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We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us their best wedding planning tips and tricks. Here are their tried-and-true recommendations:
1. Remember the end game is tying the knot with your partner...not finding the perfect lilac bridesmaid dresses.
2. Let bridesmaids pick and choose Rent the Runway dresses within your style preferences at a fraction of the cost of buying a dress.
3. Set up an email address just for wedding stuff.
"You can break it down into folders and once it’s all over, you don’t have to deal with the millions of emails from all those wedding websites you accidentally subscribed to!" —chelseap43aafe130
4. Manage your website, RSVPs, and more in one spot with The Knot app.
5. Take the time to learn what you can afford and what you'd like.
6. Stick to one piece of paper for wedding invites to slash costs.
7. And strategically bulk mail invites to save cash on postage.
Some family live far away. Instead of sending them individually, I've sent all the invites to one family member in that area, saving myself a load of postage costs." —steph545
8. Bring some fun to the planning process with cool organizational tools.
9. Book a vacation rental as a non-traditional wedding venue.
10. And if you're doing destination, tell everyone to be places an hour early.
"Don't tell your family which hotel you are staying in and tell everyone to get to the venue an hour earlier than you want them to get there because they won't know what traffic will be like in the area. Better early than sorry." —Raven McDonald, Facebook
11. Expect a few things to go wrong.
12. Buy your wedding dress online and pay for alterations...you'll still score a huge deal!
13. Save everything in a digital folder so you can access it (nearly) whenever, wherever.
14. Opt for faux flowers so you don't have to stress about wilting petals or botched floral deliveries.
15. Skip the wedding favors. Guests won't even notice!
"Don’t do favors. They’re a waste of money and a pain in the ass. No one will care if you don’t have them anyway." —keholder792
16. Use digital save the dates and invites.
17. And let tech-averse relatives RSVP by calling a phone number.
18. Decide on your priorities and work your way from there.
20. Don't wait until the last minute to get wedding bands.
21. Hire a good DJ or set up a playlist to avoid awkward NSFW music moments.
"Don’t hire a cheap DJ. Ours had a database of music that was not properly labeled. So thanks to that mishap, when there was supposed to be a different Irish song played, our DJ instead blasted 'Fuck You, I’m Drunk' to a room full of our super-conservative family members. Awkward." —blueberrypi
22. Give yourself ample time to plan the seating chart.
23. Spend money on a ~good~ wedding photographer.
24. Collect guests' info — for hotels reservations, thank you notes, whatever — via Google forms.
"We used Google forms to collect address information and figure out who needed to take advantage of our room block at the hotel. We sent the link to people via text or Facebook and they responded to the questions on the form, (kind of like a survey). It also made it easy to copy and paste their address into a template for address labels!" —lalalaurenb
25. Just elope!
26. A simple civil ceremony can be good...no, great!
27. Delegate tasks to those willing (and able) to help.
"What took the pressure off me was delegating. All my bridesmaids told me up front 'whatever you need us to do, we got you.' They and our groomsmen REALLY stepped up when it came down to the wire and shit hit the fan. I also had A LOT of people that helped us out or that offered and I took them up on it. That really helped me!" —kellys83
28. Don't get hung up on details that don't work out the way you like.
29. Ditch the cake in favor of easier, budget-friendly desserts.
30. Don't listen to what other people tell you your wedding should be like.
31. Don't become a Pinterest wedding craft martyr.
32. And maybe pull a Britney and have a surprise wedding.
