Weddingbee Blog

I’m not exactly a type-A personality, but being organized is super important to me. Marrying a man like Mr. Kettle makes that all the more important. We each have things we forget, and of course they’re different types of forgetting. That type of behavior doesn’t gel with effective wedding planning.

Seeing as how we didn’t want to pay money for a wedding planner, just a day of coordinator, it was imperative that I stay very organized while putting together the details of our wedding.

I managed to get some big decisions handled up front. At least they seemed big at the time. Then five minutes later, I would think about everything else left to do and that one item checked off would seem like nothing. I feel this way every time.

Enter a two-fold solution: A wedding binder and a wedding website. I have both and so far I’m super glad I do. Some things I have recorded in both. Others I use just one or the other.

As I mentioned before, I got a binder from Russell and Hazel.

This Russel + Hazel wedding planner became my best friend. From Office Depot I got a calendar, page protectors, highlighters, colored gel pens, and a briefcase. The briefcase has a dual purpose. This wedding binder will have to be carried with me everywhere I go from now until February 11th, so I wanted something to carry it in that wasn’t my purse. ‘Cause that sucker is huge!

Personal photo: This is the super cute bag I got for my binder.

Personal photo: This is the binder all full up with everything.

Personal photo: I ordered the binder in gold before I knew gold would be our accent color. I’m telling you, it pays to go with your gut.

Personal photo: Table of contents, the first big step to good organization

Personal photo: I keep business cards and color swatches in here. On the right, you’ll see a piece of the tie of Mr. Kettle’s that’s part of our color scheme.

Keeping up with my work schedule, Mr. Kettle’s practice/gig schedule, plus appointments and meetings for this wedding is the biggest task with the calender, but with the highlighters, I have color-coded our calendar.

Personal photo: Yeah, that’s just July. Gigs, work, and meetings, oh my!

And there is also the website. I use WeddingWire. I like that website. We looked at three different ones, and Mr. Kettle picked this one. People can access all our events, RSVP to everything, sign our guestbook, and even submit songs for the DJ to play!

The best part is the behind-the-scenes stuff, though. I keep track of our wedding budget there. If it weren’t for WeddingWire, we wouldn’t have been able to play around with the numbers to see about expanding our budget (anyone catch that hint?). I also have a very amazing to-do list there that the website generates and I use. It’s much more detailed than the one from the binder.

Just writing this all out seems like soooooooo much to me. But it will be worth it to stay organized and on top of things. Or am I just crazy? Probably a little of column A and a little of column B.