You’re wearing your engagement ring, and you’ve told family and friends that you’re getting married. After the initial flurry of excitement and congratulations, it’s time to start planning for your wedding day.
With so many tasks and details to manage, planning your wedding can feel overwhelming. Staying organized is critical to keep up with all the decisions, deadlines, and lists.
Fortunately, software, like online form builders, makes it easier than ever to plan and stay on track with your wedding details. Being organized will help minimize feelings of stress, so you can focus on enjoying the process.
In this post, we’re sharing six ways you can use online forms and tools to stay organized while planning your wedding.
1. Get organized with a to-do list tailored to your wedding’s timeline
Having one main to-do list that covers all tasks needed to plan your wedding from start to finish can ensure you don’t miss a step or detail. While many checklists are available online, creating a customized form can help you focus on your needs and timeline.
An online form is also easy to share with the other people helping you. Everyone will be able to see the big picture and understand all the small steps that lead to a successful, enjoyable wedding day!
When creating your main to-do list, make sure it’s easy to track and mark off tasks. Set up categories and priorities, add a description of the task, and set a due date. Since your list is online, you’ll never have to worry about misplacing it.
2. Use a contact form to organize your guest list
Early in the planning process, decide on the size of your guest list and who you plan to invite. This will help determine the size of the venue, which supplies and how many invitations you’ll need, and more.
For example, you can create an online Save the Date RSVP form. Waiting for people to respond to an RSVP through the mail can be time-consuming and nerve-wracking. When you don’t hear back, you start to wonder whether they received the announcement or if it got buried under piles of unopened mail.
Avoid the stress and make it simple for guests to RSVP quickly with a digital RSVP form. You can email the form to guests or embed it on your wedding website. Guests can quickly let you know if they’re attending and whether they’re bringing someone with them. You can also include additional questions as needed, like meal preference for the reception or if they’d like help finding a hotel.
3. Use a form to keep your budget on track
Whether you’re planning a small or large wedding, you likely have a set budget. You can use an online form to help create a budget from the initial estimate of expenses and to track your actual costs, so you don’t spend too much.
Set up a customized wedding budget form or get inspired by examples online. When setting up the form, you can create a column for your planned or estimated expenses for each item, a column listing the actual expenses, and a column showing the difference between the two. This approach can make it easy to see at a glance how well your estimated expenses compare to your actual costs. It’s easy to adjust the online form as you finalize payments or add or remove expenses.
You also can use this information to determine whether to adjust your budget for some items. For example, if you notice you’ve overestimated on some items like chair rental, you can then use that extra money to increase what you’ll spend on something else, like the wedding cake. Or you can save the extra money for after the wedding!
4. Send a wedding planning survey to guests
Do you have a core group of guests you really hope will be able to attend your wedding? While you’re still early in the planning stage, you can send a survey to these guests to help gauge whether they’ll be able to come to the wedding and/or any pre-wedding events.
An online form is quick and easy for recipients to fill it out and return, so you get the information you need without delay. You also can customize the form to include the critical information you need to know as you start planning. For example, if many guests are out of town, you can gauge their interest level and ability to participate in a weekend of events vs coming only for the wedding day.
5. Use a form for your playlist suggestions
If you’re hiring a DJ or band, you may want to talk to them about the types of music you’d like played during your reception. You can create a form that contains a list of “must play” songs and optional songs to give the DJ or band an idea of what you’d like to hear.
Want to get your wedding party involved? You could even send a form to your bridal party and the groomsmen to see what songs remind them of you as a couple. When you share it with your DJ or the band, you can also include any special notes, like how you’d like to be introduced or the order of events.
6. Keep track of vendors, appointments, and key dates
When planning a wedding, you end up talking to lots of people and vendors. It can be easy for information to blend together or get lost in the shuffle. You may want a separate form to track vendors, appointments, and dates.
While looking for vendors, you can use this form to monitor who you’re talking to and include notes on your choices and decisions. Having all the information in one form will make it easy to share with others who are helping you evaluate vendors.
Conclusion
Planning your wedding should be fun. Using online forms can help you stay organized. Plus, you won’t need to worry about misplacing your lists since you can easily access them online.
Forms can help you get information from your guests, like RSVPs or meal preferences, and they make it easy to share ideas and plans with vendors.
