Organization is my middle name. Since I was a child, I have loved planners and notebooks and filing things into little categories. When we started planning our wedding, Richard and I considered hiring a wedding planner, but, ultimately, I knew I was not only up for the challenge but excited for it! Whether you’re skipping the planner to save a few bucks, supplementing your planner’s organization with your own, or just looking for some tips on how to get started—I’ve got your back.
I had very little experience with weddings, only having attended two before I started planning my August 2022 wedding back in May of 2020. Because of this, my first step was getting a really good wedding planning checklist from my venue manager at Gotham Hall in NYC. We had solidified the venue in November of 2022 as the key vendor and that was the best first step on our path to organization.
Once I had this to-do list within a loose timeline, I used an online checklist to start dividing up tasks. First and foremost, I had things noted down like: dress shopping (who knew dresses could take so long!), building a mood board, hiring our photographer and DJ, starting a guest list, and hiring our videographer. Then, I had far away tasks like ordering a card box and guest book and creating a seating chart.
The method I’ve found most effective to be an organized bride is:
- Make a giant to-do list with every single task you can imagine, big and small.
- Divide those tasks up by level of urgency and loosely assign them to a month. This can be in a wedding planning notebook or on a wedding planning platform.
- Every week, sit down with that to-do list and pick 1-5 things that you can do based on how large of a task they are (For example, the week you’re finding your dress that will probably be the only task, but the week you’re ordering your guest book and dress hanger you might be able to take on a bunch of small tasks!)
- Put only those 1-5 weekly tasks in your personal planner or on your calendar so they’re top of mind.
As I’ve gotten closer to the date (we’re currently three months out!) I’ve started building these PDFs for our wedding party to make sure they can be as organized as I am! I originally got this idea from @StylishSista’s viral TikTok and ran with it. Richard and I each made PDF presentations for our bridesmaids and groomsmen and sent them out five months before the wedding (that’s the luxury of a long engagement).
These included a thank you letter, an intro for each member of our wedding party with their contact info, our mood board, a rough timeline of the wedding weekend, the anticipated expenses of the entire wedding (which everyone really appreciated!) and a styling guide for outfits, hair, makeup, nails, and accessories.
When we are about a month out from the wedding, we will email out another PDF. (I highly recommend email for important communication instead of a giant text thread!) This PDF will be a detailed timeline of the weekend and a checklist of reminders including services you might want to book before the weekend, things you should bring with you to the venue, and other tips.
While we are very lucky that our venue manager is amazing and that Gotham Hall provides a lot of the services like furniture rental, catering, lighting, sound, and staffing, staying organized as a bride (or groom) is key to having a smooth and fun wedding planning process. I’ve had one or two meltdowns during this process, but thanks to my trusty checklist, I’ve had way more fun than stress!
