Weddingbee

OK, I’ll admit it. I’m Miss Ballet Flat, and I’m in love with organization. Well, I love Mr. Ballet Flat more than organization, just to clarify. When it came to the wedding, I knew I needed a place to put my magazine clippings, possible vendor pamphlets, vendor contracts, wedding ideas, blank forms, coupons (gotta love bridal shows), project mock-ups, future child names, etc. (OK, maybe not child names, but you get the point.) I keep everything to do with our big day (that can fit) in this binder.

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to my engaged friend, (who is getting married this weekend… YAY!) and she mentioned that she saw these planning binders on Martha Stewart. It made her think of me. I told her that I already had one, mentioning the details of the DIY projects of my dreams, the countdown lists (I think I have one from every bridal magazine in existence), our budget breakdown, and my dream dress. The conversation from then on went something like this…

Miss M: “OMG Miss Ballet Flat, I KNEW you’d have one of these!”
Me: “Of course I do. Is it a bad thing, you think?”
Miss M: “You are just so crafty and usually pretty organized. I could imagine the mounds of glitter glue, sequins and stickers on the binder to make it more, well, YOU.”
Me: **sinks in chair and remembers the days of glitter glue notebook and folder decorating in high school** “No, it’s just a plain black binder, but it has a cute cover!”
**Miss M throws Miss Ballet Flat a weird look**
Me: “Err, you want to go get some Starbucks?” **to save self from embarrassment and jokes of glitter glue days**
Miss M: “OMG, yes!”
(bring up coffee to Miss M and all else goes out the window!)

I still have 15 bottles of glitter glue collecting dust in the living room at my parents’ house. However, as plain as it might seem without the glitter glue, I love this binder. I couldn’t visit with a vendor without it. I remember lugging that binder to the reception venues we looked at, to the small cake bakery where we had to sample cake, to a meeting with our photographer, and to the florist.  That binder is so heavy! I’m sure Mr. Ballet Flat was a little embarrassed, but he has learned to embrace the binder. He actually asked me to bring it to a restaurant so we could show our wedding plans to FMIL Ballet Flat! He wanted the binder out in PUBLIC! So, Mr. Ballet Flat has learned to love the wedding binder. I think I should name it now, but that might be going a little too far.

Here is the wedding binder in all its glory. It started out as a planner found in bookstores called Tying the Knot.

Image source

Then, right after putting in all my clippings (just magazine clippings), it was beyond full (sorry, I’m wedding obsessed!). So, I upgraded it to this:

As you can see, I just cut the cover off of the original binder, and placed it on a 2″ black binder. I separated all of our purchases for the wedding in a different notebook to make sure we’re always within budget, too. As a DIY bride, I find it’s crucial for me to keep records of every purchase we make, and a simple notebook like this has helped so much!

The cool thing about the original organizer was that the category separators were also plastic folders, so I could keep clippings, contracts, and more in there. If you run out of room, sheet protectors are a great thing to use (I did)!

There are cons to the Tying the Knot binder, though. The binder is 1″ thick, so if you want to put a lot of things in there, you will have to rig a new one, or just make your own binder if you’d like. Also, the categories don’t have tabs that stick out, so I used some cardstock samples I had to make tabs.

So hive, how do you keep your wedding stuff organized? Also, are you as excited about organization as I am? I hope I’m not the only one here…

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