It was much easier than I expected! Really! I was so worried about it, and it went fine, dd easily weaned. She had just celebrated her 3rd birthday a few weeks earlier, and I was 8 weeks pregnant and felt that I really wanted a break from nursing before this baby was born.
DD had already cut out nighttime nursing, but was still nursing several times a day for a short while. We talked about her being much bigger now, how she could eat all this yummy food (and we named every yummy thing she likes to eat). We talked about what foods babies can eat (nothing except breastmilk) and how unlucky they are because they miss out on all the yummy things big girls can eat. We also made a deal, if she went to sleep the first night without nursing, I would take her to get a yummy ice-cream cone the next day. Kind of a bribe, I guess, more of something for her to look forward to, to take her mind off her desire to nurse.
She did it, and we got an ice-cream, and I was very very proud of her. Well, she went all day without nursing, and the second night she really wanted to bf before bedtime. We talked about the same things again, and I promised her we would go the next day to pick out a new sticker. She amazed me, she went to bed without much more talk of bfing. I didn't need to offer any other things after the 2nd night, for she just didn't really need to nurse anymore and she kind of realized that.
It was easy for us. Maybe that is because dd was ready, I was ready, we were both ready. Weaning at 3 really worked well for us. I really used dd's ability to communicate with me, hold a discussion and talk about bfing together. In our case, I was pregnant and we talked about babies really NEEDING to nurse to survive.
I wish you luck, no need to be fearful, no need to rush things either. I had been planning on stopping when dd was 2 1/2, but I could just feel she wasn't ready, and I wasn't quite ready myself. But then at 3, the time came, when I just felt like it was the right time. Listen to yourself and trust what your heart tells you. If your dd doesn't take it well, you can back off for a few days and then try again. And she will of course be getting lots of hugs and love from you during that time, she will know mama loves her.