Planning a Wedding vs. Planning a Holiday

So as many of you may or may not know – I’m guessing the majority do not or don’t remember – but I recently got engaged. With that engagement comes all the planning, budgeting, scrutinizing, agonizing, exciting, exhausting, stressful and all-encompassing after affects of putting together a wedding. I thought it would be fun to write a post about how and why planning a wedding is actually quite similar to planning a trip. The good, bad and the ugly.

1. You need to set a budget

Like any good holiday, you generally start with a budget. How much can you realistically save in the given time you have to save it? Or in some lucky cases, what do you already have saved and what can that be used for. This is probably the most difficult and important part of any holiday or wedding. Obviously you never have enough money, you could always do with more. I’ve spent a great deal of time and effort trying to perfect this for both my wedding and all of the holidays I want to take every year but like most things, emergencies happen and it doesn’t always work out how you want it to.

2. Researching to death

This may not apply to everyone but if you’re anything like me you’ll research every last thing to death! I can’t tell you how many blogs I looked at of our top 3 wedding venue choices to see how they looked in different seasons, various colour schemes, and different angles from photographers. This is the same with travel. I will literally google how much a cab will cost from the airport to our accommodations, or where the best places to take photographs are. I really try not to over plan because I always want to have flexibility when travelling around.

3. Trying to remember every last detail only to know you never will

This is a reality. There are so many elements when planning a wedding or a trip you’re bound to forget something. Just hope and pray it’s not something big or major like booking a car rental when going on a road trip in California for 12 days (yes this happened), or forgetting to book a night in a hotel in one of the most expensive areas in California and having to pay $290 a night for a Best Western (California really wasn’t the smartest trip I’ve taken – it has been one of the funnest though).

4. Having to listen to everyone else’s opinions

While it’s great getting other people’s opinions about wedding ideas or travel itineraries, it can be super annoying though when these people try and shove their opinion down your throat. I don’t care if at your first cousins second wedding she had a photobooth and it was literally the best thing ever. Nor do I care that your weekend in Chicago in the winter was the worst trip you’ve ever been on. I’d rather make these decisions on my own and pick things that suit my style and need thank you very much.

5. Figuring out who pays for what

This is probably the hardest part. With a wedding, if you’re lucky, both sets of parents will contribute money to help you get married. This can sometimes be a sticky situation though especially when it comes to what each party wants and managing expectations. The same can be said when you’re travelling with groups of people. Trying to figure out who foots the bill one night and making sure no one is spending more than another can sometimes be tough and hard to manage.

6. There’s so much wait and anticipation

I have a countdown app that I use for literally everything. Sometimes it can feel so discouraging knowing I have so much time left until my trip (97 days til Iceland!) or big day (545 days! lol). I feel like half my life is spent waiting for the next vacation. That’s part of the fun though in my opinion, having something you can look forward to and day dream about when you’re having boring or frustrating days at work.

7. You need to pick the right outfits

Having the right outfit is key for any occasion. Obviously it’s much more intense when you’re getting married. People spend months and months, hundreds and hundreds of dollars trying to pick the right outfit for their day. With travel some people pack days and days in advance to make sure they have everything they need when going away. I’m hit or miss – if it’s a long weekend away I usually pack the night before, if it’s a week long trip or anything more I’ll typically pack the weekend before.

8. You know it will all be worth it on the day / week

No matter how many tears, fights, stresses, dollars, and minutes of anticipation you go through it’s all worth it in the end. While a wedding is only one day and is over before you know it – a vacation luckily in most cases lasts longer which can be nice to enjoy that time away!

9. It’s over before you know it

See above. It’s over before you know it. Done. Finito. As much as you try and enjoy the time while you’re away it’s always near the end of the night or the evening when you get that pang of – crap it’ll be over soon! The best part though, is the memories you get to take away from both. Memories that will last longer than anything else. It’s true what they say, at the end of the day all you have left are your memories.

10. You’re bound to suffer from a bit of post holiday / wedding depression

I’ve only ever heard about post-wedding syndrome but I’m very sure it’ll happen to me only on the fact that I get the absolute worst holiday blues after returning home from a trip. There’s a period of maybe a week after returning when I’m satisfied, re energized and ready to get back to my usual schedule. After that week though I’m usually desperately scrounging to find out where I’ll be jet setting off to next. I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to do this with a wedding.

So so there you have it. Have I convinced you that planning a wedding is similar to planning a trip? perhaps it’s just me and my ability to over research, overplan and over-daydream about these two excited things!