Planning a wedding is the most excruciating, humbling, terrifying and exhilarating time of your life. Yes, this will be classified as a chapter of my life because I looked 10 years younger before I started this process. There are some simple things that kept me semi-sane throughout this party planning process.

You don’t have to do everything at once. I made an expansive to-do list a few months before the wedding: table arrangements, photo ideas, flower girl petals, snapchat filter, custom ceremony cards, timeline… it was endless. The initial goal was to have everything done a month before the wedding. It wasn’t realistic. I learned that setting a goal of completing 1-5 items a day keeps you from pulling your hair out and falling asleep on top of your table assignment board.

Find your person. Sure, your future partner will be your person for the rest of your life, but not every fiance wants to run by the crafts store or endlessly browse Etsy, Pinterest and blogs for wedding ideas. Shopping for days on end? Forget about it. Your wedding person will want to run those last-minute errands, fill 100 tiny tea bags with lavender buds and will even help without you asking them to. Delegate tasks to your person – they will put a fake smile on when you boss them around. They will listen to you vent daily about the groomsmen who doesn’t think a navy suit and tie match or *insert rude guest comment about your venue here*. Trust me, you’ll need it.

Make a wedding stop time for each day. As I became more stressed about the wedding I stayed up all night planning and when I did sleep I dreamed about a no-show DJ, my hair going flat and last-minute venue changes. My man came up with the idea to stop planning after 8pm every night. Not only did we stop planning, but we couldn’t even talk about the “W” word. There were weeks when I was home from work after 8pm and I wasn’t able to plan at all. There were also nights when I would be switching the table arrangement sticky notes around and I had to be dragged away from the board. It’s okay. Deep breathes and big wine chugs; enjoy your sleep.

When all else fails; take a break, binge on MFM or “Orange is the New Black” and grab the wine. Anything Tasty is your friend. Once the wedding planning is done (after the 75 thank you cards are sent out) there will be time to blog about life in the big apple. Until next time, cheers!