Organization is a Virtue
September 20th, 2008 @ 12:27 pm by Miss 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.
The Final Countdown
August 27th, 2008 @ 2:40 pm by Mrs. Hydrangea
I logged into my other obsession (or time waster), Facebook, this morning to see this on my profile:
That’s right! We are officially one month out from the wedding. I’m getting so excited, at times a little nervous and, most of all, antsy. I’m ready to see it all come together, the signs, flowers, lighting, music, decorations, favors - EVERYTHING!
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Organization is FUN!
July 28th, 2008 @ 4:59 pm by Mrs. Cream Puff
Well, my friends, it is now less than a week to my wedding–I can’t believe it. I am totally calm, I kid you not. Almost everything is done. Momma Puff and Puff Daddy are coming into town tonight, and they each have a short list of projects to help me out, but all the big things are DONE!
The one thing that has been a major lifesaver for me throughout this wedding process has been my Mad Crazy Skills of Organization. I am a Virgo and find organization infinitely amazing and loads of fun (the sick thing is that I’m totally not kidding!). Organizing all the details has actually been pretty entertaining for me, but also really helpful for all of our vendors.
First, I’d like to share with you what our house looks like right now. After that, I’ll get into my planning organization. Some of you might not find organization as thrilling as I do, so I expect that there will probably be about two comments on this post. But if this helps two people get better organized, I figure it’s worth the post. 
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Sample Day- Timeline
June 24th, 2008 @ 8:29 am by Mrs. Penguin
Our photographer requested a Day-of timeline from me, and I sent one to her. Little did I know, it was borderline pathetic. Since she’s had more experience with weddings than I, she kindly sent me a sample of a GOOD timeline, and I quickly spiffed mine up a bit. Your day of will obviously be very different from mine, but it’s nice to have a place to start, as I know the sample that Sarah sent me was heaps of help.
I did mine in Google Docs, and e-Mailed it to everyone involved in the wedding, and also brought copies to the rehearsal dinner for anyone who needed a printout. Google Docs allow you to create documents or spreadsheets that are stored online. You can share your document via email with anyone you like, and allow (or disallow) them to make changes to it, that you’ll automatically see. The great thing about Google Docs is that when you update the document, you don’t have to resend it to all your friends…they will automatically always have the latest copy.
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Keeping Things Organized
February 27th, 2008 @ 5:05 pm by Ms. Dahlia
I need to share with you one of the most amazing organizational tools. Seriously. Shared by some of the awesome women over at Indiebride, it is by far the most comprehensive wedding planning spreadsheet I have seen, complete with formulas to help you calculate total costs and the number of people each person (bride, groom, parents) is inviting.Here are just some of the features:
Budget- it sure helps to keep track of the costs (and when more payments are due) in one spot.
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Google Makes Me Happy
January 28th, 2008 @ 4:32 pm by Mrs. Peacock
As we all know, trying to manage all the little details of a wedding can get a little overwhelming. Miss Hydrangea shared her secrets to keeping her sanity. Here are mine. And I know how nerdy I am about to sound, but apparently being nerdy has become the new cool.
Before Mr. Peacock proposed, I loved my Gmail account. I would tell everyone about how they needed to get out of whatever tired email account they had because Gmail rocked. Then, as we started talking guest lists, booking appointments with vendors and reading mass amounts of wedding blogs, I realized that my love for Google went beyond their near perfect email system and large database of images. I don’t actually mean to pick favorites, but I can’t find any similar programs out there that work as well. Here are the highlights!
Google Reader
Nifty Planning Tool
January 28th, 2008 @ 1:04 pm by Ms. Dahlia
Wanderluster has tipped me off to one of the most awesome planning things ever.
Google Notebook.
Seriously. I don’t know about you, but I have, oh, 6.02 x 10^23 pages bookmarked in various folders in my internet browser. (Alright, so maybe Avogadro’s number is an exaggeration. But I have a lot.) And it can be really hard to find the exact “super awesome red invitation” picture that I’m looking for.
Downloading them to my desktop helps with the organization some, but I’m not always good at remembering where my sources come from.
Cue Google Desktop. It enables you to save pictures and text from websites in your own “notebook” which can be divided into various sections. It automatically provides the source for it, and you can also take notes. All it takes is a simple right click of the mouse to post it into your noteback.
Keeping My Sanity
January 25th, 2008 @ 12:04 pm by Mrs. Hydrangea
Though I was skeptical at first, I am now a full believer in the iPhone. Because of this phone, my mom and I were always able to get directions anywhere to our venue appointments. I could constantly keep up with my e-mails for the wedding at any time.
(picture from techdigest.tv)
Keeping It All Organized
January 22nd, 2008 @ 9:28 am by Mrs. Corn
Back when I was first engaged (ok… why lie… it was at least a month before we got engaged ), I purchased a wedding planning book. I had done some research in the bookstores and I had experience as a planner myself, so I knew what I was looking for.
Unfortunately, the most perfect book for me, was also spiral bound. So I bought it, demolished it and put it in a 3-ring binder. Over the months, my binder became stuffed with inspiration photos, business cards, informational articles, invitation mock-ups, vendor contracts in mid-contract, etc. I always had the notion of someday making it all ‘perfect’ and organized, but the reality was, I didn’t have time to figure it all out, and I knew where everything was, so when I needed information, I just went to it.
Mission Magazine Organization
January 15th, 2008 @ 2:34 pm by Mrs. Bee
I subscribe to a lot of magazines, and for years I’ve been cutting out pages and organizing them according to title, topic and year. While I would have liked to save entire issues, organizing individual pages by topic made it easier to go back and find specific things when I was looking for them.
But when it came to my beloved issues of Martha Stewart or Domino Magazine, I was cutting out at least half the pages of the magazine. Still, I felt that was more efficient than wading through entire magazines full of ads.
Then the other night in beetv chat, a future bee-to-bee shared her trick - she cuts out all the ads and leaves the content in the original magazine binding! Why didn’t I think of that?! I tried this for the first time last night with the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living. I love that I’ve saved only what I want to save in its original form, and of course the best part - no ads!
These are two of my favorite ideas from this month’s issue of MS Living. The felt fortune cookies and the Chinese lantern vase cover are great, easy and affordable diy ideas for your Asian inspired wedding!
Planning a wedding can turn you into a magazine junkie (I was certainly guilty of it!). So how do you organize all your magazines?
