Hello Internet!
After looking through my books and reading the first few chapters, I realized that before I do anything I needed a plan. I stress about things I need to do no matter the timeline I have and I stress more about forgetting something! None of the timelines I looked over really fit my needs, they all had too much and too little. I ended up checking off most of my check list and trying to add more than I had room for. It was really starting to get messy and not at all helpful! So I erased everything and started over MY WAY!
After looking through my books and reading the first few chapters, I realized that before I do anything I needed a plan. I stress about things I need to do no matter the timeline I have and I stress more about forgetting something! None of the timelines I looked over really fit my needs, they all had too much and too little. I ended up checking off most of my check list and trying to add more than I had room for. It was really starting to get messy and not at all helpful! So I erased everything and started over MY WAY!
I created a box for each month and started by filling in the most time sensitive items:
- 12+ Finish Guest List, Book Venue
- 6+ Send out save the dates, Order Dress
- 5+ Make sure Brides maids have ordered dresses, Make Dress fitting appointments
- 4+ Buy wedding bands
- 3 Send out Invitations!
- 2 Dress fittings!
- 1 Call guests who did not RSVP & Finish any last minute To Dos
Next I started filling in the rest of the months from the timelines in my books. Here were my steps:
1. I started at the month before the wedding and worked backwards. (more needs to happen the closer you get to the date!)
2. If there was something I could do ahead of time I would push it forward as early as I could. This can be tricky since some things need to happen in a certain order, so pay attention to what you put where.
3. I tried only put 3-4 things each month and spread out any purchases to only once every month or two. Also it is a good idea to add a fun thing to each month so you don't get burnt out on planning!
4. Any big time consuming things would get a "Think about ______" added to the month before so I could mentally prepare or get a general idea for that To Do before I jumped into doing it.
5. Once everything was filled in and accounted for I double checked that I didn't forget anything.
2. If there was something I could do ahead of time I would push it forward as early as I could. This can be tricky since some things need to happen in a certain order, so pay attention to what you put where.
3. I tried only put 3-4 things each month and spread out any purchases to only once every month or two. Also it is a good idea to add a fun thing to each month so you don't get burnt out on planning!
4. Any big time consuming things would get a "Think about ______" added to the month before so I could mentally prepare or get a general idea for that To Do before I jumped into doing it.
5. Once everything was filled in and accounted for I double checked that I didn't forget anything.
Then a very strange thing happened....
All of my worry and stress was gone!
I had my 3 things to do this month and since I am still 20 months away so they weren't very time consuming! I knew that everything had the time to get done so there was no reason to worry about it. The funniest part was when someone would want to talk wedding stuff with me and ask me about the flowers or the dress, [insert fun wedding thing to talk about] and I would totally end up killing the conversation!
All of my worry and stress was gone!
I had my 3 things to do this month and since I am still 20 months away so they weren't very time consuming! I knew that everything had the time to get done so there was no reason to worry about it. The funniest part was when someone would want to talk wedding stuff with me and ask me about the flowers or the dress, [insert fun wedding thing to talk about] and I would totally end up killing the conversation!
Perky Excited Person: Do you know what flowers you are going to have?
Me: I have no idea what flowers I am having! I don't have to think about that until June!
Perky Excited Person: What about the dress you must have thought about what dress you want?
Me: No Thinking about dresses doesn't happen until April.
Total buzz kill, but I will take that over stressing and worrying any day!
And because being stress free is AWESOME! I made one for you!
Just click on the time frame you have to work with and print it out!
18 Month
18 Month
All of them only go until the month before because you will need something a little bigger specifically for month of and even day or week of. Also if you need some timelines to work with to fill in the other details pick, choose, and add from the lists below!
-The Knot - This one requires you to create an account, but you probably have one already!
GOODBYE STRESS!
Sincerely,
