We consulted with several sources before our wedding on whether we should get a wedding planner. The general consensus was that our wedding was small enough (150 guests) that we didn’t need one. However, looking back, one of our biggest regrets was not getting a wedding planner.
Of course we’ve never experienced what having a wedding planner is like so it’s hard to decide if we needed one. But we do feel a lot of the last minute problems we experienced on our wedding day, and other organizational issues, could have been prevented or at least put on someone else to deal with, if we had a wedding planner.
That being said, we learned quite a few lessons on organization and have compiled some tips to help your wedding day go more smoothly.
1. Google Documents. Having a virtual hard drive of documents stored, which you can share with your significant other and any other wedding party people, and access at any location with internet was a lifesaver. We put our seating charts, guests lists, to-do lists, vendor lists, etc, all in documents on Google. I could look and edit something at work, at home, at my parents’ home, etc. Mr. P could do the same. We didn’t have to worry about having the file on us and we can view and edit whenever we wanted. It also really helped keep us organized as we made lists for just about everything.
2. Vendor payments- While most vendors require payment upfront, there are quite a few to still be paid on your wedding day. One piece of advice we got (after it was over), was to set aside all the individual envelopes with final payment for the wedding day so you don’t forget them. This would have been a helpful tip prior to our wedding because Mr. P forgot several of the vendor payments and we were scrambling around for the money during the wedding as a result.
3. Wedding Gifts List- Many people gave me the helpful advice of creating a list of guests and gifts you receive. It makes it more personal when you write the thank you notes, and it’s useful to keep track of for the future as well.
