Wedding planning can be time consuming ... make sure you enjoy it

We just conducted a survey in which 75% of all the brides surveyed said that they spend a minimum of 2 hours a week on wedding planning 3. In fact, here are the breakouts of our research: 5.5% of brides spend less than 1 hour/week planning 20.3% spend 1-2 hours/week planning 26.4% spend 2-4 hours/week planning 21.6% spend 4-6 hours/week planning 11.1% spend 6-10 hours/week planning 7.4% spend 10-15 hours/week planning 7.7% spending more than 15 hours/week planning

None of this should come as a shock to do-it-yourself brides who are deep into the process of planning their big day. However, for newly engaged brides-to-be who haven't yet dived into the process, these numbers can be pretty intimidating. So here are a few valuable things to remember:

1. Every bride is different - Some brides love spending their weekends creating amazing decorations and favors for their wedding. Others would rather spend a few hours shopping for these items and be done with it. Suffice it to say that every bride is different, so don't feel obligated to be like your cousin who spent 700 hours planning her wedding when that's just not your thing.

2. Tackle tasks one at a time - You probably have months to plan your wedding, and although they do seem to go by quickly, you have time to get everything done. Just take things one at a time, and before you know it you will have lots of checkmarks next to completed items.

3. Nobody says you have to do it all by yourself - Even the most driven and independent brides get help, so why shouldn't you? Recruit your bridesmaids, family, fiance and even your fiance's family to help you with tasks that seem too large to tackle alone. Not only will you save yourself time and frustration, but it will probably be much more fun when you have your loved ones around helping you.

4. Use tools to help you - One of the reasons we created My Wedding Workbook was to give couples a system that helps them stay organized and plan more efficiently. So using resources like our system can help you relieve some of the stress and make you feel more organized when the pressure is on.