Wedding Organization

Based on appearances only, one wouldn't necessarily know that I'm an organized person. And in fact I wasn't always. Time and experience though, not to mention juggling lots of different things, has made organization critical for my sanity.

When the wedding planning started, I immediately went looking for a good all-encompassing planner. I never found one in paper form. The pre-made binders were just full of things that I didn't actually need, and the organizational pages they did provide simply weren't large enough or took too much handwriting. I found a few different digital things but ultimately I used one for a start and built from there.

The spreadsheet I ended up with contains all the pertinent information I need for EVERYTHING all in one place. My dear fiancé pointed out that I should probably make sure to back it up on a jump drive in case something happened to my computer.

The first spreadsheet is a guest list tracker. It's divided by host (bride family, bride friends, coworkers, groom family, etc). A column for last name only is included so you can sort each section alphabetically. There are columns for the formal name, casual name (outer and inner envelopes you know), and of course the seating card name. The address columns are broken apart as needed for mail merge (should you choose to print addresses onto labels or envelopes). Then the remaining columns track RSVP's, gifts received, and thank you's sent for the wedding, showers, and more.

The second page is the master budget. Every penny spent is recorded here and the expenses are linked to the appropriate groom-bride-couple budget pages. So for example, when I update the master budget, the individual budget break downs are automatically updated. Since our wedding is generously being supported by both of parents and ourselves, I wanted to be able to track not only how much was being spent TOTAL but also how much each party was paying thus far. Also concerning budgeting items is the last page for receipts. Plain and simple, all those little things I've bought and picked up along the way are recorded and tracked. This helps keep my spending in check and also serves as an easy one-look place to remember what was purchased. *A note on spending, I'm making as many purchases I can via a single credit card opened explicitly for wedding purchases. It's a zero-percent interest card with rewards points. That way I'm getting some sort of money back on the money spent, I'm not accruing interest, and we also have a little more time to foot the bill on these things since we haven't combined households or incomes yet.*

The other tabs include a timeline- you simply enter everything that's supposed to happen the day of the wedding. If you keep the time on a 24-hour clock (example, not 2 in the afternoon but 14:00) you can sort all the things chronologically after you entered them. Last but not list is the vendor list. This is mostly just contact information, but it's a handy place to have it all. You can print the list for day-of coordinators easy peasy.

I update the spreadsheet every week or so. When we were in the early stages of planning, I easily spent an hour on it each day. Now though it's mostly just the budget pages I have to update until the time for RSVP's and shower invites comes along.

Maybe this will help somebody someday, it's obviously completely customizable to your own needs!

Ultimate Wedding Planner!