In planning my wedding I have come to realize something I wasn’t expecting when I first started: Everyone you know has an opinion, a request or feels a way about something when it comes to your day. Now this is not always a negative. But one thing is for sure; it adds pressure to an already stressful situation. The trap a lot of brides fall into, me included, is wanting to please everyone. Guess what? It’s not possible.

Why are you doing it like that? I think you should do this. What made you decide that?  If it were me, I would do it like this.  The constant barrage of opinions can leave you second-guessing yourself and feeling completely frazzled. Even with the best of intentions all those people who really mean well can turn planning your dream day into a complete nightmare.

My answer to this dilemma has been to turn off the white noise. I know everyone is just trying to help. The people who love you just want to participate in making your wedding day special. They don’t mean to and probably don’t even realize the additional stress they put on you. They are coming from a place of love. So with that in mind I have given myself permission to ignore it all.

Saying to myself its okay to not listen to everyone else and do what I want was very hard. But it was also necessary. Be true to myself. Making decisions for the wedding that reflect me, that reflect Shawn and I as a couple is a sure fire way to ensure our day is one we can remember and be proud of because it is an honest representation of us.  So I had to nix the decisions by committee, and go with things that felt authentic to me.

I know everyone we love and who love us will ultimately be pleased with how everything turns out in the end because we will be happy. They will be surrounded by a reflection of us, and in turn we will be surrounded by love.