Suggestions for Organizing Your Wedding Day
Congratulations on your engagement! Now what? Take a few days to enjoy the glory of being engaged, but then start thinking about the big stuff. What time of year would I like my wedding? How many guests should I invite? The list goes on. In this post we share some of our favorite methods for creating lists and preparing for your big day. The number of items to prep for any major event can easily become overwhelming, so tracking everything neatly certainly helps to alleviate any of those pre-wedding day jitters.
Style
While organization is key, it is important to note that no one person shares the same style for planning and organizing. Every once-in-a-while I see a person with 2,000 unread emails and I can’t help but cringe. We must answer those emails! But for them, it works! So please take any of these suggestions with a grain of salt. They may work great for you, or maybe not… Either way, here are some ways we like to breakout planning for a big day.
Master List and Sub Lists
I think we can all agree that one gigantic list with a thousand things on it could easily become a jumbled mess of things to work on. As such, we list to break down each wedding into Master Topics that then have a Sub List of items to work on within that category. An example could include:
MASTER TOPIC – VENDORS
SUB LIST
o Research and lock DJ
o Research and lock Photographer
o Ask Floral House for contract and send deposit
o Etc…
MASTER TOPIC – DECORATIONS
o Book dessert station rentals from Bakery
o Buy guest book from Etsy
o Ask Coordinator for Wedding Arch referral
Weekly Reminders
When your wedding is more than a year away it’s often quite easy to lose track of time. A year seems like a lot of time when planning, but as the time passes one year can quicky turn into a few months, and before you know it you’re scrambling last minute to finalize your wedding plans. Thankfully we hold the power of reminders in the palm of our hands! Consider setting a weekly reminder in your phone to follow-up on outstanding to-do items. You can also use your phone or computer calendar to set reminders throughout the planning process, such as when payments are due, or when your music choices are due to your DJ.
A Wedding Coordinator!
The closer you get to your wedding day, the easier it is to do one of two things:
1. 1. Get super excited about everything and forget small, but often important details, or…
2. 2. Get super worried about the important details and forget to enjoy your special day!
Both items can be covered by bringing in a Wedding Coordinator! While Wedding Planners are great to help plan your wedding (which is especially helpful for bigger weddings or busy couples), a Wedding Coordinator may be better suited to couples who plan their own wedding A Wedding Coordinator will usually come in a month or two before your big day to double check your plans, make recommendations for missing items or services, help build your wedding schedule, and run your wedding day. Having a professional with experience managing weddings on-site for your wedding can alleviate a lot of anxiety as you know they have your goals, timing, and best interests in mind. After all, you put all that time and effort into creating the wedding of your dreams, you deserve to relax and enjoy it!