Making Your Own Wedding Planning Workbook

There are many great wedding planning books on the market that include wedding planning workbooks to help you organise all your wedding plans, but you can easily create your own wedding planning workbook to keep all your wedding information and documents organised and which you can personalise to suit your particular needs.

A wedding planning book is good for people who are on a tight budget as it is filled with lots of ideas and tips on how to save you a ton of money, but some of the tools they include often require that you need to use the computer to store the information which isn’t always handy when you want the information at your fingertips, when you are out shopping for supplies and dealing with vendors. Here are the instructions on how to make your own personalised wedding planning workbook: '

Things you’ll Need:

• A Thick 3 Ring Hard-cover Binder
• Coloured Page Dividers
• Clear Plastic Sheet Protectors
• Loose-leaf Paper
• Glue
• Embellishments
• Hole Punch
• Scissors

 If you like you can personalise your guide by covering the front and back of the binder with pretty wedding paper or scrapbook paper then adding a title on the front and decorating it with things like pictures, stickers, ribbon or whatever you like.

Once you have finished, cut out some clear contact and cover the front and back of the binder to protect it from being damaged as you will be using it quite a lot over the next few months while you plan your wedding.

Instructions:

Page Dividers
Next, take out the page dividers. These will be used to separate the workbook into different sections to cover each area of your wedding.

Make each divider sheet a title page, give it a heading and then decorate how you want. Here is a list of useful headings you may want to include in your workbook:

• Calendar Checklists - keep a 12, 6 , 3 and 1 month, 2 and 1 week, 2 day & day before checklist
• Contact List - keep a list of all your contacts, vendors, celebrant, reception venue etc give it to someone to keep on the day just in case of emergencies and you need to contact people
• Budget - make two colums: 1 for estimated costs and the 2nd for what you spent
• Wedding Stationery - sample of the invitations and other stationery you want to use, price list, printers, guest list, postage etc
• Ceremony - style of ceremony, ceremony address, celebrant, music, flowers, decorations, wedding programs
• Reception - reception venue, reception address, sample menu plans, beverages, seating plan, table centerpieces, decorations, wedding favors, caterers, hire equipment
• Cake - wedding cake designs, baker, quotes &delivery costs & date, cake knife & server, cake topper
• Flowers - boquet designs, flowers for bridal party, ceremony & reception, florist, quotes & delivery costs.
• Bridal Attire - bridal boutique, fitting times, costs, headpiece & veil, shoes, undergarments, jewellery
• Bridal Party Attire - bridesmaids' dresses, flower girl dress, headpieces, jewellery, shoes
• Hair & Makeup - hair appointments, makeup artist appointments, beauty treatments
• Groom & Groomsmen's Attire - suits, shirts, ties, shoes, hire costs, fittings
• Photography - appointments, bookings, list of photos you want taken
• Videography - appointments, bookings, list of video shots you want taken
• Entertainment - appointments with band or DJ; bookings, list of music & requests, time.
• Transport - car hire, drivers, length of hire, pick-up timetable.
• Accommodation - out of town guests, bridal party, family & friends etc
• Honeymoon - destinations, transport, accommodation, travel documents, passports, spending money
• Extras - marriage license, rehearsals, bachelor & bachelorette parties, gifts for attendants etc

 You don't have to use every heading in your workbook just pick the ones that you think will be relevant to your wedding, you can omit or add headings as you need them. It's important that don't forget anything, so make sure that every area of your wedding, has a section where you can store information.

Now place the dividers into your workbook. Next, you want to add a budget page and a notes page to each section of your workbook. Give the pages a title and then insert a separate page into a sheet protector and file them into each section of the workbook.

Budget Page
To keep track of all your spending, update the budget information as you start spending the budget on different areas of your wedding. Keep a total budget spenditure under its own section and then for a quick reference make a breakdown list of what you spend that relates to each section of your wedding. For example, under the "Budget" you would write down the total cost of the bridal attire and then under "Bridal Attire", you would write an itemised list of how much you spent on each item of your bridal attire (eg. dress, shoes, veil, headpiece,jewellery, underwear etc).

Notes Page
You will want to keep a note page to write down important information such as names, dates, times, appointments, when things need to be paid, phone numbers, addresses and anything else that you need to keep a record of.

Clear Plastic Sheet Protectors

Have a few clear sheet covers in each section as well. These will come in handy for filing all the information you will collect including things like vendor's quotes, receipts, price lists, pictures, brochures, clippings from magazines, samples and any other related items.

This will help you to keep all the wedding related items together in one place and is small enough to allow you to take it with you when you are out and about. After your wedding, all the items that you have collected in your workbook will come in very useful as momemtos that you'll want to use when you put together your wedding album.

Tips: Here are some tips on how to get ideas and inspiration for creating your own wedding style, such as colour schemes, wedding themes, flowers, photography trends, cake trends and other elements:

Browse through magazines and websites on weddings, fashion, gardening, interior decorating etc Cut out or download clippings and keep in your workbook as a reference guide.

Always download a hard copy of any correspondence or receipts you receive online from vendors and keep them in your workbook for easy access.