Wedding Planning Organization Tips

Wedding Rings

As a top NJ wedding venue, we’ve hosted countless successful weddings and receptions. What we know is that each and every wedding is different. But what we’ve also learned in helping the wedding planning of our many brides- and grooms-to-be is that there are a lot of things in common that make for a less stressful and more enjoyable wedding experience. Top among these is organization.  We helped plan last minute weddings and elaborate weddings that were years in the making.  But overall, the couples who first started with a plan, set their calendars, and stayed regimented about sticking to their schedule, found themselves more relaxed, were able to enjoy the wedding planning process, and had a stress-free wedding day. 

Here are a few wedding preparation ideas that we’ve found helpful for couples planning a successful wedding: 

• Give yourselves time…and then use it wisely.  After your engagement, you shouldn’t feel immediate pressure to start hunting for the exact date of your wedding.  Give yourselves time to enjoy what has just occurred.  But at the same time, start thinking about the time of year and all of the general things, such as the type of wedding and reception you’d like to have, where, and so forth.  And then once you’ve eased into the mindset of thinking about planning for your special day, then know that setting your wedding date is only the first step. 

Set a date that is far enough in the future to give you time to reasonably accomplish all the tasks that will be before you, depending on how ambitious your wedding will be in terms of the size and scale of the celebration.  But once you’ve set the date, don’t stop there.  We know how busy the lives of our couples are, and if you’re not careful that can make it very easy to procrastinate and put tasks off for “just one more day” know all the time have in front of you, until it becomes apparent that there’s a lot to do with little time left.  If you’re tough with yourself early on, then you’ll be grateful when it gets closer the day and the pressure starts to build. 

• Make a schedule and stick to it. Buy an old-fashioned planner, put a giant calendar on your wall, or sync your online calendar and smart phone with you fiancé’s.  Be honest with yourself about what type of organization would really work for the both of you to keep on track (which may be two different methods entirely).  If you’re not going to use it, then it’s not going to work. Make a choice early on and let it carry you all the way through your wedding preparations. 

• Set a timeline for success.  Once you have the method for scheduling your tasks, then the real work of setting a timeline with specific deadlines for the things you want to get accomplished (when you want to start your search for the best NJ wedding venue for you and when you want to have your decision for the wedding reception site made; the same for picking a wedding photographer, florist, invitations, and everything down the line.) 

• Make the time. This doesn’t mean sitting in bed in the middle of the night with only the glow of your laptop from your Internet searches keeping you awake, because you just didn’t have time throughout the day. We want to see you well-rested and energized.  Your wedding is as important as many of the other demands on your time.  Give it the value it deserves and try to prioritize where possible. Treat your wedding planning as you would any other important appointment or priority.  Make appointments for yourself.  Set aside a particular day of the week, block out hours out the day, and so on. 

• Divide and conquer. This sounds easy, but is often where things fall through the cracks, when there isn’t clarity about who is supposed to do what when. Agree between each other on a division of tasks and those you’ll do together, and be specific.  Like all things, it should be a mutual decision; if there’s agreement, then it’s more likely to get accomplished quicker. 

• Keep a paper trail.  Anything that happens throughout the day that you just don’t have time to address at the moment, try to find a universal place to keep the information. An idea you had, a name or number someone passed on to you. A call you got from a vendor while you were in your car. Spend the extra second to jot it down in your planner or email a note to yourself, just so you don’t forget or have to scramble to find the information when you need it.  The same goes for the more important documents. Contracts you need to sign. Written requests to make. Orders to submit.  Try to act upon them as they happen and make the extra effort to file them away as you go, so that one piece of paper you need isn’t suddenly nowhere to be found. 

Yes, your schedule will fluctuate and all your self-imposed deadlines might not be met right on time, but at least you’ll have a framework to keep the process moving forward and you’ll be less worried about missing something.  As long as you can stay organized keep a good, honest flow of communication with your fiancé about the wedding planning, then you’ll be well on your way to a wedding day that you’ll can enjoy knowing that everything has already been well taken care of.