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Miss Fondue, Nashville Age and Occupation: 27, Technical Analyst Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Network Admin Student/Senior Game Advisor Engagement Date: December 25, 2007 Wedding Date: May 2009 Blogging Since: September 14, 2008 Venue: Ravenwood Golf Club About Me: I’m your average computer geek marrying a gaming geek and trying to find a good balance of elegance and geek chic in our wedding. I adore The Sims, Nintendo, cosplay, (good) music, TiVo, theme parks, and our two crazy felines.
About Ms Fondue

Organization is a Virtue

September 20th, 2008 @ 12:27 pm by Ms Fondue

I’ve been planning stuff since I was a kid. I used to plan bake sales and carnivals and clubs. I always had folders with ideas organized perfectly, even if what I was planning never happened.

Naturally, I try to stay organized with the wedding planning. I started with a binder, where I stored brochures from local vendors, ideas of things printed out from online, and list upon list of things to do. I have since moved to a smaller binder now that all our vendors are booked. It is mainly used as storage for receipts and contracts.



Each section has its own tab, to make it easy to find what I’m looking for. I use the pockets to store stuff like a sample of our invitations.

In the front is my to-do list that I have displayed two ways. The first is a calendar view. Here I can write appointments on the calendar and see what goals I had for that month. The second is a simple listing of all the to-do items by category.

I have several items that I’ve torn out of magazines for ideas, including gowns that I liked. None of these are mine, but I keep them in there to throw off Mr. Fondue in case he is flipping through the binder. ;)

We created a questionnaire for many of the vendors we interviewed. This was compiled from various questions I found on lists online and in magazines. We also had pages to list what came in the vendor’s packages to do easy cost comparisons. Each questionnaire started with the vendor’s contact information, including the name, phone number, and email address of the actual person we need to be in contact with.

Some sections also have various items I have photocopied out of magazines, such as this reception seating planner from Martha Stewart Weddings.

We also keep organized through Google Documents. I have several documents stored there, such as our budget, timeline, and ceremony wording, which I can share with Mr. Fondue, so he can edit them as well. We will eventually share the timeline document with our vendors and wedding party before the wedding.

How do you keep your wedding organized?

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14 Responses to “Organization is a Virtue”

1.
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Sarah

wow! You could easily become a Pro consultant after your Wedding!

 
2.
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You

Wow, great job. I could never do that.

 
3.
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LisaL (message)  99 posts, Worker bee

I’m not sure if I just embraced the digital age, but I don’t keep stuff on paper anymore. Granted I just started planning but I”m all about the electronic documents and calendars. Makes it so much easier to access stuff when you’re away from the house.

 
4.
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LisaL (message)  99 posts, Worker bee

I’m not sure if I just embraced the digital age, but I don’t keep stuff on paper anymore. Granted I just started planning but I”m all about the electronic documents and calendars. Makes it so much easier to access stuff when you’re away from the house.

 
5.
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Katharine

Your organizational skills make me want to cry. :-)

Like LisaL, I started with a physical file. I bought it the I got my ring, but I’ve barely touched it! *Everything* is on the computer; I don’t know how brides planned before the internet! All my hair/makeup/cake/dress/photo ideas were from websites, and my To-do list and price lists etc are all in excel or Word or something (I haven’t tried Google Docs yet!)

 
6.
budgetbeautiful
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budgetbeautiful (message)  1,188 posts, Bumble bee

I created my own wedding binder using the free templates from russellandhazel.com. I’m just starting out, but I made tabs for everything and put them in alphabetical order, because I figured that was the best way to find things when I needed them.

I’m also planning on using Google Docs (I use it for most of my other documents already) so both of us can access the documents from anywhere.

I really love your calendar/to-do idea, I’m probably going to use that one in my binder.

 
7.
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marianneinvan (message)  198 posts, Blushing bee

The best decision I’ve made, organization-wise, is that I created an email address JUST for wedding stuff. It’s just a gmail account, so we can both access it anywhere, anytime. This way nothing gets lost in my personal account, and all the wedding spam is a little easier to manage. Then we use the google docs on that account for all our spreadsheets and whatnot.

 
8.
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Miss Dumpling (message)  650 posts, Busy bee

Very very impressive. I need you to come to Las Vegas and help me out with this stuff….i am the most unorganized bride you will ever meet. For real- I write things on the back of junk mail and I have a drawer I throw everything into. *Hanging my antennae in shame**

 
9.
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Miss Meatball (message)  613 posts, Busy bee

I’m still not completely organized, but I use google docs and set up a special bride email so my personal stuff stays seperate. I also have an expandable file for contracts and stuff but it needs renovations, yo.
I’m impressed with your system!

 
10.
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sleepyapollo (message)  17 posts, Newbee

Like other brides, I stay organized with my computer. My absolute, most indispensible tool is my copy of Microsoft OneNote. It is a virtual binder with sections devoted to all the different ideas and pictures that I’ve found while reading WeddingBee & other websites.

What I find most useful is the Snip tool. I can snip anything on my screen right into the notebook and it copies the source of the picture — so I always know where a picture came from! :-)

 
11.
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Tammi

I am duly impressed.

wow am I the only person left who doesn’t use computer docs etc? lol I have everything printed out and stored in a binder

 
12.
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vicki

yup the wedding email address is KEY!! so everything is definately in one place.. as I see things online I email them to myself so I know where to find things later.. as well as vendor communications etc!!

 
13.
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beaninca

THE STUPIEST THING I did was purchase a “wedding binder” at Borders. It cost like $35 and I don’t even use it because of the poor layout.
Oh well, what can you say… it was my first wedding task 1 week after the proposal.
smart making your own binder, and sleepyapolo totally going to check out Onenotes.

 
14.
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Leah

Mad props on your organization skills!

 


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Ms Fondue
Ms Fondue Miss Fondue, Nashville Age and Occupation: 27, Technical Analyst Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Network Admin Student/Senior Game Advisor Engagement Date: December 25, 2007 Wedding Date: May 2009 Blogging Since: September 14, 2008 Venue: Ravenwood Golf Club About Me: I’m your average computer geek marrying a gaming geek and trying to find a good balance of elegance and geek chic in our wedding. I adore The Sims, Nintendo, cosplay, (good) music, TiVo, theme parks, and our two crazy felines.
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