Wedding planner reveals brilliant 30/5 rule that will keep you from running late and rushing on your big day

A wedding planner has revealed the 5/30 rule she follows to prevent her clients from being late and rushing on their big day.

Meredith Bartel, 29, from Wisconsin, is a marriage expert and founder of Plus One Planning. She has over 340,000 followers on TikTok, where she shares her tips and tricks.

The content creator, who uses the handle @plusoneplanningrecently went viral after she described the one thing she always keeps in mind when coming up with a wedding timeline.

‘On a wedding day, the concept of time does not behave the way you are used to in the real world. I like to call this theory the 5/30 rule,” she began her video.

‘On a wedding day, the concept of time does not behave the way you are used to in the real world. I like to call this theory the 5/30 rule,” she explained (stock image)

The concept is based on the theory that everything is takes five minutes in your daily life, such as getting dressed or going to the toilet, will take about 30 minutes on your wedding day.

“Putting on a wedding dress isn’t the same as getting dressed for work in the morning,” she explained. ‘The dress is bigger, the dress is heavier. you You have to apply it in a very specific way so that it doesn’t wrinkle.”

Meredith noted that the photographer and videographer will also have the bride pose for photos with her family members and a bridal party while she gets dressed.

“You’re going to stop and pause and ‘ooh and aah’ in the mirror,” she continued. “You are going to put on your veil. You are going to put on your earrings. There will be more (photos) to come.”

The wedding coach gave another example of a bride who had to go to the bathroom while she was getting ready and taking photos.

“If you want to go to the bathroom, you can’t just go to the bathroom,” she said. You need to find some bridesmaids who are willing to help you.

‘JYou have to shuffle to the stable. You have to find out… ‘Dan when you’re done, you should try to struggle and put those Spanx back on. You have to try to shuffle backwards out of the stable. It’s not a matter of five minutes.’

‘And Chances are, wherever you’re supposed to be right now, in the honeymoon suite (or) if you’re going to be taking photos somewhere, that’s probably not where the bathroom is.

The 5/30 rule is based on the theory that anything that takes five minutes in your daily life will take about 30 minutes on your wedding day.

“You probably need to build in some transition time to walk back and forth,” she noted. “Everything takes longer than normal in the real world.”

Meredith said even something as simple as leaving the honeymoon suite and walking downstairs takes longer than expected because everyone is laughing and talking.

The photographer will want to stop to take pictures, and inevitably someone will have to run back to grab something they forgot, or pause to fix their hair or reapply their lipstick.

“It’s never easy getting from point A to point B,” she said. “So if you’re not working with a wedding planner or wedding coordinator, and you’re trying to write your wedding timeline yourself, and your events are going bing, bang, boom, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Meredith explained that you’re either going to be “so far behind on your timeline because of all these events that you haven’t taken into account,” or you’re going to be a “drill sergeant trying to hold everyone down right now, that’s unrealistic . ‘

“Who wants to spend their wedding day as a crab?” she asked. ‘You and your wedding party and your parents and your vendors, everyone will have a much better time if (you) build in transition time, build in buffer time.

“It’s so much better to account for too much time and have extra time at the end. That way you can take your sweet time,” she said. ‘You can take as much time as you want. You can hang out and be present and be crazy and do everything you need to do, and you still never fall behind.

‘And if you’re lucky enough to have extra time, great. You win. Have another drink. Have a seat. Eat a granola bar. Call it whatever you want, a transition time, a buffer time, a gap. There should be a space between every single event on your timeline.”

Meredith’s video has been viewed more than 460,000 times and received almost 200 comments. Some fans called the 5/30 rule “bride math” and “wedding day girl math”

Meredith gave a final example of posing for formal family portraits right after the ceremony, saying it will take at least ten minutes for guests to leave the room before you can even begin.

“Once your formal family portraits are done, there will probably be a little bit of a break before you actually get back to working on your wedding photos,” she explained.

‘Someone went to the bar, someone went to the toilet, someone went to change their shoes, someone is just stuck in a conversation and needs a moment to get out of it. Build in buffer time, because your wedding day goes by quickly.’

Meredith reiterated that allowing extra time will help you live in the moment and not worry about being late.

“You’ll have so much fun with your people and living your best life, you won’t even realize the clock is ticking,” she said. ‘Don’t spend your day grumpy. Don’t spend your day rushing. Don’t spend your day stressed.

“Fill your day with so much time that you can be the happiest little slowpoke sloth in the world. That’s the 30/50 rule,” she concluded.

Meredith’s video has been viewed more than 460,000 times and received almost 200 comments.

“I love math on the wedding day,” one fan commented.

“I just planned and coordinated my daughter’s wedding in August,” another shared. “Your videos kept me AHEAD of schedule.”

‘This is so accurate. I always tell brides to give themselves more time than they think,” another agreed.