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[Free Printable] Creating your own customized wedding planner
Hello again everyone!
As some of you already know, we’ve got several engaged ladies (and one recently married!) here at World Digital Imaging. Jessica and I are both less than a year out from our weddings, and so we’re knee-deep in the middle of planning. As we were discussing some of our plans recently, we both expressed the need to have some sort of planner in order to keep everything straight. After all, not only do we have all of our own “normal life” stuff to keep track of but we also have wedding tasks to coordinate. It can all get pretty crazy very quickly!
While Jessica found her perfect planner on Amazon, I was a little pickier about what I wanted. I knew I wanted to be able to separate items into categories, such as beauty/music/food/etc. So Here’s a step-by-step of how I created my planner:
Step 1: Decide how you’re going to bind it.
Most people keep their planner together in a binder, however I found for myself that one of our coil books was easier to keep everything together and carry around. If you choose to do a bound book like mine, I would advise getting a few folders that you can bind into the book. Since you can’t easily add pages like a binder, the folders will help keep together some of the loose sheets.
Step 2: Gather your materials.
The next I did was research. Google and Pinterest are your your best friends at this stage, because they are great resources for finding all of the various free printables available. I’ve included links below to some of my favorites:
Botanical Paperworks – Wedding Planning Binder
WedPlan – Worksheets
Russell and Hazel – Wedding Binder Pages
Real Simple – Wedding Planning Worksheets
Magnet Street – The Complete Wedding Planning Checklist
I ended up using mostly the Russell and Hazel worksheets, with some mixed in from the others as well as a few custom sheets that I made for myself. I printed all of the sheets I needed, and then…
Step 3: Get your dividers.
Here’s where I really ran into trouble. Due to the way I like to organize, many of the free printable tabs I found wouldn’t work well me. So I ended up creating my own! They are set up for tabs that are in banks of 5, and I created a simple icon to go on each one. I divided my planner into the following categories:
Timeline
This will be where I keep my checklist of things I have to do each month before the wedding.
Planner
These are my monthly and weekly calendar pages, to keep track of appointments and such as we go.
Budget
Maybe the most important tab, this one is where I’ll keep my budget planning worksheets and receipts. I also plan to keep track of deposits and bills that are paid here.
Contacts
Important people’s numbers, such as my vendors and my bridal party. It’s important to keep all of this information together in one place, so that it is readily accessible in case you need to get in contact with someone.
Stationery
Information for all of the various invitations, as well as any additional stationery such as programs, thank yous, etc.
Photo & Video
Ideas and information for my photographer and videographer.
Fashion & Beauty
Everything from the bridesmaids’ dresses to the groom’s tux, and everything in between. This is also a great section to keep track of your trial-runs of hair and makeup, as well as other beauty appointments for you and your ladies!
Decor
All of the decoration plans, including the ceremony and reception
Food & Drink
Another very important category, this is where we’ll keep ideas for what we’ll feed everyone for the reception.
Music
Our first dance song, any do-not-play lists, and the DJ or band’s information. My dad was a DJ for years when I was a kid, and my fiance is musically inclined, so for us this is an important category to keep everything organized for our DJ.
Travel Info
Since many of our guests will be travelling from out of town, this section includes hotel and transportation information
Registry
Keep track of all of your registries here! Several of the printables above include great checklists for keeping track of what items you need to have on your registry.
Guest List
I particularly love the Russell and Hazel guest list pages, and this is where I will be keeping track of all of our guests’ information
Other
Any miscellaneous information that doesn’t fit into one of the other above categories.
Notes
Keeping notes is always a good idea! I included several lined sheets of paper in this section to jot down ideas for later.
Celebrations
This section will house all of the information regarding the various other celebrations that go along with the wedding, such as the engagement party, bridal shower, and bachelor/bachelorette parties.
Day-of
I wanted a section to encompass all of the additional day-of information, such as timelines for the bridal party and parents.
Ceremony
Obviously, this one deals with all of the ceremony stuff. This is where I am keeping the drafts of the ceremony, our vows, order of events, etc.
Reception
Just like the Ceremony section, only for the events happening at the reception (Special Dances, dinner and dancing times, and so on).
Honeymoon
You can’t forget about the honeymoon! Here, I’m keeping all of our ideas for where we want to go, as well as travel information for when we book the trip!
So as you can see, I tried to cover every aspect of a wedding from start to finish. And we’ve made the dividers available to you as well! Download the full set here!
Step 4: Put it all together!
Finally, gather each of your printable sheets into the section where you feel it best fits and then bind it all together in the method of your choosing.
And that’s it! Do you have a favorite printable page that we didn’t include? Or have a suggestion for something we missed? Let us know in the comments!
