How to handle the stress

shimmer193

I have 13 days to go, and I'm really starting to feel the stress. Even though I've done so much, it still seems like there are so many last-minute things to get done. I had to take a sleep aid last night because as soon as my head hit the pillow, I started going through the to-do list.

So for you girls who have been through this, how did you handle the stress of the last week or two?

MarieSD

Not very well. I recently posted my story -- which involved me just barely holding it together, then promptly turning into a big, sobbing mess the day before the wedding when my mother was finally in town. And, of all things, it was over the gift bags for the BM/GM gifts. (ETA link - click here)

Are you using the TK checklist? What else do you have to do? At two weeks out, I was down to about 28 things to do, and trying to check off at least 1 per night after work. I knew some things, sadly, just weren't going to get done. I now wish I'd just taken a day off work and gotten all of them done at once -- and not worried so much about doing them "right."

For example -- one night I designed and rush-shipped our guest book from mixbook.com. At the actual wedding, only about 20 guests even signed the book -- and only on one page! I'd paid for a 20-page guestbook and 19 pages were never looked at.  Such a waste of money. I should've just gotten a generic one.

And the BM/GM gifts thing -- I definitely shouldn't have waited til the day before the wedding to wrap them, nor should I have worried about how they were wrapped. A waste of my brain cells, especially so close to the wedding.

courtski2004

I had different kinds of stress that threw me out of whack right before my wedding--I was laid off in April, and started a new job a week before the wedding. I took the last week off, met with my planner and finalized everything, but Wednesday-Saturday was a whirlwind from family members and WP arrivals.

Don't sweat the small stuff. Get your license early. Make a to-do list, and create an hour by hour schedule for when certain things need to be done if you are a procrastinator. I made a schedule for my DH to follow on Wednesday instead of just giving him a list of what we needed, and he was motivated to finish everything early so that he could relax. DELEGATE, DELEGATE, DELEGATE. I didn't, and it killed me. It was hard to give up the control of some things, but it will save your sanity if you do. People will be willing and more than happy to help--take advantage of that!

shimmer193

You two are definitely right in everything you say. It's so not worth it to stress about some of the things I've been stressing about. And a lot of it has to do with other things unrelated to the wedding (work, family). I'm bad about delegating, but immediately after reading these I assigned three tasks to FI and he has already done them. So easy! 

I definitely do need to do the hour-by-hour schedule because that's what's driving my crazy right now. I keep going through it in my head and I need to just write it down. 

I am so looking forward to walking down the aisle and being done with the planning!

MarieSD

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_texas-dallas-ft-worth_handle-stress?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:102Discussion:da190a63-232e-4ef0-8597-219dcc1e60afPost:de7bde3a-81cf-4a7a-8ea8-2586c617bf64">Re: How to handle the stress</a>:
[QUOTE]I am so looking forward to walking down the aisle and being done with the planning!
Posted by shimmer193[/QUOTE]

I felt this exact same way. The day after the wedding, I just kept exclaiming to H, "I never have to plan a wedding again!!!" (I probably should have been talking about, oh, actually being married, or getting on a plane to our honeymoon later that day... but all I kept thinking about was being so happy to be done with the reception hoopla, which had been more stress than anything else.)

The minute we got on the plane and onto our honeymoon, I completely forgot about all the wedding plans/stress, and never really thought about it again. So it really does disappear, just like magic!