Everyone knows that, if you choose to get married, your wedding day is expected to be one of the most wonderful days of your life. Brides and grooms plan their big day for months, or even years, and it all culminates in one huge celebration where their friends and family members get to bask in their overwhelming love. It’s heartwarming to think about. But for some reason, while the actual wedding day is associated with being wonderful and perfect, the months of planning leading up to that day often have a negative connotation, being associated with extreme amounts of stress.

So anything that can lessen the burden on fiancés preparing to tie the knot can be a godsend. And in this case, the godsend is r/WeddingPlanning. This subreddit, which has an impressive 208k members at the moment, has been around for 13 years and helped countless individuals prepare for their big days. Common topics discussed in the group are Dress/Attire, Decor/DIY, Rings, Vendors/Venue, Hair/Makeup, Wedding/Engagement Photos, Relationships/Family, Tough Times, Budget Questions, and more. This community is there for anything brides and grooms might need, and when you’re prepping for your wedding, it can be massively helpful to speak to others who are in the same shoes. (Perhaps even literally!)     

To learn more about wedding planning from a couple of experts, we reached out to the founders of Bespoke Bride, Emily and Jessica, and they were kind enough to have a chat with us. First, we wanted to know what inspired them to start a blog dedicated to wedding planning in the first place. “We founded Bespoke Bride in 2011 after dabbling in our own startup wedding businesses,” they told Bored Panda. 

“At first, the blog was just a way for us to collate inspiration, chat about our crazy ideas and share our own products and images. Then, as time passed - we realized we were spending more time blogging than on our own independent businesses! Eventually, the blog became our main focus,” Emily and Jessica explained. “Our main goal was to create a platform where we could share the weddings we had come to love, those that were detailed, original, creative, and innovative – those that reflected the true personality and character of the couples themselves!”

We also asked Emily and Jessica why planning a wedding can be so challenging. “Planning a wedding is a complex process that involves lots of research, good and efficient communication and knowledge of project management,” they shared. “It involves a great deal of patience, problem-solving, time management, and people skills.” 

“Rather than trying to fit into what society deems a ‘wedding should be’ - a good wedding planner needs to focus on the special moments that define who the bride and groom are as a couple,” the founders noted.  

“Planning a wedding can be extremely stressful, so be prepared and make sure you only take on what you can realistically achieve,” they added. “If you have your heart set on DIY-ing the entire wedding but work full-time - forget about it. There is a good chance you will not have the time or energy to take on so much responsibility.”

The founders of Bespoke Bride also shared some of their top wedding planning tips with Bored Panda. “Focus on putting your own unique stamp on one of the most important days of your life. When choosing your dress, don’t feel you have to follow the crowd, follow your dream! Decide what are the things that are most important to you and invest in them.”

“For many, it's the dress, for others the venue, and for some it's all about the food. Some couples invest most of their wedding budget on a fabulous three-course meal!” Emily and Jessica added.

We also asked Emily and Jessica if they could share some of their favorite, unique wedding ideas they’ve ever seen. “Fortunately, we saw a lot of amazing weddings in the past years,” they told Bored Panda. “We love unique, colorful and DIY weddings, and one of our top favorites was Mia and Andy's wedding. They implemented an extremely colorful and geometric theme, which included their favorite animal - the Flamingo! The couple built almost all the decor items by themselves!”

If you’d like to gain more wedding planning tips from the experts or see some inspiration for your upcoming big day, be sure to check out Bespoke Bride right here!

To hear from another wedding expert, we also reached out to Claire Gould, editor and founder of English Wedding, a site celebrating diversity, inclusion and sustainability. Claire told Bored Panda that she started English Wedding because she has a calligraphy business that focuses on weddings. "I wanted to share the amazing creativity of other independent wedding businesses!" she shared. "That’s what I love most about weddings - that there are so many brilliantly creative, passionate tiny businesses working hard behind the scenes to make weddings happen."

As far as what makes wedding planning so challenging, Claire says it comes down to three things: "the wedding media and expectations, traditions and family pressures, and the fact that weddings (in all cultures) tend to be big events with lots of people."

