A lot of people may not know this, but I actually didn’t want to have a wedding. I wanted to elope with just the two of us in some beautiful location around the world, and then go on the best vacation we could have ever dreamed of. Fast forward 18 months of being engaged filled with planning, budgeting, emails, tears (happy and sad), and lots of hugs from Drew, we had the most amazing wedding either of us could have ever imagined.
Needless to say, I am so glad Drew convinced me that getting married in front of all of our family and friends would be the best way to go! And we got to go on the best honeymoon right after. So win-win!
Since we decided we were going to be planning a full-on wedding, I got organized and started the journey to the best day of our lives.
Get a wedding book or two.
Luckily for me, I didn’t have to get any wedding planning books because I have the best friends (and fellow planner fanatics). My Little from my business fraternity got me the Erin Condren Wedding Planner with 6 extra months! It was a super cute and pretty way to help me stay organized and lay out all of the important dates over the next 18 months (ie: Venue tours, tastings, wedding events).
My best friend got me The Book of Lists. This book had pretty much every question you could think of. I used this to make sure we were asking the right questions at all of our meetings and weren’t missing any details!
Make a wedding email.
This was the BEST decision I made during the entire process. My best friend (what would I do without her) passed this piece of advice along from one of her married friends. You will be signing up for a bunch of things over the next few months (registries, vendor inquiries, wedding websites, etc.) and will be getting an absurd amount of emails. Having all of those emails in one place that you and your fiancé can get to is a huge convenience and makes those “Hey what do you think of that price quote?” texts so much easier to manage. Once the wedding has come and gone, you won’t be bombarded by all of those wedding related messages on your personal email!
Base everything on the Cloud (aka Google Sheets).
Google Sheets was everything. That was our lifeline during the wedding planning process. Our budget, expense tracker, vendor payment tracker, guest list tracker, seating chart, to-do list tracker, etc. I was pretty much looking at these sheets every day to stay sane and make sure that we were on track and on budget.
Here are all of the sheets we used (click on them for links to templates!):
- Budget + Expense Tracker
- To-do List
- Guest List/Tracker (some wedding websites have this built into their site)
- Drink Count Estimate
Collect addresses using one site.
I was recommended to Postable by my Little to collect addresses and it was super helpful! It is essentially an online address book. You can personalize the information collection page and send one link to all of your friends and family for their contact information (address, phone number, email, birthday, etc.). We collected everyone’s information, exported the address book, and had everyone’s addresses for sending wedding info to!
I’ve seen people use the address collector that is built into The Knot’s website too! Which leads me to my next planning tip…
Create a wedding website!
I think this was one of the most exciting parts of wedding planning! You get to share with everyone the journey of your relationship while also having one stop for all of your guests for any wedding related information. We used The Knot for our wedding website and it was perfect for us! I had Drew write our “How We Met” and “The Proposal” stories, while I wrote all of the important information (wedding details, bridal party, accommodations, registry, etc.).
Here’s our website for reference: Wedding Website!
Maybe go to one Bridal Show, but no more than that.
Trust me on this one. I went to two of the Bridal Extravaganza Shows and let me tell you, it’s overwhelming and exhausting. There are a ton of amazing vendors there with some pretty amazing deals (that’s how I booked our stationary lady!), but I think looking up vendors online will help you find just as many great options. I found a ton of mine through The Knot’s vendor search feature and Instagram! And let’s be real, you will end up checking that vendor’s Instagram anyways for their portfolio of work so might as well cut to the chase and start there to begin with.
Set up a group chat with all of your bridesmaids!
This part is super fun! Having a group chat with all of my best friends was one of the most fun parts of wedding planning. It was a great way for them to get to know each other and stay in the loop with all things wedding. And it comes in really handy whenever you are freaking out about something and need some reassurance! Who else would be better to help calm down a bride than her besties!
Wedding planning can be pretty intimidating, but in the end you’re planning one of the best days of your life! No matter how many sleepless nights and stress attacks you have over the next few months, it is all very worth it in the end!
Happy planning!
Vivian
