Yes, Bridal Burnout is definitely a thing. It’s the emotional and physical exhaustion that brides (and sometimes grooms) experience from the intense pressure, expectations, and constant decision-making involved in wedding planning. It can happen when the excitement of planning starts to feel more like a chore or a full-time job, leading to stress, anxiety, and even relationship strain.
Signs of Bridal Burnout:
1. Overwhelm and Anxiety
Constantly feeling stressed about every small detail.
When wedding planning it is important to keep an eye on your stress levels. It’s eassy to feel overwhelmed with timelines, deadlines and choices to make. Or maybe you feel that you have little or no control over the outcome of the day.
The importance of your wedding day is often built up in your mind and this adds pressure to every decision you make. Which can make the process of planning your wedding feel overwhelming and can induce anxiety.
To conteract or avoid feeling too overwhelmed and becoming burnt out, try and bring an aspect of mindfulness into your life, such as Journalling. Taking the time to think about what you are doing and why you are doing it can help you find some clarity and calmness during your wedding planning process. Paying extra attention to your mental health during your wedding planning can help you to overcome burnout or wedding planning burnout symptoms.
2. Decision Fatigue
Struggling to make even the simplest choices.
Struggling with what to choose when their are so many options?
From table settings to seating plans and more. The decisions that need to be made during your wedding planning seem almost endless.
In todays environment decision making can be made even harder as everyone likes to have an oppinion. Remember that your and your parteners opinion is the only one that really matters.
To avoid decision fatigue try and space out your decisions. You can do this by communicating with your planner and creating a shared calander with important deadlines to help you stay on track.
Additionally, to help keep your vision clear and consistent create a mood board on pinterest, with limited images and a clear and consistent theme. To take this mood board a step further consider printing out the inspiration images or adding them to a document and specifically comment on what you like about that image. Be sure to share this vision with your planner so they can help you realise it!
Stay true to your vision, pace your self and communicate with your planner if theirs something you need help deciding on.
3. Sleep Problems
Losing sleep over to-do lists or second-guessing decisions.
When wedding planning your mental health is of the up-most importance, and sleep is crucial to your mental health.
Wedding planning stress can cause some to loose sleep over never-ending to do lists and overwhelming deadlines. Additionally, second guessing decisions is another thing keeping soon-to-be brides awake.
Don’t let wedding planning ruin your beauty sleep!
Practice mindfulness activities such as meditation, journaling, breathing exercises, gratitude lists, colouring, going on a walk, a girls night or even a date night. These practices can help you get your mind off things and stop you from fixating on your wedding planning. Distracting yourself from wedding planning can sometimes be nessecary to give yourself a mental break and allow you to get the sleep you need to be your best self!
Overcome burnout by being mindful and looking after your mental health.
4. Loss of Enjoyment
No longer looking forward to the wedding itself.
Wedding planning sometimes feels never ending, and unfortunately it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. Sometimes hard choices need to be made, the plates you want aren’t in your budget or someone special can’t be in attendance. It can be frustrating and in some cases can make wedding planning feel un-fun.
Not all parts of planning are glamourous and fun, so it is important that you pace and balance fun choices with less fun choices. Balancing these choices can help keep you intersted and engaged with your wedding planning.
If you ever start to feel that you are no longer looking forward to the wedding itself, be sure to communicate this with your partner and your planner.
To overcome this wedding planning burnout symptom try and escape the planning for a bit and plan and attend a fun date night with your partner instead. Or take time with your partner to realise why you are planning this wedding in the first place. Remind yourself of the love you share and discuss this with your partner. Take time to be mindful and ponder this, reflect on the why behind the planning and love will triumph.
5. Emotional Exhaustion
Feeling emotionally drained, snapping at loved ones.
If you find yourself feeling tired, and easily iritated, this is a sign of wedding planning burnout.
It is important to recognise this and treat this early as snapping at your loved ones isn’t going to help your wedding planning process.
To overcome this wedding burnout symptom, be sure to communicate with your partner. Establish time for you to regularly check in with each other about how you are feeling throughout the planning process. This time may test your relationship and how you deal with stress and tough decision making as a couple.
Navigating the planning process can put strain on your relationship, but remember that this exepreince will only strength your relationship, and will help you navigate married life.
6. Physical Symptoms
Headaches, muscle tension, or fatigue from prolonged stress.
In some cases mental stress can transform into physical symptoms. Do not overlook these symptoms, they can cause extreme fatigue, migranes, and muscle tension.
Wedding planning is already a stressful situation do not make yourself more uncomforable by enduring physical symptoms!
If you are experiencing burnout’s physical tensions seek medical advice from your GP. In addition to treating the symptoms, be sure to establish clear and consistent communication with your partner to help manage your stress level and stress response.
Consider mindful practices early to get ahead of stress symptoms manifesting into physical strain.
7. Neglecting Self-Care
Skipping workouts, poor eating habits, or not taking breaks.
Wedding planning is important and should be a priority, but so is your health and self care.
How can you plan the biggest day of your life if you are not your best self? You can’t!
Be sure to take well deserved breaks. Consider going on a walk with a friend or your partner, or going to a fitness class at your local gym!
Or maybe unpluging from Social Media will do the trick. Take a break from your screen and avoid comparison and pressure from ‘perfect’ weddings online. Set your phone aside, look up and explore the world around you. Go to a hit new spot with your friend or plan an exciting date night doing something you wouldn’t normally do.
Most importantly, listen to your body and do what your body tells you it needs whether that is nourishing food, a workout or a night off!
8. Isolation
Feeling disconnected from friends, family, or even your partner.
If you feel like your the only one making decisions, or your so busy planning that you have limited time outside of planning to spend with friends and family members, it is easy to feel isolated.
To overcome this try to include your partner more, set aside time for you to go over any upcoming decisions you have to make and gain your partners opinion. Or go one step further and asign your parter a task. Or make time to tackle tasks together, when your both avaliable.
Additionally, organise a girls night with your bridal party or close loved ones whose opinion you trust and value, and ask them to weigh in on some decisions your making.
Or if you have a very specific style in mind or feel confident in your decisions, get the girls together to help you organise! It could be putting invitations in envelopes, updating your calander with revised dates or deadlines, or updating your budget tracker. Invite your friends and/or family along to help make the mundane tasks less mundane!
Ready to plan your wedding?
Be sure to communicate your emotions with your partner, support system and your wedding planner! As they may be able to give you some perspective and ease your stress or tension, or may help you to reach a compromise or solution that you didn’t see – remeber two heads are often better than one.
Need help planning?
Let us help you find and hire a wedding planner!
Reach out to our team via our concierge service or DM us ‘Bride’ on instagram!
