Ok, tell me a secret! Did you ever dream of waking up in a panic, stress up to your eyeballs which are red and itchy due to incessant crying? Did you dream of wearing a beautiful wedding gown, while running around, making sure your cake was delivered on time, the band or the dj has all the electrical outlets they need, the flowers are the right shades of pink, tables have pressed linens and your chiavari chairs were touched up with no visible nicks? Did you dream of choking your bridesmaids, yelling at your groom, and screaming at your mother for not lifting a finger in creating your perfect day? I can’t imagine this is the way anyone dreamed their wedding day to be, but for many girls, this is just the beginning of their heartache. Aside from the added self inflicted stress to be perfect and create the perfect day, feeling abandon and isolated on this rollercoaster ride leaves many brides singing the blues.

As a girl, you’ve probably been “planning” your wedding day for a long as you can remember, just like Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson’s characters in Bride Wars. The movie did a fantastic job of showing the good side and the bad side of wedding planning, and if you’re like most brides, you only want the good. Of course, we are all familiar with the Bridezilla side as well, thanks to the numerous girls who’ve decided to share the ups and downs of their solo planning leading up to the big day.

I don’t know about you, but I have absolutely no intentions of ever being THAT girl. Engaged or not, I know now that I will have a planner to help me through the jostling of emotions, excruciating decision making, and painstaking details that will go into my wedding. Many wedding vendors will offer services in lieu of a bride having a wedding planner, but too many cooks in the kitchen have never been a good thing.

So what should you know about a wedding planner, and why would you even consider paying someone to plan your dream wedding day when you can do it yourself? And can’t you just have Auntie take care of everything? Certainly, anyone you like can join the team and help, but there are many reasons to stick with the professionals!

That’s so 80′s. Mom and Auntie have been through the gauntlet and survived planning their own wedding day spectacularly. In fact, they got so many compliments on their big day, they contemplated becoming a wedding planner right after their wedding. Circumstances kept them from following that dream. So they are a fantastic person to help you keep it all together.

While there’s a lot of truth in the statements above, there is a minimum 20 years between the wedding your mom planned and your wedding day. A LOT has changed in the industry, and continually changes daily. Mom and Auntie don’t have the time to weed through the 20 photographers, 15 videographers, 30 florist and djs in your area to find the best of the best. Wedding planners have the inside track to the best at every price point, skill level, and personality to suit your taste, which streamlines the headache of selecting vendors to work with on your modern Wedding Day. You don’t want to end up on the 80′s wedding track, right?

Tricks that go a long way. Wedding coordinators have seen it all, and sometime wish they hadn’t. Will Kiwi and Raspberry be a good color combination or just look like a party for Kermit and Miss Piggy? Wedding planners who specialize in design are great for advice on the right “shades” of colors to pull your day together.

Planners also are time and cost savvy, continually educating themselves in the industry trends to translate your visions into reality. They are great in communicating with vendors your vision, even if you’re not so clear on it when you start. A great wedding planner will take the time to get to know you and your fiancé and look for ways to infuse your wedding day with an extra special flair of YOU.

Putting the puzzle together. Planning a wedding is just like putting a fabulous puzzle together. There are so many pieces, and sometimes it’s hard to figure out exactly where they all fit. My strategy was always to find the flat edges and corner pieces first to get the outline, the same way a wedding planner structures your dream day. Then with their help you can pick out all the rest of the fabulous pieces creating your seamless wedding day picture.

Fun & Fab, not Stressed and Sad. Every girl wants to be the belle of the ball, especially on her wedding day. But with all the things that can go wrong, beautiful brides often become depressed or sad when planning. One study I read, said brides often lose their carefree and loving nature the moment the ring is on the finger. Stress, anxiety, pressure, and perfectionism become all consuming. Having a planner who’s on your side, looking out for your best interest and alleviating the pressure and stress is just what the doctor ordered. Go from Stressed to Fab in 2 seconds flat!

Of course there are many more reason’s having a planner can be a blessing and I would love to talk to you more about how we can help you. Avoid the pitfall that grooms want to run away from. Don’t let yourself be the bridezilla, take advantage of the things a wedding planner can do for you.

So we’ve talked about numerous trends here in the past, but I guess today I wanted to touch on an observation I’ve had recently. More and more I find brides turning to new outlets to release the frustrations they experience leading up to their wedding day. The numerous wedding boards, like Get Married, the Knot, Wedding Wire and One Wed, allow brides to communicate with other 1000s of miles away, often finding help in a stranger. If they don’t find a solution to a problem they are having, they may offer advice or get great planning tips from those going through the same journey. It’s funny how quickly women bond over this one event in their life.

I’ve also noticed a plethora of first time bloggers popping up, chatting up all the details, the trials and tribulation, and their struggle to pick the perfect dress. Similar to the wedding board, these are creating great released for bride’s frustration and easing their sense to snap at loved one. I came across one of the best titles for a blog yesterday—the Bitchy Brides Blog. Not that I wish that on anyone, but it’s very catchy and people are definitely intrigued to click through . . . . at least I was.

Lala, the blogger bride, had this to say about why she decided to create a blog in the first place

I’m a twenty four year old bride to be. I’ve always loved everything about weddings so this is the perfect forum for me to let all of my ideas and inspiration hang out without annoying those around me. . . . My goal for this blog is to erase the stigma that comes along with being a Bride. I’m anti-Bridezilla and anti-attitude and so are most of the engaged women out there. One bad apple shouldn’t spoil the whole bunch and I’m here to prove that. Bare with me as I go through the trials and tribulations of being a nearly wed.Eeeeeh this is so exciting!

Her enthusiasm is exhilarating. Another bride I’ve been following for a while is the Little Brown Bride’s blog. Yes, planners do check out your blogs, so be careful what you say about us (LOL).

I’m aiming to chronicle my journey with J as we navigate through the traditions, the customs, the cultures, the ideas, the hopes, the people, the compromises, the frustrations, the laughs, the setbacks, the small successes, and the joys of planning the first *official* (and most expensive) day of the rest of our lives together.

I even remember once reading about a planner who highly suggested her brides blog about their journey to the altar. And I agree!

Time and time again, we talk about the stress of planning a wedding. Writing has always proven to be a fabulous stress reliever. Unless you’re a professional writer, years and years of journal writers will agree. Not only are you getting thoughts out of you head and on to paper, you begin to see things more constructively when you write. So an idea you had about the centerpieces become much more visual when you begin to put it into word. And you can added pictures and video you find on the internet into you blog to really drive the idea home.

Finally, jotting down the memories of your experience is priceless. Yes, you will carry the memories of planning you wedding in your head and in your heart, but some of the details, the things that were uber important to you at the moment will be lost. Jot it down, in a blog, in a journal, so you can relive you planning one day in the future.

So what are you waiting for? There are so many great resources to create your bridal blog. If you want to set up your own, check out resources like WordPress.com or Blogspot.com. You can also sign up just to be a blogger bride on Get Married. There are even awards for the best real-bride blogs from the Wedding Channel.

Best wishes in the blogesphere!!