Sweet Melissa

a little blog about a sweet life

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Wedding Series Part 3 – Computer Organization

Welcome to Wedding Series Part 3 – Computer Organization. That’s a mouthful, I know, but there is just so much involved in wedding planning and organization that it is just too much for one post. Lucky for you, I’ve already been through the crazy process of planning a wedding and have organized it all for you!

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Hopefully, you’ve already started your wedding planning binder. While the wedding binder is great, it is used for an on-the-go approach. The wedding binder is the perfect organization system to have with you at all points of the wedding planning process. One thing you don’t usually have with you is your computer and there are so many documents and files that are electronic these days that it is important to have an electronic organization wedding planning system, too.

These are just a few of the folders I have on my laptop. I might scare you if I drill down into each one!

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You’ll notice a lot of these folders are the same as what I have in my binder. I keep electronic files, too, because sometimes I need to quickly send a contract back and forth to a vendor. This makes it easier to quickly attach the file to my email and send it off.
Let’s go through each one.

Ceremony

  • Order of the ceremony – This is a copy of the Officiant’s speech. I also have a printed copy in my binder.
  • Ceremony – This is a copy of the ceremony, which includes the Officiant’s speech, our vows, and guest speakers. This document changed a lot throughout the planning process so it was important to keep an electronic version to make easy updates.  This is the exact “script” we followed during the ceremony.
  • Programs – I made my own programs and used this file to make edits.

Hotel

We reserved rooms at a nearby hotel for out of town guests. To add a special touch, we created goody bags for all of our hotel guests. You can read more about the goody bags here.

  • Door signs – Instead of using the “Do Not Disturb” signs the hotel provides I made my own. Get yours here!
  • Itinerary – We created a schedule of shuttle pick-ups to/from the hotel to the venue, the timing of the ceremony and reception, etc. Get yours here!
  • Wedding bag design – I added a picture to the front of each bag of a bride and groom and our names.
  • Restaurants – I compiled a list of our favorite local restaurants for guests to try if they decided to stay at the hotel a few days before/after our wedding.

Invitations

While we used a local company to design and print our invitations we wanted to add a few extra things to the envelope.

  • Accommodation cards – This includes the hotel information and how to make a reservation using our names to get a special rate for our wedding weekend.

Reception

This folder includes all of the items we wanted to include during our reception that we made ourselves.

  • Favors – We made our own favors! You can read about it here and buy your own here!
  • We put out different picture frames that included pictures of us and phrases like our Instagram hashtag.
  • Escort cards – This is the final list of who will be sitting at each table. This is different from the table seating because this file is used to print the escort cards.

Rehearsal Dinner

We made “thank you” gift bags for our parents and bridal party that we handed out at the rehearsal dinner.

  • Gift Cards (parents) – Instead of buying a gift card to a restaurant, I made an IOU-type gift card for my parents to “redeem” and we would take them out for a thank you dinner.
  • Gift Cards (bridal party) – Part of my “thank you” to my bridesmaids was to pay for their hair and make up. I made gift cards so they would actually have something to open up the night of the rehearsal dinner.
  • Like the hotel goody bags, I added a picture to the front of each bag.

Vendors

I kept a separate folder within this folder for each vendor (i.e., DJ, photographer, etc.). In each of those folders I kept electronic copies of the contract or other important information.

Vows

This folder is exactly as it sounds. I kept a copy of each of our vows (separate so they would be a surprise!).

In addition to the folders you’ll see a few extra documents. Our wedding was published in a local newspaper so I saved an electronic copy of that. I kept an electronic copy of our marriage license because I needed it A LOT after I changed my name. You can read more about that here. And, finally, I have the monster spreadsheet. This was my biggest lifeline during the planning process. It is so detailed and crazy that it needs its own post! You can read all about that here.

So there you have it! Another way to keep yourself organized during the wedding planning process!

Check out my other Wedding Series posts:

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