On Staying Organized

I don’t know if you guys are like me at all, but I loooooooove to be organized.  Seriously, anyone who knows me knows that I am type-A perfectionist to the max…so why would my wedding planning be any different, right?!  When we first got engaged, I went out the next day! and bought a big ol’ wedding planning organizer and a bajillion magazines. 

Soon, my house was filled with more magazines, website clippings, and bridal books than you could shake a stick at—and, you guessed it, my big ol’ cookie cutter bridal binder fell to the wayside.  I was carrying around contracts, guest lists, and vendor info in a little file folder, and in the meantime having nightmares about losing that important information. 

To the rescue came this post from Miss Cloud on Weddingbee.  Aha!  A lightbulb went off in my head.  It was time to get myself organized, and do it in a way that would work for ME, not the way some big ol’ binder had it laid out.  Off I went to the office supply store, purchasing binders and tab dividers, and then to the internets, where I downloaded list upon list and other great templates for my binder.  In the end, I came up with two binders…my main wedding planning binder and a separate, smaller binder that would be used solely for our guest list.

I’ll do a separate post on my guest list binder later, because it is an INTENSE display of my Type-A personality…so for now, feast your eyes on my main binder:

Each page of the binder is held within a page protector sheet—this way, the pages don’t get all worn and torn as the months roll on.  The first part of the binder has our color palette inspiration page and a few other inspiration pages.  I also toss the things I want to research or look into in the front pockets of the binder.

Then comes the wedding checklists.  I downloaded mine from the Russell & Hazel website…you can find them here.

They’re pretty basic, but you get the gist!

After that, the rest of the binder is divided by tabs for all of the different aspects of our wedding day.  I basically followed Miss Cloud’s advice, and created one tab each for…well, everything!  My tabs are:

Ceremony
Reception
Save-the-Dates
Invitations
Attendants
Rehearsal
Cake
Transportation
Floral
Dress
Accommodations
Favors
DJ
Hair & Makeup
Photography
Miscellaneous

Each tab then gets its own information page, again from the Russell & Hazel website. (My apologies for the blur on this picture—we really need a new camera!).  Each info page has space at the top for vendor contact information, and then a large space at the bottom for miscellaneous notes and activities pertaining to that specific tab.  If the vendors have a business card or brochure, I staple that in on this page as well. 

And that’s that!  Splitting the guest list from the main binder has really helped in my sanity (and you won’t believe how I’m organizing that guest list!).  Plus, having a binder set up the way I want it and with only the information I need has been really helpful in making me full less overwhelmed. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 in the “Getting Organized” series…

Hey, did you know I ran a marathon this past Sunday?!