Congratulations, you just got engaged! That means you will soon be planning your wedding. Read on for tips to help you cope with the pressures that may lie ahead…

Some couples love throwing themselves into the wedding planning maelstrom, others take a more laid back approach. The best outcomes are achieved when an open minded, flexible and calm attitude is adopted prior to the big day. Planning wedding strategy is actually very good pre-marriage training and could be viewed as an exercise in compromise, keeping cool and compassion – all things you’ll require in spades once you’ve signed the register.

Feeling stressed about your future nuptials is OK. If you weren’t feeling tense, that wouldn’t be normal. It is a big day in your life with many things to organise. Take a moment to gulp in a few breaths of fresh air and focus on being calm. Remind yourself how wonderful it will be when you are married. The future is rosy, all you need to do is get past the wedding bit in between.

Many couples,once they start looking at the huge scope of decisions and tasks that need tackling in order to organise a complicated affair like a wedding, start experiencing some low level panic. The enormity of the job ahead seems insurmountable. If you are both in full time employment, if the guest list runs into hundreds, if there are family politics and sensitivities to navigate – it can all suddenly get too much. If the biggest social event you have hosted until now is a charity coffee morning, then you might be feeling ….er….stressed.

De-stress Option Number One

This is where many people call in a wedding planner. For such people, planning weddings is what they do, it’s their bread and butter. A wedding planner will take you both by the hand and guide you through the choices you have. The only problem is, wedding planners come at a price. And if the stress you are already experiencing is in part due to the high cost of getting married, a wedding planner’s fees aren’t going to ease things.

De-stress Option Number Two

Hook up with a company that knows a lot about staging big events. Contacting Cameo Event Hire, for example, will solve many nagging wedding problems in one shot. At Cameo Event Hire they provide marquees offering the perfect setting for your special day. Added to that, they customise the marquee to your own personal tastes with sophisticated lighting and décor options. An elegant marquee with choice of luxurious linings, swags and pelmets creates a magical backdrop for a wedding. No matter the size of your event, there are marquees for intimate occasions and others for high capacity affairs. The brilliant thing about a marquee from Cameo Event Hire is that there is so much flexibility, from the location, down to the floor plan, the furnishings, even the catering, table linen and cutlery – they can happily take as much or as little of the wedding strain, freeing you up to get on with dress fittings, writing marriage vows etc.

De-stress Option Number Three

Get yourself organised. You can run the whole show yourself from start to finish but you will require the nerves of the coolest cucumber to conduct proceedings successfully.

Research is the key to a spectacular wedding event, knowing your options, learning about the choices, the prices, the different packages on offer, will help you weigh up the best way forward for your wedding. Good list makers make good wedding organisers, and if you are one of those amazing people who pride themselves on being super-efficient, you will thrive on the challenge. Good communication on every level is essential, whether with dressmakers, marquee specialists, caterers or guests – with a wedding day there are no second chances to get it right, so everybody has to be on the same page.

De-stress Option Number Four

Elope.

Yes, a lot less stress, but not so much fun. Sharing the celebration of your union with family and friends is one of the best things about your wedding day, so don’t be too quick to dismiss this aspect.

Yes, getting married can be stressful, but don’t let that put you off. There is a lot of help and support out there for those planning nuptials, so the likelihood of you reaching the wedding date still in possession of your sanity is relatively high. Good luck!