Say NO to Wedding Stress - Tips for Busy Brides From A Wedding Photo and Video Team
Hey there! Are you recently engaged and starting your wedding planning process? Or are you nearing the end of your journey? No matter where you are in the process, managing your stress level is fundamental for keeping your cool and protecting your physical and mental health.
Constant high stress levels can be a relationship killer, and result in anxiety, decision fatigue, and emotional distress leading up to your wedding day. It also WILL show in your photos and video. If you’re stressed to the max leading up to your wedding, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be stressed ON your wedding day too, and that will come across in the camera. I’m pretty sure that’s not the experience you want for yourself. Taking time to understand and recognize the importance of implementing stress management techniques during this time period of your life, and actually implementing them will give you the confidence to face wedding planning successfully and allow you to feel present, calm and collected on your wedding day!
In this blog, we’re gonna dive into a few facets of broad ways to manage stress, and then take a deeper dive into specific stress management techniques that you can do on your own as a busy bride, or together as a busy couple. Ready? Let’s go!
Mindfulness + Meditation
Mindfulness and meditation can be very powerful tools for you to implement when you’re in the midst of navigating the wedding planning process and wedding day. Making a habit of these things can be difficult at first, but taking the time to master them will help you stay grounded and present throughout the chaotic moments you’ll definitely experience.
How does that relate to wedding photography and videography? Practicing mindfulness and meditation can lead to less stress and anxiety overall, stronger relationships within your life, better decision making, and really just the ability to stay present and fully experience your wedding day. This means that you’ll feel (and therefore LOOK) more comfortable, relaxed and happy. You won’t be worried about what’s happening during cocktail hour, when you’re supposed to be present with your partner, taking couples portraits that you’ll have for the rest of your life!
Here are some mindfulness and meditation tips for leading up to your photography and videography session or wedding day:
Evening Relaxation Rituals - Like taking a relaxing bath, doing some gentle stretching, listening to calming music, and swapping mindless scrolling or tv watching for a book before bed.
Journaling - Journaling could look like brain dumping everything that’s weighing on your mind. It could also be putting to words how you’re feeling about a looming decision or something you’re unsure of. Gratitude journaling could be writing all the things you’re grateful for. Ultimately, journaling allows for your own self-expression and introspection so that you can foster mindfulness and the ability to stay present in your emotions.
Nature Walks - We LOVE this one, and implement it almost daily within our family! Walking in nature has SO MANY scientifically proven benefits; part of the reason we love weddings and photo/video sessions that take place outside! An improved mood, better cognitive function, lower blood pressure, overall lower stress, a better immune system, more quality sleep, and an enhanced emotional state are all things that simply walking in nature regularly will bring you.
Morning Meditation Routine - Some days you roll out of bed and get right to life; and sometimes that’s the way it needs to be. However, taking a few minutes to prime your thoughts, and get into a positive and calm mindset will help you massively before you dive into wedding planning tasks. This could be journaling, listening to a podcast, quietly reflecting, or going for a walk!
Regular Exercise
Exercise *can* help you to look good for your engagement or wedding photos, however, what’s most important important is how it makes you FEEL. Having a set routine for exercise, or some form of physical activity is going to be crucial to managing your stress levels and improving your mood.
When you exercise, the “feel good hormone” a.k.a. endorphins, get released; these endorphins help your body AND your brain to relieve stress and create a sense of well being, or feeling good. In addition, creating a realistic routine and following through on it will build your confidence, not just because of the physical changes you’re likely to see and feel, but also because your confidence grows when you consistently show up FOR YOURSELF!
How does this relate to wedding photography and videography? Being in front of a camera can take a toll mentally, especially if you don’t feel very self confident. We educate you on our process, and tell you what to do, and how to interact with your partner, but that extra confidence you’ll have from your regular physical activity will make you shine brighter! Sometimes though, we just can’t fit in the whole gym/exercise routine on a regular basis, and with as many things as brides have to juggle, you’re probably feeling pretty tired right about now. Good news, you don’t need a 2 hour a day commitment to see results!
