Keeping Your Sanity During the Insanity

There is no doubt that whether you have hired a planner or you are going-it-alone with planning your wedding there will be, has been, are right now stressful times in the planning process. 

The process of planning a wedding can really test a couple's relationship strengths and weaknesses.  In the craze of save-the-dates, cake tastings, dress fittings, menu selections, seating arrangements and so forth, the planning of a wedding just about drives us crazy.  We often times forget about the pending marriage because we are so consumed with planning the wedding.  As I tell my brides, a wedding is one day... your marriage is forever. 

This time of planning should be an exciting time in your life. One full of love and joy as you approach with heartfelt anticipation that day when you will join your love and become husband and wife.  So how do you keep your sanity during the insanity of planning  a wedding. Three words. Weekly. Date. Night.

Image: Examiner

I suggest to all my brides... and all you bloggettes reading out there that you take one night a week off from planning your wedding and go on a date.  No wedding talk from either party. Just forget about the wedding for one night a week and enjoy being together. 

In today's time with many brides and grooms paying for their own wedding, I have heard, "but Johanna, we don't have extra money to spend on a date each week." No one said you needed to go to a fancy French restaurant with a heavy price tag.

Image: Google Images

Here are my favorite ideas for a weekly date night... many of which are free:

Take a walk along a lake front beach
Plan a picnic in a pretty park
Plan a movie night at home... complete with popcorn and your favorite movie theater candy
Cook dinner together - try a new recipe and tackle the challenge together
Recreate your first date
Go wine tasting
Browse antique stores
Enjoy an afternoon watching his favorite sports on t.v.
Go see a local high school or college theater production
Take a dance lesson - just don't think about your first dance... do something fun like "salsa"
Take a cooking lesson together - your local William Sonoma probably hosts some
Enjoy a pumpkin farm or apple orchard

These are just a few ideas.  You can do anything that interests you together - or try something completely new. The most important thing is that you just take a few hours, once a week to stop being the "wedding planning" couple and be the couple that was so in love they decided to spend the rest of their life together in the first place.  You will create a stronger flame and it will make wedding planning fun again!