A couple of weeks ago, while I was still on my honeymoon, I reflected on everything it had taken to plan my wedding. It was a lot of hard work, sometimes emotional and, at times, overwhelming. Just like running a business, I chuckled to myself at the time. As I reflected further, I realised I wasn’t kidding – planning a wedding is EXACTLY like running a business, right down to dealing with vendors, managing a budget, meeting deadlines, and so on… So I started writing down all the similarities I discovered as I reflected. Here are 8 business lessons I learned from planning the wedding that can easily be implemented into running any business.

1. Set Your Intentions Early

One of the first things I learned from my business coach was to set 3 intentions (goals) for everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. I should have applied this process to my wedding planning from the get-go, but I didn’t. As the planning progressed, though, my priorities and subsequently my goals became crystal clear. The three things I wanted from my wedding day were:

1. To get married (obviously)
2. To have fun!
3. To EAT!! (I love food, and am known to get ‘hangry’)

Once I set these goals, I communicated them to anyone who needed to know – vendors, wedding party, etc. – and also to anyone who would listen. I made it known that unless something was conducive to me and Cheryl achieving at least one of those three goals, it didn’t matter. I didn’t want to hear about it. And boy, did it save my sanity! It also made the day run incredibly smoothly and I’m happy to say that all three goals were absolutely achieved!

Setting goals or intentions for everything you do related to your business is so important. A lot of people feel like they only need to have financial goals, but that’s not necessarily true. Of course, you should have a financial goal, but what about a professional development goal? Or a team goal? Or a goal that also propels your personal life forward? As entrepreneurs, our business and personal lives intertwine quite frequently.

2. Ask For Help

The bulk of my planning decisions had to be made during tax season, my busiest time of year. (I frequently joked that I had to pick a wedding date that didn’t coincide with any CRA deadlines!) That meant I had to enlist the help of friends and family. Wedding planning, like running a business, can sometimes feel like a lonely and overwhelming endeavour, but asking for help with even the simplest of things will take a load off your plate. And there are ALWAYS people out there willing to help you – you just need to ask!

3. A Lot of It Can be Done Virtually

OF COURSE I planned most of my wedding virtually. 😉 Not only was I planning it during my busiest time of year, for a while I was planning it from 3,200km away because I spent the first 4 months of the year in Calgary instead of London, Ontario, where I live and where the wedding was to take place. That’s where the asking for help came in.

Through a combination of colour swatches, digital cameras, emails and the eagle-eye of one of my bridesmaids (based back home in London), she and my other bridesmaid (based in Seattle) collaborated to find a bridesmaid dress they both liked and matched the shade of red Cheryl and I were using in our wedding. A win all around!

4. Hire Experts (And Ask For Recommendations)

In wedding planning, as in business, there a lot of things you plain can’t do yourself. When you’re asking for help, as I mentioned previously, you also want to make sure you’re getting that help from people with the right skillset to get the job done the way you want it. The best way to make sure that happens is to ask for referrals from people you trust.

Cheryl and I identified early on that having amazing photographs of our day was incredibly important to us. Most of my family lives in Europe and were unable to attend, and Cheryl is from a very large family – making it impossible to invite everybody we would have liked to have there with us – so we wanted photos that would capture our day in a way that made our family feel like they had been there the whole time.

We certainly could have asked one of our amateur photographer friends to help us out, but ultimately we knew we needed to hire an expert. So after doing research, attending networking events, and asking for recommendations, we found exactly that. If you’ve seen any of the photos, I’m sure you can agree we made the right choice! Imagine our disappointment if we hadn’t gone with an expert. The same can happen in business.

5. Surround Yourself with the RIGHT People

There will always be people who lift you up and there will always be people who bring you down. Planning a wedding is stressful, and so is running a business. Spend your precious time with the people who lift you up!

There will also always be people who feel hurt by some of the choices you make. I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “It’s business, not personal.” I had to paraphrase that during the wedding planning process; some people’s feelings did get hurt and while I was never intentionally trying to hurt them, sometimes the decisions I had to make for Cheryl and I’s best interests had a negative emotional impact on others. It’s not personal. It’s just business wedding planning life.

6. Roll with the Punches (Be Adaptable)

This is actually something I struggle with constantly. I like things to be predictable. Stable. It’s comforting to me to be able to expect a certain outcome from a certain process. I think that’s true for many of us!

Remember those three goals I set? On the occasions where things didn’t necessarily turn out the way I wanted or expected, I measured it against them and asked myself, does this prevent me from achieving any of my goals? If the answer was no – and trust me, it was always no! – I rolled with it, adapted, and moved on.

7. Remember to Take Some “Me Time”

As someone who suffers from anxiety and compulsive hair-pulling disorder that gets triggered under high amounts of stress, I was well aware that planning this wedding could easily set my triggers off. So I made sure that I would schedule some “time away” from wedding planning, just like I schedule time away from my business.

If you’re not doing this for yourself yet, I strongly encourage it. It’s easy to get lost in being “only” an entrepreneur. Even if it’s just a few minutes a day that you spend on something that brings you joy or makes you laugh, it’s so worth it. Your family, friends, and even clients will thank you!

(You’ll thank yourself, too, I promise)

8. Have Fun!

Ah, yes. 🙂 You’ve got to have fun, otherwise what’s the point?

Not every aspect of planning a wedding or running a business is fun. I get that. Every so often I check in with myself and ask if I’m enjoying what I’m doing the majority of the time, and if not I dig a little deeper ask myself what I’m not enjoying. On many occasions it’s something I can delegate and not worry about anymore, or something that I can adapt my approach to so that I do enjoy it or at least so it doesn’t suck quite so much.

Have you planned a wedding or another significant event recently? Were there any other lessons you drew from the experience? I’d love to hear about it!

Katy Takaoka is the President and Chief Delegating Officer of SBT Virtual. She and her team work with entrepreneurs who are frustrated and overwhelmed by Social Media. By delegating their Social Media Management, SBT Virtual’s clients are able to focus on growing their businesses, working with their own clients, and making more money. Does Social Media make you want to tear your hair out?