Wedding Planning Binder – Where to Start?

Turning it back over to Chelsey for her "haute point of view" on creating a wedding planning binder! Enjoy!

I’m a pretty organized person. Ok, ok, some may call me OCD. I like to say I’m detail-oriented.

My initial thought for keeping track of wedding plans was to use Pinterest for everything. I created a “fake” Pinterest account (which is top secret – sorry I just can’t share) so I could pin as many wedding-related things I wanted without annoying my friends. Honestly, I can’t take credit for that idea – my sweet friend and now bridesmaid, Alex, did this for her wedding and I thought it was brilliant.

After pinning band options, invitation styles and flower inspirations, I was utterly overwhelmed with my Pinterest boards and didn’t feel like anything was really “planned.”

After we booked the band – yes the band was the first checkbox I checked off – I didn’t know what to do with the signed contract. Knowing that I personally need a place for important documents like this, I set out to search for the perfect wedding planning binder.

I started on Google (where else). Searching “wedding planning binder,” resulted in links to The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner & Organizer, Wedding Wire’s Online Wedding Binder (which I came super close to purchasing) and many, many more. The thing is, many of the pre-made binders had tabs and information that didn’t apply to me. Plus, most were pretty expensive.

After asking lots of opinions, I decided to make my own, custom binder. The lost scrapbooker in me got very excited about planning a trip to Hobby Lobby and Office Depot for supplies!

Here are the supplies I splurged on:  

·         Fun scrapbook paper for divider pages, cover pages and anything else I feel like printing on fun paper. I bought this at Hobby Lobby (for 50% off, of course)

·         Plain white, 2 inch binder

·         One pack of 3-hole punched, page-size sheet protectors

·         Business card binder pages (when thinking of this now, I probably wouldn’t have bought this) 

·         Clear sheet protectors with index tabs (I inserted cute scrapbook paper into these sleeves to make my dividers have a little more personality)

·         Two binder zip pouches (to keep pens, sticky notes, etc.)

·         Index card pocket (to hold small receipts)

·         Ring-shaped Post-it notes (I know, I know)

·         Colored ink pens (why not)

·         Small, one-subject notebook (with three-ring hole)

Here is how I chose to divide my binder:

1.      Guests – a place to keep final our guest list, invitation logistics/ideas, wedding party contact sheet for day-of, etc.

2.      Ceremony – for all of the church logistics, program planning, reading selections, music, etc.

3.      Flowers and décor – because my mom is our florist, I grouped these together – it basically should be named “mom,” but this seemed more official J

4.      Attire – here’s where I keep fabric samples, receipts, photos of dresses, seamstress contact information, etc.

5.      Vendors – for all contracts, important correspondence from vendors, vendor contact list, etc.

6.      Other Important Stuff – this one’s a catch all for:  

a.       Budget checklist – this is an evolving Excel sheet on my computer, so I may print at the last minute just for keepsake. On The Knot app, I used their budget formula as a starting point to know how much I could spend on individual items.

b.      Gifts for others – receipts for bridesmaid’s gifts, ideas for welcome baskets and any other gift-related expense/idea.

c.       Day-of Assignments – my wedding is unique in the sense that my very large family will be taking part in the logistics. Here, I’ll keep all individualized to-do lists that I’ll create for each family member (along with a thank-you note, of course) to keep things running smoothly on April 11, 2015!

I didn’t include a printed calendar in my binder for a variety of reasons. The most important is that I’m using The Knot app on my phone as my checklist. From the app, I can add things to my calendar on my phone. I know myself and I know I wouldn’t take the time to write anything down on a paper calendar if it’s on my phone already. So, if I would have included it, it would never be accurate and who needs that?

I have also been using a print out of Real Simple’s Wedding Checklist quite a bit as a guide to what I can’t forget to do. It helped me decide how to organize this monster binder and gives me great satisfaction when I check things off with a good, old-fashioned ink pen.

And that’s all, y’all. My binder will probably evolve a bit as the planning continues, but it’s a start that is working for me so far.

So, let yourself be 12 again and go shopping for “school supplies” to create your own wedding planning binder. I admit, it’s pretty fun to see it all come together.