This is Part 5 of a five-part “To the Newly Engaged” series about making your engagement, wedding planning, and wedding as enjoyable and productive as possible! This is from my personal experience as a bride, and from my perspective as a wedding photographer as well. Check the bottom of this post for links to the rest of the series, and share with your friends who are engaged as well!

There have been a lot of posts in this series with tips on how to get things done. How to make things personal. How to make sure your photographer is the best fit for you. But this last post in the series is going to bring it back to the beginning. To having fun and making sure you enjoy it. This week is all about knowing when to stop.

• Give yourself a cutoff deadline. The last thing you want to do is be buried in a to-do list and stressing about the details, when you could be enjoying time with your family, friends and fiancé. This is something I remember seeing my sister-in-law do, and I made sure to implement it with our wedding as well. I decided that when all of my family started to arrive from out of town, that would be my cue to try to just let go of any tiny loose ends that probably didn’t need to be tied up anyway.
• Be realistic with your deadline. Give yourself a deadline that is more than 2 hours before you walk down the aisle. But also make sure you don’t set a deadline of a month ahead (unless you really can keep it – and if you can, that’s amazing!). Think 1-3 days before the ceremony. And also be realistic about things that really can’t be done prior. For example, if you’re arranging your own flowers, you probably won’t want to do that a few days before, but you can also choose to make it a fun, enjoyable process.
• Stick to the deadline! Seriously, when it’s time to stop, just stop. I know it’s hard to imagine, but stressing over the tiny details that you (and your guests) may not remember isn’t worth missing the enjoyment of really being in the moment with your people. If there’s a major to-do list item or issue that needs to be resolved, by all means, go for it. But if you’re still trying to decide which tables should have flowers, and which should have candles – just choose and move on. You’ll appreciate that time you give yourself, I promise.

I hope this series has been helpful for you, and that your wedding planning is fun, organized, personal and rewarding. And more than that, I hope your marriage is leaps and bounds better than your wedding day. Because the wedding is a day, but your marriage is forever.

You can find the rest of the To the Newly Engaged series here:

• Part 1: Enjoy it!
• Part 2: Get Organized!
• Part 3: Picking a Photographer
• Part 4: Beauty in the Details