Weddingbee Blog

Well hello again, hive! So, we’ve covered a few organizational things—The Schedule, The Packet, and the Card. I hope they’ve been helpful in planning! Today I’m writing about The Spreadsheet—which, in a fit of melodrama, I named All The Things.

In the beginning, my wedding planning was almost derailed by Pinterest—I wanted every single detail that I saw. Toasting flutes, engraved cake forks, chair signs, paper lanterns, tissue poofs…all the things! As McGlovin and I started to form a wedding vision, though, it became easier to edit ideas. Once I returned to a rational state of being, I started a Google spreadsheet where I could keep track of all of these ideas, so I could pick and choose what we wanted at our wedding.

Pretty much, I labeled each column with a different aspect of the wedding (Rehearsal, Bride’s Look, Ceremony, Reception Décor, etc.) and started a running list of things that I might want for each portion. Many, many things got thrown out (Hershey’s Kisses, poinsettias, paper lanterns, matchbooks), and when they did, I shaded that block red. Anything that we for sure wanted got shaded green. Things that we didn’t feel strongly about either way were usually discarded, but optional if we had time/money closer to the wedding.

Another important spreadsheet was a monthly schedule. In the first month of planning, I took my list of vendors and assigned each a month for completion. Finding a ceremony location and finding a reception venue were allotted a month each…after that, there were two or three vendors a month to choose, and I also started adding major tasks such a ordering invitations and taking engagement photos. This spreadsheet was really helpful in making sure that all of the big tasks got done, and was also color coordinated according to where we were in completing them.

Much closer to the date, I created a 10-week schedule with tasks assigned to each week, and then a two weeks schedule with tasks assigned to each day. Although I was definitely in charge of managing the schedules, they really helped me to delegate when people asked what they could do to help. McGlovin had an entire afternoon off? Excellent, he could track all of the RSVPs in our guest-list spreadsheet. My sweet sister had two weeks off from school, and volunteered to create strands upon strands of twinkle lights.

I also had a list of items specifically for my reception décor. There are so many tables that needed to happen: entrance table, DJ table, bar, gift table, guestbook table, cocoa bar, escort cards, cake, head table, and guest tables. I don’t know why, but I had the absolute most difficult time organizing what needed to be on each of these tables, so it got its own spreadsheet.

So, ladies—what else did you guys spreadsheet? Or did you just make lists upon lists on Post-its? Or did you just hand a list to your coordinator and sit back with a glass (bottle?) of wine? God, I sometimes wish I had done that.