Make Your Own Personalized Wedding Planner
The single most important thing you need to do to make planning your wedding easy and fun is to be organized. This means you need a way to keep all of your wedding contact information, reservation contracts and other information together in one place where you can easily find them. The best way to do this is with a 3-ring binder. You can set up sections for your ceremony, reception, stationery and others that we'll talk more about later. Here's how to do it.
Materials Needed:
1 three-ring binder
Tab divider pages
Lined loose-leaf paper
Clear, top-loading plastic protector sheets
Any decorative materials you might want to use to personalize your planner
How To Put It Together
- Taking your tab pages, label each one with the following names:
- Getting Started - countdown calendar, wedding vision, wedding guest list.
- Budget - keep your budget / expense summary sheet here with estimated costs, actual costs, who's paying for each item
- Ceremony - ceremony location, officiant, attendant information, marriage license.
- Reception - location rental, caterer, cake designer, gift list
- Flowers - all flowers for both the reception and the ceremony, including bouquets
- Music - music selections, musicians contact information
- Photography/Videography - engagement photos, wedding photos, newspaper announcements, albums, videotaping, etc.
- Stationery - invitations, thank you cards, programs, other stationery items
- Attire - wedding dress, headpiece and veil, accessories, groom's attire, attendant's attire & accessories
- Transportation
- transportation contracts and information
- Gifts - list of gifts to purchase
- Bride and Groom Checklists - wedding day, honeymoon
- Honeymoon - transportation, accommodations, entertainment, clothing, etc.
- Miscellaneous - anything else
- Put your tabbed sheets into the binder. If you have purchased my book, put the worksheet pages in the appropriate section. If you have not purchased my book, put your budget worksheet under the budget section. Add several sheets of loose-leaf paper to all the other sections for making notes. Take your notebook with you for all appointments and interviews. Use the blank pages for making notes and recording important information.
- Insert a plastic protector sheet in each section. These will be very useful for collecting receipts, business cards, contracts, menus and other information provided by prospective vendors when you interview them.