Elle’s Bridal Diary: Stop and Take a Break

Stop and take a break while planning your wedding – I write this post after enjoying a spontaneous sunset walk with my Bear. It was while we were walking, taking in our pretty surroundings chatting about nothing in particular that we realize that the past 3 and a bit months have been nothing but wedding chatter, marriage prep and family business. Even our date nights allow for a sneaky wedding related discussion and decision. We were focused fiancés but disregarding daters. While our relationship status had changed and we had moved full focus towards becoming Mr. and Mrs., we had done little to enhance our dating relationship. It was then that we decided to take action and while these final 9 weeks will be filled with final preparations and projects we will take time out and be intentional about spending wedding-free time together.

When you are so focused on an event and you have your mind tuned into this life changing transition it is hard to think about anything else. Trouble is, once the wedding is over, you’re going to be spending every day with the love of your life you could find that you’ve forgotten what it was like to just be together.

Perhaps you’ve already made this concession and set time aside for non-wedding time or perhaps you have found that you easily steer conversation away from wedding plans and back to the present moment. We’ve found ourselves getting overly excited about our simple beach affair and even a walk could turn into a DIY experiment. These are some of the things we’ll be doing as we countdown the final weeks to our big day:

Nostalgia

One obvious way to avoid discussions around future events is to enjoy sharing favourite memories. We’ve set aside time to pick highlights of our time together and relive our fondest moments leading up to our engagement. This is also a great way to remember how you fell in love and celebrate the journey you’ve walked together.

Group time

I couldn’t imagine spending time with friends and all they’re talking about is their wedding day and new household arrangements. Making an effort to spend time with friends and loved ones and while it’s ok to give them updates by their request, try not to spend too much time on the subject just enjoy being together as you did before your engagement. Add some fun to it and apply secret incentives for the one who can keep wedding talk to a minimum.

Reverse

Set time aside for wedding talk. Treat it like a meeting with an agenda and take enough time to have necessary discussions and make important decisions. This way, when you’ve finished, you can keep wedding based conversation to an allocated time of the week.

What’s most important is that you don’t forget to enjoy your time together and don’t allow wedding related stress to hijack your love and joy.

Read more from Elle as she plans her wedding in our Bride to Be section.