Wedding planning and staying organized is no easy task.
Wedding planning can be exhausting and really time consuming. One sure way to ease the planning process is organization!! Yes I love organizing and I am an avid friend of the container store! Okay, so not really the type of organization I’m referring to but you get the picture. So let’s just get straight to it- wedding planning and staying organized….
I’m about to let you in on a little secret to staying organized and planning a wedding…
Book A Beautiful Theme for Full service wedding planning and design!!! I’m just kidding although it may be the easiest route, it isn’t for everyone! Here are my top 10 Tips on staying organized.
Include Your Partner
I know you are thinking they may not be interested or that you’d rather just do it yourself it will eventually get tiring and you will need the help. A great way to do this is to simply identify each person’s roles and tasks. Who does what? What will you all do together?
Establish Your Dates to Plan
This can be done as easy as “each weekend” or as in depth as every 3rd Wednesday at 5:30pm to 8:00pm etc. use this time to try and schedule your appointments for these dates that way you know you’re booked that time and it’s easy to remember when asking for an appointment .
Utilize Apps
We live in the age of technology! This stuff is practically created to help you get organized and it really is great. There’s so many apps specific to wedding planning my best tip is to download them all and give each one a week trial, which ever app helps the best stick to it!
Create a Wedding Binder
Purchase a binder and get to organizing! Include folders, tabs, inserts, even a pouch for pencils and pens. Take the binder with you to each appointment you make. Staples has a great selection of supplies but if you’re looking for something really specific to your style try amazon!
Set Up a Wedding Specific Email
Getting an email specifically for all things wedding will help you get organized and stay on top of things. Heads up! This will be a good way for you to communicate with vendors.
Use Google Spreadsheets or Excel
Using excel or google spread sheets will help immensely to stay organized! Spreadsheets allow you to make checklists and charts. Checklists on can be altered easily like marking a vendor as paid, or a venue as booked. You can use this for almost everything. The information will be easy to access and easy to see the status on all the tasks.
P.s. This is essential for managing your budget!!!
Create A Wedding Timeline
You’re going to want to create a timeline or visual calendar. Set dates for when things need to be completed. The last thing you want when trying to be organized is a last minute scheduling issue to pop up and turn your whole schedule upside down.
Create A Folder System
Use your binder to save all of the contracts, receipts and, notes. Create a folder system for each category that way all this information is easily accessible. This is an essential part of being organized while wedding planning!!! if you have all these papers but you don’t know where they are what good does it do? Oh Yeah, this would be smart to do on your computer as well! I recommend creating a tab specifically for wedding planning.
Set Up Automated Payments
This may not seem important but it is. It’s easy to forget and the last thing you want is an unpaid vendor and money lost in late fees.
BONUS: set up your other non-wedding bills. While planning a wedding its common to forget about anything else, that includes bills… This way you don’t have to worry about little things like Wi-fi and you can divert that extra energy you may have used to pay bills to Wedding Planning!
Establish Categories and Stick to Them
Establish categories for your organization. Will you be organizing by vendor? Or date? Or most important? Either way find a style that works for you and stick to it. It’s too much hassle to change your entire process half way through the process.
Designate Time to Organize
Let’s be real, we won’t be able to perfectly store and file each thing as it comes. Make time each week to get everything back in line and tidy your binder or folder system for the week. This will prevent a big messy paper bunch that would take hours to sort.
Well, here are all my tips for staying organized while planning your wedding! I hope you use at least some of them! I hope they help you out during this exciting time of your life!
Although, there may be stressful moments, I want you all to cherish the feeling. It seems silly to enjoy being stressed but really, how often will you get to plan a wedding with the love of your life?!?!
Thank you for reading! Please share your tips in the comments!
XOXO,
Ashley S.