Here are some ideas for regular physical activity for leading up to your photo and video session or wedding day:
Nature Walks - For the second time today, nature walks for the win! This slow purposeful movement can be difficult or easy depending on where you go, and the type of movement your body craves. But being outside, breathing fresh air, will clear your mind and allows you to practice mindfulness AND get movement. You can do these with your partner, family members or friends!
YouTube Workouts At Home - There’s SO MANY types and styles of guided workouts you can do at home, in intervals as short at 5-10 minutes. You can find variety, use minimal equipment, or no equipment, and bonus, it’s all free!
Dancing - This could look like dancing at home in your jammies while cooking dinner and blasting music; taking a dancing class with your partner to practice for your wedding day; or doing something like Zumba or Just Dance are all beneficial! You’re looking to do something fun, lift your spirits and relieve some stress.
Yoga + Stretching - Sometimes gentle and slow movement is just what your body will need while you’re contending with stress. You can look up youtube videos, or take a class if you prefer to get out of the house a bit!
Maintain Realistic Expectations
It can definitely be challenging to set and maintain realistic expectations on and before your wedding day. Emotions and stress can sometimes get the better of someone, and feelings of perfectionism could start to creep in… you have been thinking about this day in detail for a long time now. Without setting and maintaining realistic expectations, you could fall into being led by fear of failure, negative self talk, comparison of self to others, and just an overall lack of enjoyment throughout this process. That’s a pretty detrimental impact that having unrealistic expectations can cause.
When you are able to let go of perfectionism, and adapt and overcome challenges, you’ll increase your resilience and grow your confidence to handle setbacks and mistakes. You’ll have more authenticity, as your wedding day will accurately reflect YOU, your relationship, and your continued love story. You’ll also probably make your relationship stronger, because rather than becoming overly focused on minor details, you’ll be prioritizing connection with your partner and loved ones.
How does this impact your wedding photos and video? Stronger relationships will be obvious by how you interact with your tribe on your wedding day. You’ll either be irritated, frustrated or overly stressed and have less patience with your closest people; or you will have let go of perfectionism and focused on the important people and moments you’ll have on your wedding day. Good relationships and positive interactions will shine through on the camera screen in both photos and video. However strained relationships or interactions will also shine through. Doing everything in your power to set and maintain realistic expectations will go a long way in having the wedding photos and videos of your dreams.
Here’s some tips on how you can set and maintain realistic expectations throughout your wedding planning experience:
Co-Create Your Priorities - Work together with your future spouse to figure out what your individual and joined priorities are for your wedding. What are the things that hold the most meaning and significance for each of you. This might take some time, mindfulness and meditation to understand.
Communicate Openly with Your Support + Vendors - Knowing what’s important to you and being able to communicate them clearly will ensure that your vendor team, family and friends are all on the same page as you, and will be able to work together to support you on your wedding day.
Take Breaks - Sometimes a couple days (or weeks) where you don’t have to think about anything wedding related will do more good for you than any amount of journaling or meditating. Schedule these breaks so you can rest, recharge, and focus on self care so that you can gain back a little bit of perspective, and keep a healthy balance.
Stay Grounded - Remember, at the end of the day, your wedding day is for you to actually get married and celebrate your love and commitment to each other! Regardless of what else happens that day, your partner and that promise you make to each other will always be the most important part of the day!
Putting This Into Practice
In this blog, we’ve delved into the consequences of not managing your stress, 3 key techniques for managing stress, and taken it even further by listing out specific and realistic things you can do to manage your stress effectively as a busy bride. We also spoke about how NOT managing your stress will show up in your photos; you’d look tense, stressed, and interactions with some of your closest people would more than likely be strained.
Take the time now to prioritize mindfulness, regular physical activity, and set realistic expectations. Buy a notebook for journaling, block off time in your calendar for a nature walk, or a 15 minute movement session to a youtube video, schedule a date night where you can have deep conversation with your partner to decide what is and isn’t important to you both on your wedding day. In doing so, you’ll allow yourself to be more present, grounded, and happy on your wedding day, leading to a better photography and videography experience, and just a better wedding day overall.
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