10 Ways to Stay Organized While Wedding Planning
Wedding planning is one of the most exciting – and overwhelming – things many couples go through. Between choosing vendors, managing RSVPs, ordering decor, and staying on budget, it’s easy to feel buried under a mountain of details. To help you manage the chaos and enjoy the journey, here are 10 ways to stay organized while wedding planning (and to help keep your sanity intact)!
Start with a Master Checklist
An overall wedding checklist lets you break down the whole wedding into smaller and more manageable tasks and deadlines. Many wedding experts recommend beginning with a detailed workflow that covers everything from booking your venue, your photographer to deadlines for sending out wedding invites. This helps ensure you don’t miss critical deadlines as your wedding date approaches!
Set a Budget and Track It
Before booking vendors, as a couple, you should discuss things that are important to you for your wedding and plan accordingly. Once you have your items of importance, start setting an overall budget and create line-item budgets for each vendor. The things that are most important to you should get the largest amount of expense, whereas smaller items can be put further down the list. This creates a healthy budget in the long run, so you don’t under-spend on important items or over-spend on things you ultimately don’t care about! Check out The Knot for a free wedding budget advisor!
Use Digital Tools for Collaboration
Platforms like Google Drive, Trello, or wedding-specific apps allow you to share lists, vendor contracts, timelines, and inspiration with your partner and planner. Our office uses Trello for most of our functions and office projects. It’s an extremely easy (AND FREE) resource to use!
Attend Local Bridal Shows and Meet Vendors in Person
One fantastic way to stay organized is to meet multiple local vendors in one place. Events like The Tulsa Wedding Show bring photographers, planners, caterers, and more together so you can compare services and get questions answered without endless emailing!
Hire a Planner (If it Fits Your Budget)
Wedding planners do more than just make your day beautiful. They keep your whole planning process running smoothly and take a large amount of legwork off your plate! Professionals can handle timelines, vendor contracts and even help put out wedding day fires so you don’t have to. Our partners XO Event co are a great resource and can be a powerful wedding planning ally!
Create a Vendor Contact Sheet
List every vendor’s name, phone number, email, arrival time, and key details on one page. This ” cheat sheet” is incredibly helpful for you and anyone helping you on the wedding!
Organize Inspiration with Mood Boards
Gathering ideas into a single visual mood board helps you clarify your style and communicate it to your vendors. Wedding planners use this tool along with Pinterest to help share specific looks and communicate very clearly what you like!
Track Contracts and Payments
Keep every vendor contract, receipt and payment schedule organized in one place. Trello absolutely helps keep this organized and you can upload screenshots of communication to different cards too. This makes it easier to monitor deadlines and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. If terms change, you’ll be able to find original agreements with little stress.
Schedule Regular Planning Check-Ins
Set aside weekly, bi-weekly or monthly “planning meetings” with your partner or planner to make sure you are on task. These check-ins may only take 15 minutes at times or may last much longer, depending on the amount of work to cover. These little sessions help keep surprises to a minimum and allow for quick pivots if needed!
Lean on Local and Trusted Vendors
Choosing reliable professionals in the Tulsa area helps streamline a lot of the process. Local vendors can recommend great partners that they have experience with and save you a ton of time searching for vendors. At Complete, we have amazing resources and can easily recommend some of our favorites in the Tulsa area for any of your vendor needs. Check out our vendors tab for the best locals around!
Complete Weddings + Events Tulsa
Find ways to make the wedding process easier and getting you to have the time of your life is exactly what we are about! We have tons of resources to help make the process less overwhelming and simpler and fun!
With many services under one roof like photography, videography, DJ, and coordination services, COMPLETE weddings + events Tulsa is dedicated to make your wedding experience simple and easy. Contact us today for more information about our services!
