For the past couple of weeks, I’ve skipped writing a post for Wedding Wednesdays and no…it wasn’t an accident.

Plain and Simple…I just needed a break.

In the short time we’ve been on this journey to the altar, I’ve quickly learned one thing: planning a wedding can take ALOT out of you.

You hear me?

A.LOT.

From setting a budget (that seems to be forever fluctuating) to deciding on a location…from picking the bridal party to looking for a Mother of the Bride dress (because y’all KNOW my mom will NOT tolerate looking like “whodiditandwhy”)…it can easily become overwhelming if you’re not careful.

As an excited bride, I immediately wanted to jump into planning. It didn’t matter that we didn’t have a date (you know..one of THE most important pieces to the puzzle), I figured I could start on the small details and work my way up. After all, who sweats over the small stuff?

Well…I do.

I soon begin to notice myself doing one of the things I do best: overthink.

We as women, and people in general, often want so badly that we ruin it before it begins. The tunnel vision struggle becomes so real that the over-thinking, the fantasizing…the imagining, expecting, worrying and doubting becomes a normal way of life. But it is in those moments  that I NEED to take a step back, relax and refocus the most.

Now I’ll admit, it was hard taking a complete step back and not look at ANYTHING wedding related. Yea..you can go ahead and blame the excitement. But taking a step back and spending some of my evenings relaxing and watching Cosby Show DVDs or hanging out with my girlfriends was just what I needed to see more clearly. I may be getting married, but planning for this one party shouldn’t stress me out so much that it keeps me from living in the moment.

Chile please.

Stress kills and as much as I want us to have the wedding of our dreams, it is not worth dying over.

Here are my top 3 signs of when it’s time to take a break:

3. Anytime someone tries to talk to you about it, you immediately get frustrated.

This can be true for wedding planning or life in general. For a moment, whenever someone would ask me “how’s wedding planning going?” I’d mentally roll my eyes and physically let out the most obnoxious sigh. I literally couldn’t talk about it without my emotions flaring up. Yea…whenever you get to that level on the emotional richter scale, go take a time out. Because if you keep talking about it or discussing it, your frustration will get to an all time high and no one will be safe from your wrath, making the experience a miserable one for everyone around.

2. It’s ALL you think about. 

And it’s also ALL you want to talk about. So as if you getting frustrated wasn’t enough, you now have allowed your thoughts to be consumed with your feelings and also want to TALK about said frustration. Ummmm…NO.  Sometimes when you focus on something too much your vision gets blurry. So when your thoughts become so consumed with what you’re dealing with that you are incapable of having a decent conversation…girlfriend it’s time step away for a minute. Not only is it not healthy for you to get so fixated on your misery, it is also NOT HEALTHY (nor appreciated) that you spread your misery. Take a night, week or month off from whatever is bothering you and get back to being you: free of anything negative.

1. It stops being fun.

Everything we do should bring us joy. I’m a firm believer that if it doesn’t bring a smile to your face or ignites the passion in your belly, you shouldn’t concern yourself with it. This includes things like wedding planning. For all my future brides out there,  sure, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies, but you should enjoy the process. The moment you stop having fun during your process, BACK AWAY.  You’re getting married!! This is a time for you and your fiance’ to come together, put your heads together and create something beautiful. This doesn’t mean you won’t have nights of frustration, but those nights shouldn’t be turning into weeks or months. When they do? Let it go for a while. The last thing you want to do is have pointless arguments and meaningless falling-outs because at the root of it all, you stopped having fun along the way.

 

Sometimes taking a step back is just what you need to keep moving forward. I’m sure I’ll take a few more breaks like this between now and the wedding day, but at least now I can better recognize the signs of when those times are coming and take the proper steps so that I don’t go over the cliff. And that my friends, is what I call progress 🙂

 

 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo,

P.S. Want to see more of our journey to the altar? Be sure to follow our Instagram page teamHarris15 to see more of our little adventure. Because some things are just worth sharing.. 🙂