Claire was also kind enough to share some of her top wedding planning tips with us. " Don’t believe ‘average wedding budgets’ published in the wedding media. Ditch any traditions that don’t spark joy. Plan as a couple - wedding planning should never fall on just one of you," she told Bored Panda.

We also asked Claire about any particularly unique wedding ideas that she loves. "Elopements always get me," she shared. "Mountainside weddings are amazing - in fact, I blogged one couple who led all their guests up a mountain in hiking boots, had a ceremony at the top, and celebrated in the local village hall afterwards. It just felt so real, and absolutely memorable."

Finally, Claire added, "Celebrants are the future - with an independent celebrant you can do literally anything on your day."

If you'd like to learn more wedding planning tips and hear more wise words from Claire, be sure to visit English Wedding right here!

While plenty of people get married every year, apparently, 2022 was a huge boom for newlyweds. According to the Wedding Report, about 2.5 million weddings took place last year, taking the cake for the most nuptials in a year since 1984. The main reason for this surge was all of the ceremonies that had to be postponed from 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, as well as the many couples who got engaged during the pandemic. 

“When people started quarantining, they started prioritizing their relationships more,” Elizabeth Overstreet, a relationship and love coach in Raleigh, N.C., told the New York Times. “They had a lot of time to think about, ‘Is this the person I want to be with?’ The way I would put it is, love has taken precedence in people’s lives.”

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, about 2.1 million weddings were taking place annually, but only a mere 1.3 million happened in 2020, followed by only 1.93 million in 2021. And while it’s great that all of these ceremonies have finally been able to happen, the rise in demand has likely increased the costs of throwing a wedding, as well as made it more challenging to find venues, vendors and more.    

“Our vendor partners, especially floral designers, are having a hard time getting things from manufacturers,” Tara Melvin, the founder of Perfect Planning Events in Washington, D.C., told the New York Times. “Even paper for invitations is hard to come by.” So nowadays, when so many people are tying the knot around the same time, it can be extra useful to gain tips and tricks for saving money or planning a unique wedding from Reddit. According to Truly, the average wedding in the United States costs between $28,000-$35,000, brides typically spend about $1,600 on their dresses, and honeymoons in the US add up to about $12 billion every year. I don’t care how much money you have in the bank, it’s wise for every bride and groom to do what they can to cut costs when it comes to their special day, so they have more available for entering this new stage of life together.

According to The Knot, one of the easiest ways to save money on your wedding is actually to hire a wedding planner. While this might sound counterintuitive, wedding planners are the experts. They know how to get the best deals, and often have relationships and contacts that will make planning your big day much smoother and more affordable. It can also be useful to keep your guest list small. On average, brides and grooms spend $266 per guest, so if you keep your wedding small and intimate, your bank account will be left much larger! And when it comes to your venue, don’t underestimate places that are free or charge very little. Do you know anyone who owns a large home and some land that could be great for event hosting? And on that note, speak to any of your friends or family members who might be able to cut you a deal as your wedding gift. If someone owns a catering company, a venue, a stationery service, a bar, etc., they might be able to give you a discount in exchange for an invite to the big day.       

When you imagine the “traditional” Western wedding, you might picture a ceremony held in a church that features a bride wearing white and is followed by a reception with food, drinks, dancing and games. However, there are a million ways to have a wedding, based on your culture, your preferences, your budget and more. There’s no right or wrong way to get married, and nowadays, brides and grooms are turning to less traditional celebrations that fit their preferences, rather than following in the arbitrary footsteps of weddings that have come before them. For example, if a certain theme is particularly meaningful to you and your fiancé, you can plan the whole day around it. Some wedding themes that have been successfully executed before are Sustainability, Moroccan, Nautical, Winter Wonderland, Desert Chic, time periods such as the Roaring 20s and novels such as The Great Gatsby.

Even if you’re not engaged, we hope you’re enjoying this adorable list of wedding inspiration, pandas. If you plan to tie the knot some day, you can keep these ideas in your back pocket. And if you don’t, feel free to share this article with anyone in your life who will be getting married soon. Keep upvoting all of your favorite pics, and then if you’d like to check out another Bored Panda article featuring wedding tips, look no further than right here!