The Family Photos"

Weddings can have large and fragment families that can cause difficulty for any photographer to manage. High expectations and special requests from parents, grandparents and family members can cause additional stress for the bride and groom.

To minimize your stress levels you can start by setting exceptions with your photographer. Make sure you have discussed with the photographer your shooting list for your family portraits. Make sure you go over the list with the photographer in detail and not the day of, but weeks before. Make sure the photographer knows how many group shots and who needs to be in each of them. List the first and last names of everyone and the significance to both the bride and groom. Most photographers will provide you this shooting list, so don't worry about creating the list yourself.

Assign someone from your bridal party to wrangler your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Don't take this task on yourself. Assigning two people from your bridal party to help the photographer is a great idea. One to chase the wondering relatives, the other to make sure the photographer has all the people in the right photo. The bride and groom should never take on this task on running around and chasing relatives. 

If you follow these simple tips, you will have a great moment to relax while everyone else does all the work. It will go quickly without a hitch and everyone will be happy.

Have fun and remember, smile your beautiful! 

Dale Alan Schmitt