Weddingbee Blog

Type A? Not me. Not even a Type B. Is there a Type K or W? That sounds about right.

The fact that I, Type QRSTUV, ol’ organizational dilettante Potato Chips here, am attempting a post about organizational strategies is wishful at best and presumptuous at worst. I assume most of you are far more organized than I will ever hope to be, organization gurus and giants and masters and senseis, I am sure!

But, in the off chance that there is a Type WXYZ here in the mix, I present my humble contributions to staying organized, wedding planning style.

In a text about how to survive graduate school that I read voraciously over the summer (this one, if you’re interested), the author stressed that organizational skills are more important than native intelligence. Did you get that? More important than native intelligence. Seeing as how I continually find myself wanting in the “native intelligence” category, I immediately put my lackadaisical, slug-a-bed ways behind and embarked on a whole new world of filing systems, cabinets, folders, and calendars. I think that’s how I survived this first semester.

I’m still a work in practice, but I’ve tried to apply the same concepts I’ve learned to wedding planning. First up: the binder. We have, like many affianced couples, an overstuffed binder full of vendor info. We pull it out every time we have a wedding meeting.

Oh, a what?

Yeah, we schedule times to sit down and talk wedding. During that time we come up with to-do lists and deadlines, like:

DUE: The end of January

Mr. Potato Head:

• finalize lease for beach house
• talk to pastor and schedule meetings
• suit up

Ms. Potato Chips:

• schedule meeting with caterer
• finalize idea for favors
• endearingly capture these otherwise unremarkable moments for blog

We also have a separate Gmail account, where a colored folder system makes it easy to spot emails. The ninjas spice things up. We could all use some spice, couldn’t we?

Next, I use and abuse my Google Calendar. It is incredibly useful for me to compartmentalize my life on there. That way, teaching plans don’t get confused with friends’ birthdays or mixed up with caterer meetings. Everything is in its own little box and its own color. It keeps me calm.

I maintain separate calendars for: Teaching, Academics, Workouts, Wedding, and Personal. Please don’t make fun of my lack of personal life. It’s sad enough as it is.

So there you have it. The lazy girl’s guide to staying organized. I won’t flatter myself that I’ve helped anyone or provided anything more than a rudimentary presentation of the obvious.

So, what are your tips?