Anyone having to plan a wedding during a pandemic will know how stressful it can be, and for anyone who is also a full time parent, it will feel twice as difficult, depending on how many children you have and what ages they are. If you are a full time parent then you will know how hard it is to juggle anything with children, so planning a wedding is especially difficult. One thing that may help would be to make sure that you do the majority of your planning in the evenings or when your children are either at school or nursery. It’s also important to get your partner to help you with the planning process, it is both of your special day after all!
Create a spreadsheet to keep organised
The same rules apply when you are planning a wedding for a full-time parent, compared to someone without children, create a spreadsheet to make sure that you keep organised and to help things run to schedule. By creating a spreadsheet that has everything on it that you need to plan, you will make sure that you don’t miss anything.
If time is something that you don’t see to have a lot of, and you want to save time on your wedding planning it’s important to keep as organised as possible. Creating a spreadsheet is really important, but it’s also a good idea to add timescales to this as well, and try to be as realistic with these as possible. This will ensure that you’re not stressed about anything and that things all run as smoothly as possible. If you’re not sure where to start with this, try searching online for inspiration, and see what other full time parents have done. It’s also a good idea to keep a printed copy somewhere up at your home as well so that you can see visually where you are at with planning everything and what else you need to do.
Hire a wedding planner
This is one thing that we suggest for anyone if your budget allows it. Hiring a wedding planner is something that will not only save you a lot of time, but will ensure that you have someone to focus on your wedding plans, while you look after your children. Hiring a wedding planner will take all of the stress out of wedding planning and you can just liaise with them on what you’d like, and they will go away and find options for you. There are different options when it comes to hiring a wedding planner, either having them throughout the whole planning process, or just on the day help. If you are really struggling to find time being a full time parent then hiring them for the whole planning process might be a good idea.
Share the important tasks with your partner or family
Many couples with children find it hard to find time for themselves, let alone time to plan a wedding, but make sure that you share the important tasks between you both, so that you are not doing everything yourself. You could give your partner the task of finding your evening entertainment for example, and by giving them something to do, it will help them to feel included within the planning process too. Sharing the important tasks will help to share the load.
If your partner is really busy then you can always look to share important tasks with your friends and family too. They will love to be involved in your special day and will be happy to help you, so don’t be afraid to ask for help!
Limit your number of guests
This might be something that you are looking to do anyway now with things being restricted and guest numbers being limited, but it’s also a good way to ensure that you have more time to spend on other things. If you are making your own wedding favours then this is a great way to spend less time on wedding planning bits, and more time doing other things! By inviting a smaller number of guests you can make sure that the tasks that need doing for your wedding are reduced.