You’ve set your wedding date. You’ve started planning the events. You’ve booked your venues, created an account on Pinterest and have started screenshotting every picture you see on Instagram for the hashtags: #wedding, #bride, #weddingphotography and #weddingideas.

You officially start planning your wedding and can start actually talking about your ideas out loud but let’s be honest, you already know what you want. Every Asian bride dreams about their big day from the moment they attend their first Asian wedding, which was probably when they were very young. I remember when I was around 10 years old I said I would wear red, gold and green on my wedding day. Of course at the time I was made fun of that I would look like a christmas tree, but 15 years later I still chose to wear a shade of red with gold work and emerald jewellery. My point is, I had pictured it all from a very young age. I knew exactly what I wanted.

Most of us want the big fat Asian wedding and want everything perfect: the best food, the most amazing decor, a wedding outfit better than anyone else’s and a wedding that everyone will say is the best they’ve ever been to.

But, what makes the best wedding anyone has ever been to? It’s the wedding that they have had the most fun at! Yes, decor, food, glitz, glamour, the standard of the dances etc. is all important; but the biggest factor we fail to acknowledge is that what truly makes a wedding amazing is the PEOPLE! Recall every wedding you have enjoyed the most in your life and I guarantee it will be because of the people you have spent your time with at that wedding. Likewise, what will make your wedding amazing is the people (your family and friends) who participate.

In our minds we believe that our wedding is all about us therefore it should be exactly the way we have planned it. In fact that’s not the case. Yes, the events are to celebrate when two become one but surely a small ceremony with just the two immediate families would suffice if that’s the case. We forget that there are hundreds of people who contribute in some way to making everything we want for our wedding happen and we have to appreciate that they are doing their best to make sure everything goes perfectly. What you have in your mind as the vision for your wedding is only in YOUR mind and no matter how well you explain it to your family, friends and suppliers, they will never be able to vision it the way you do. As long as they try their best and everything goes smoothly according to plan, it won’t matter whether the chair ribbons were the wrong shade of gold or your centrepieces weren’t as big as you imagined.

The quicker you understand that all your family and friends believe the wedding is about YOU and YOUR partner, and the quicker you understand that your wedding is about celebrating not only your marriage but all the people in your life who have given you their time, effort, love and support, the happier you will feel through the course of the wedding.