One of Ireland's leading wedding planners has warned of the dream day pitfalls as 50 guests are back on the table.
From Monday, the Taoiseach Michael Martin has confirmed that 50 guests will be allowed to attend wedding receptions.
And wedding blogger Sara Kennedy from Irishweddingblog.ie warned couples to be mindful of rushing in as over excitement can take hold.
Sara told the Irish Mirror: “In terms of the pitfalls, there have been lots of couples down in the dumps, they didn’t get to celebrate the way they wanted to celebrate their engagement.
“They’ve been cooped up, they had a lot of time to get inspired from Pinterest and social media, it’s almost like they’re going to be let out of the traps.
“In some cases some will be really measured in what they want, but some couples will be so excited that they finally get to do something that they may rush into some decisions.
“Getting swept up in the moment and the excitement only to realise it’s out of budget or it wasn’t the right decision.
“Still keep to the principles of shopping around and not being impulsive, there will be the thing where you will get the butterflies in your tummy particularly when you’re choosing a venue.
“If everything stacks up price wise, it’s the right thing, you can still take the time out to understand your costings.”
Self care is important too, she adds: “It’s been such a rough ride so look after yourself and plan the things you weren’t able to do for the last few months, like the facials, bridal boutiques.
“What we realised during Covid it’s not always about that one wedding day, it’s the whole ceremony and the lead up, where you come together as a family.
“There was the engagement party, the afternoon tea with the bridal party, the stags, the hens, all of those things build up to the day, without those days the wedding day is only one part of it.
“That’s where couples really felt the downer, not having that excitement in the build up.”
B/O Sara’s top tips for your dream day
Calm: Remove yourself from the wedding planning for a few days if you can. Switch off and let your body settle all that nervous adrenaline
Consider: Once calm, lay out all of the worries on paper and start to review what everything means practically / logistically and financially.
Calculate: Once you have an idea of your plans you need to understand any financial implications as a major anxiety for couples. If financing your wedding is causing anxiety, find a number that works for you as a couple and work from that. Many jump into the wedding planning process without understanding the bigger picture and then get very anxious of costs as they build up. In the consideration stage, reflecting and pre-empting what's ahead will save a lot of anxiety plus I have free downloadable budget templates on irishweddingbl og.ie
Control: A wise person once said ‘Control the controllable’ so whether it’s covid wedding restriction uncertainty, a wedding party member stressing you out….. you can only control what you can control and that really is how you respond to it.
Going back to ‘Calm’, removing yourself from the wedding process can help but most importantly, accepting that not everything is within your power to control and no matter how much energy you put into stressing about it, it may not change the end result.
