Given the option, I would probably describe myself as someone with Type A personality. I’m organized, have a clear idea of what I want, and will do anything I can to make it happen. All of these personality traits became even stronger when wedding planning. To put it simply, I was Monica Geller reincarnated. Just to be clear though, I was definitely not a bridezilla. I knew what I wanted every detail to be like but I enjoyed the entire process and didn’t get even slightly stressed. Since I’ve always been the type of girl that’s dreamed about my wedding and thought about what it would look like and be like, I knew wedding planning would be a breeze. Turns out, being Type A when it comes to planning can be a blessing and a curse! The fact that you know what you want and you’re organized definitely works in your favor – yay! On the other hand, relinquishing control can be rough but trust me, it’s necessary. I am going to give you all of my tips for the Type A bride that will make wedding planning a dream (like it was for me!) rather than a nightmare.
Assemble a Dream Team
The first step in ensuring your wedding day is going to go exactly as you envision it is assembling a dream team of vendors. First and foremost, do your research! Finding the right people and companies to make your wedding dreams a reality is the toughest part of planning but it’s crucial. Once you hire vendors, planning gets so much easier. Especially as a Type A bride, it can be tough to find someone to leave your wedding in their hands. Go on WeddingWire and search for every single vendor you’ll need. You can see reviews, portfolios, pricing, and contact information all in one place. So easy!
My biggest tip is to find vendors with the same style as you! This may sound obvious but it can be super tempting to hire someone with more years in the business or slightly better reviews but the reality is, if they don’t have the same style as you, they’re not going to be able to execute your vision properly. If you’re going for a bright, airy aesthetic and the vendor you’re looking at usually does weddings that are full blown gothic-style, it’s not going to be a good fit. Don’t just look at the number of stars they’ve received – read through the reviews and make sure their specialties line up with your needs.
Make Your Vision Clear
Since these tips are for Type A brides, I won’t even get into making sure you have a clear vision. If you’re truly Type A, you’re probably way ahead of this. Just in case, I wrote a post about finding your wedding style that you’ll love! Once you have a good idea of what you want your wedding day to look like, it’s important to get all of your vendors on the same page as you. The easiest way to do this is with photos. I cannot stress finding good inspiration photos enough! You will reference them a million times throughout the planning process – bringing them to every vendor meeting, using them to find color palettes, etc. Even if there is something in the photo that you don’t like, save the picture and make a quick note about what you love and what you don’t like at all. This will ensure everyone is taking inspiration from the correct parts of the design. For my florist, Diamant at Blue Ladder Botany (who I will chat about more later on – she’s amazing!!), I sent tons of photos from Pinterest with notes on the photos about what elements I loved and what elements I didn’t. Diamant totally appreciated it because it left no room for confusion and I loved it because it made me positive that we were envisioning the same thing.
Trust The Professionals
Once you’ve done everything you can to make your vision clear and your wishes known, you have to let go. This can be hard if you’re a Type A control freak but it’s necessary for your sanity, your vendor’s sanity, and everyone’s sanity around you. I kept reminding myself that although I get one wedding in my lifetime, these vendors do weddings and events just like this every single day. If you’ve chosen vendors that you love and made sure you were all on the same page, you have to trust their expertise and know that they will do their very best to make your big day perfect.
Try not to get into logistics with your vendors – you don’t need to know how your florist is going to attach greenery to your signage, you just need her to know how you want it to look and leave it at that. Staying out of the complicated behind the scenes details makes things a lot easier for everyone involved and leaves a lot less room for confusion. For our wedding, I had so many questions about lighting since I had never done anything like that before. I’ve worn a dress, I’ve arranged flowers, I’ve set a table but setting up market lighting over a gigantic lawn was something totally foreign to me. Bright Event Rentals, who did our lighting design and installation, was so sweet and answered so many questions for me. After going back and forth with them about what the poles were going to look like and how many strings of lights they were using, I totally let it go and trusted that they knew exactly what to do to make my vision come to life. I showed them photos of the look and ambiance I was after and they made it happen!
Accept the Help
No matter how organized you are, you’re going to need help planning. That’s inevitable! Whether it’s your groom that accompanies you to vendor meetings, your mom that helps make design decisions, or a wedding coordinator that guides you through the entire process, accept the help! Don’t just accept it – seek it out! You’ll be so glad you did. Hands down, the absolute best decision I made throughout wedding planning (besides choosing my groom!), was hiring a wedding coordinator. I didn’t originally think I needed one because I genuinely loved planning every little detail myself and couldn’t imagine handing over my precious wedding to anyone else. Our wedding venue actually required a wedding coordinator, which was the biggest blessing in disguise because I’m not positive that I would have hired anyone if I didn’t have to. I don’t even want to think about how many things would have gone wrong if I didn’t have Kelsey from Kelsey Rae Designs for the last 6 weeks of planning. Having someone to look over all of my contracts, deal with all of my vendors, tie up any loose ends, and handle anything that came up on the day of the wedding was a total lifesaver! Trust me when I say, hiring a month-of coordinator is a non-negotiable, even for the most Type A, organized, controlling bride.
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