Wedding Blog
Hi,
I was thrilled to find your site! My sister just got engaged and I’m sure checking your site will be come a daily ritual as she starts her planning. I would love to give my sister a wedding planner as a gift to help start organizing her wedding. I have only one friend who got married so don’t know much about the planning process.
When I looked at amazon.com and went to Barnes and Noble I found many interesting wedding books and organizers. I think I am most interested in getting her a wedding planning organizer that is a binder, so she can easily add her own pages to it. Do you think an organizer like that is helpful? Do you know brides who used them? Do you have any suggestions for which organizers are most useful? I hope you will be able to help me help my sister get started with her wedding planning! Thanks for your advice.
¢¢â€š¬”Irene
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Share this post: Open Question: Wedding Planning Organizer
Hi Irene!
I purchased a wedding planning organizer when I first started planning my wedding, but to tell you the truth I ended up not using it. Most of the checklists in planners are available online (where they’re interactive), and you need to modify most things to fit your needs.
So I created a binder with tabs, plastic page protectors (for ideas/inspiration), business card holders (for vendor’s cards), excel spreadsheets for budget/research etc.
It may be a little work, but maybe you could even make a nice binder for your sister? I think she’d really love that.
To other brides out there, did you use a wedding organizer? Would you recommend yours?
My MOH bought a Martha Stewart Keepsake Wedding Planner for me after my engagement. It’s a binder style with several tabbed category pages and pockets to insert clippings etc. I found it useful in the beginning, mostly for the overall text, timelines, business card holders and info sheets. I would recommend it.
As planning progressed, however, I’ve used it less. There wasn’t really enough room in the pockets to keep all the contracts, receipts and vendor correspondence. It’s also a little bulky to carry around. So I bought a four pocket expandable file to keep all the venue and vendor documents in. One pocket for church stuff, one for the reception site, one for all other vendors and one for correspondence.
I agree with what everyone else has said - I was ambitious in the beginning as well, but over time, I just started tossing all my stuff into an expando file 
But for good wedding planners, i’d recommend getting the one that has a calculator inside - I forget what it’s called! Sorry….
I too bought an expanding file. It keeps all my paperwork organized under different tabs. It’s not as big as a wedding planning organizer plus your sister will have more of a choice on what to put inside.
My advice would be to get her a planning book - they are usually more comprehensive than the planner/organizers - and also get her a sturdy binder and fill it with sheet protectors, divider tabs (you could even fill in the major ones) and pocket folders. Thats what I’ve been using to plan.
seejanework.com has a great selection of expanding file folders!
http://www.seejanework.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=491
this one would be purty. 
also available in 8 file.
my friends have used regular binders and page protectors for their planning binders [and you can also get extra wide divider tabs that stick out past the page protectors!] and they have sworn by them…that’s where i keep all my planning ideas and it works.
i helped my best friend put hers together. we printed out checklists and planning info online and stuck them in the binder and supplemented those with notes from the wedding books we looked at in bookstores. totally doable…plus when you start using it less you don’t feel as guilty since it didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
I bought the Martha Stewart one but it was too big and fell apart pretty fast. I then switched to The Knot’s Ultimate Wedding Planner. It is a gem. It’s small, helps you organize vendors, and has just about every topic you need. I also use an accordian file (that just so happens to match my wedding colors) to keep contracts, invite samples, and other wedding “stuff”. I love to be organized but I just couldn’t commit to a binder. Hope that helps!
My sister used http://www.weddingsbyadam.com/ and found it useful. At least I didn’t hear her moaning about it I think there are other tools about as well.
I have two binders and an expandable file (bit of a control freak).
One is my working ideas binder - this has all the real stuff in it, like pics of my dress and final flower decisions - basically it’s a hard copy of my knot bio. It’s just plastic page protectors with pocket folders to divide each section.
The second binder is my notions binder. Anything that randomly catches my eye gets shoved in here and then promoted up as needed.
The expandable file is for contracts and other stuff that will be needed down the line but that I don’t need to think about on a regular basis.
I was actually disappointed that none of my family or friends gave me anything planning related when I get engaged. So good for you!
I’m on a tight budget, so I downloaded and printed the free planner at Bridesclub and put it in a binder. I added expandable files as well, they are a life saver along with a couple of empty page protectors, for samples and favorite pics.
I was given an organizer/planner from this site and it has become my engagement gift of choice - it’s so nice and keeps everything in one place - I loved it and took it everywhere!!!
I found having a physical 3 ring binder to be a total pain, especially when it came to putting together my guest list, with all of those addresses. I dumped mine after about a month. My sister sent me a link to a site that lets you do everything online and it has been FABULOUS! I have recommended it to all of my engaged friends. The site is http://www.myweddingbinder.com
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