How to Stay Organized While Wedding Planning
The first step in wedding planning is finding a wedding planner, and no I’m not talking about hiring a professional wedding planner. It is so important to stay organized during the planning process, especially if you are not hiring a professional planner.
Wedding planning can be an exciting time but also can be extremely overwhelming. After I got engaged I was super excited to jump into planning but didn’t know where to start. I’m a very visual person and knew I would need a place to organize my thoughts, inspiration, vendors, expenses, etc. At first I thought a traditional wedding planner in “book” form would be a good fit for me but boy was I wrong. I even purchased a physical wedding planner but guess what, I barely even used it. Keep reading to learn more about how to create a wedding planner that you will always have access to.
This post is all about how to stay organized during wedding planning by creating a digital wedding planner.
Wedding Planning Using Notion
Before I started my wedding planning journey I had never heard of an app called Notion but boy was it my lifeline during the planning process. Notion is a free organization app that is available on your desktop, tablet and even your mobile device.
What I loved about using it for wedding planning was that it allowed me to create separate pages for different aspects of the planning process. I created inspiration pages with pictures of dress inspo, bridesmaids details, tablescapes, etc. You are also able to create spreadsheets within the app. I was able to track all my vendor balances (what I paid & what I owed) along with all other wedding expenses such as invitations (including postage). By the time my wedding day came I knew exactly how much money had been paid to vendors and what I still owed. The best part about it is it syncs across all your devices. I could add something using my phone when I was on the go and then come home and see everything I added on my computer.
What to Include in Your Wedding Planner
The best part about creating a digital planner is it can easily be customized to fit your specific wedding planning needs. The pages below are some I included in my own planner but things can easily be adjusted to accommodate your needs.
01
Your Wedding Planning Dashboard
A landing page to organize all other pages in your planner. Also include a to do list, a list of important dates leading up to your wedding and a wedding countdown.
02
Wedding Planning Overview
Include your ceremony and reception information. A wedding checklist of what you need to be doing each month leading up to your big day. Also include a detailed day of timeline mapping out intervals of what needs to be done and when.
03
Vendor Balance Page
Create a spreadsheet to easily track and categorize all vendors. Organize deposits and when payments are due. You can easily total the line items to see how much you owe vs what you already paid.
04
Wedding Expenses Page
I chose to track wedding expenses separately from vendor balances but you can combine the 2 spreadsheets if you choose to do so. You can separate things into categories to stay even more organized. I also included things I wanted to buy but didn’t purchase yet. This section was my lifeline to ensure I wasn’t going over my budget.
05
Contacts
Include a page with all your vendors and their contact information. I also added the contact information for my bridal party including their emails and phone numbers for quick and easy access.
06
Guest List
Knowing your guest count is critical when wedding planning. Create a spreadsheet that includes all guests and their addresses. You can use this page later on to track who RSVPs and what their response is. From there you can use this data to organize your table arrangements for your reception.
07
Table Arrangements
One of the things I dreaded most was organizing the tables. It ended up being much easier than I imagine because of this planner. You can sort all the guests that RSVP’d yes and arrange them into groups. From there assign table numbers and easily see who still needs to be assigned a table.
08
Dress Inspiration
This is a great place to organize all your dress inspiration. It then makes it easy to show to a bridal consultant when you go to a dress appointment. You can also include other inspiration items like your wedding shoes or even outfit changes such as inspo for fun wedding sneakers.
09
Wedding Design Inspiration
This section can easily be separated into multiple different pages. You can include things like images of floral arrangements you love, stationary inspiration (or even places to purchase with coupon codes), photography shot lists and more.
For those of you who don’t want to set this whole planner up from scratch I’m selling a template to the exact planner I created and used.
Keep scrolling for a special discount code.
A Sneak Peak Into My Wedding Planner
My Wedding Planning Dashboard Page
I used this page to organize all the other pages in my wedding planner. It was also a great place to keep upcoming important dates, such as vendor payments or other bridal events like my bridal shower. Although I had multiple to do lists elsewhere in the planner I liked keeping the major tasks I needed to incorporate in the next month or so on the dashboard page so I could easily see what needed to be done ASAP.
My Invitation Inspiration (a sub-page in my stationary section)
Although Pinterest is a great website to find inspiration images I didn’t find it was super helpful in organizing those images. I loved having this page with invitation inspiration because I could also include text with links on where to buy similar items to help execute my DIY invitations. I could also organize different websites I found similar envelopes from and price compare to make sure I was getting the best deal.
Dress Inspiration Page
I loved having a page with all my dress inspiration and dress designers I loved. When I went to look at dresses I could easily pull up this page on my phone to show the bridal consultant what styles of dresses I was loving.
Table Arrangements Page
On this page I set up a table that links to my guest list / RSVP page. I was able to easily organize and arrange what table my guests would be sitting at. I loved using this to set my table arrangements because it allowed me to visually see who was sitting with who but it was also super easy to adjust if I wanted to make changes.
Start Planning Your Wedding Now
I really think this wedding planner will be a game changer for you throughout your planning. That’s why I decided to sell a template for it on my shop. As a thank you for reading my blog use the code VMPLANNING for an exclusive discount at checkout.
Drop a comment below if you have any questions about my wedding planner and using a digital wedding planner to assist in your journey as a fiancé. If you purchase the planner be sure to leave me some feedback on what you liked or what you would like to see added into the planner.
