Recently, we’ve written about announcing and celebrating your engagement. These are, of course, some of the very first things that a newly engaged couple will want to do. After all, what could be more important, in those blissful first weeks of affiance? But what happens when the dust settles on your engagement, and you’re left with a wedding to plan? If you suddenly feel as if you have a monumental task ahead of you, it’s because you do!

While you may have a lot of work to do in the coming months, you can make it all a lot more manageable by being organised. A good way of doing this is to keep a wedding planner, by which we mean a notebook or binder you use to document your plans. This is not to be confused with a professional wedding planner, which is a person you hire to do this for you!

While there are many ways that you can keep track of your wedding plans using digital methods, there’s still a great deal to be said for using a pen-and-paper planner as well. For example, you may find that making lists and ticking items has a certain therapeutic effect — useful for keeping your stress levels in check! If you think this sounds useful, please read on. In this week’s blog post, we’d like to offer some advice on what we think is the best technique for creating your own wedding planner.

Use a Ring Binder

While any notebook or personal organiser could be used, we think it’s best to use a reasonably sized ring binder. A 1-inch, A4 binder should be perfect for most, but feel free to go with a different size if you like. We recommend using a binder because you’ll be able to customise it to suit your own planning style. With a ring binder, the layout and contents of your wedding planner can change and evolve to keep up with your changing plans.

Use Dividers to Create Categories

Get some dividers for your binder, and use them to separate your notes and documents into categories. Some of your categories might include your guest list, contact numbers for vendors, your budget, and a scrapbook section for costume and style ideas. How you choose to organise your categories is up to you, and you should continue adding or removing categories as you find convenient.

Include a Calendar

As we mentioned above, there are many digital methods you can use to keep track of your plans, and a digital calendar is certainly one of these. However, we recommend you include a paper calendar in your wedding planner, as they are easy to use and can be very convenient in certain situations. For example, if you need to take note of a date while on the phone, marking a paper calendar is quick and easy.

Be Creative

Remember, we recommend using a ring binder for your planner because ring binders are versatile and customisable. Take advantage of this by using your imagination while adding to your planner. Having fun while you work on your planner is not only a good way to manage your stress, it will also leave you with an interesting souvenir of this hectic — but happy — time.