3 Wedding Organizational Hacks
Article By | Jennifer Satterfield, Founder & Editor – Growing Up Texas
Photos By | Shelby Tsika Marquardt Photography
Planning a wedding and the days leading up to the big day can sometimes feel a little chaotic and unorganized. There were so many details about my wedding that I felt I had missed or wanted to add last minute, but time was not on my side. I learned so much throughout the process of planning my wedding, from the first day of engagement leading up to the walk down the aisle. Now I’m paying it forward and sharing my top three wedding organizational hacks, and one bonus tip, that I learned along the wedding planning path to make your big day organized!
(1)Dedicated Space
The first step to staying organized while planning your wedding is to setup a dedicated space where you will store vendor quotes, to do lists, brochures, wedding timeline, etc. Start planning your wedding by getting organized from the very beginning. Whether you have a filing cabinet, a binder, or a dedicated digital platform all your documents and inspiration boards need a home that you can easily access and reference throughout the planning process.
(2)Packing for the Big Day
From monogramed cocktail napkins to framed childhood photos, I brought IT ALL! The best way I found to organize all our wedding day details, props, and décor were in plastic storage containers. I even labeled the outsides of the containers with the contents, it was over the top, but it proved to save us time on our big day and kept us organized even during cleanup after the wedding reception. Our wedding coordinator and venue was able to easily access items because the plastic storage containers and décor items were labeled clearly. This will also help your wedding coordinator, venue, or family members from needing to call you or add any stress to your big day because they can’t find the candles.
(3)My Number One Wedding Day
Organizational Hack
One of the best organizational hacks I learned throughout the wedding planning process was from my wedding photographer. She asked me to put together a wedding day “details box.” What is a details box you might be thinking?
I purchased a small photo storage box and I put an assortment of items such as our wedding invitations, party favors, ribbon, etc. in the box for my photographer to use while taking all my detail photos. Detail photos are typically captured before the wedding ceremony begins, while the bridal party is still getting ready. Here are a few items you should consider including in your detail box:
- Your Wedding Invitation Suite – When you are ordering or designing your wedding invitations make sure you budget a few extra copies that you can put aside for your details box. The wedding suite can also include your save the date, detailed map to your venue, and invitation to the wedding. Anything you mailed to your guests that capture the details of your big day.
- Pre-addressed Wedding Invitation Envelope – Hire a calligrapher to hand letter both the save the date and invitation. I asked our calligrapher to address a few extra envelopes to my favorite celebrity, Dolly Parton. Unfortunately, Dolly was unable to attend our wedding, but this was a fun way to show a little character in our details photos and showcase the beautiful calligraphy in the final photos. It’s important to incorporate subtle details throughout the entire wedding that showed off our personalities and that are also meaningful to you and your future spouse.
- Props – Choose props that match your style and go with the overall design of your wedding. Our wedding vibe was vintage and southern. Every element I chose to feature were in line with this vision. I purchased vintage stamps, wooden ribbon spool, and a small toy car because my husband is an auto journalist and photographer. We also fell in love on a road trip together across the country and we spend most of our time together on long road trips. The toy car was a symbol and added a cool vibe to the overall details of our wedding photos. Etsy, eBay, and antique stores are great places to find unique props for your wedding.
- Ribbon is a detail that can enhance your photos. I included a variety of ribbon in our wedding color pallet for our photographer to choose from.
- I monogramed a white lace handkerchief with my new initials and included this in my details box.
- Ask your florist for individual flowers from your wedding day that you can give to your photographer to use in the detail photos. I ordered two additional arrangements that I used to enhance my bridal suite and we were able to pull from these arrangements to create the perfect photos.
Things I wish I had done differently…
I read that you should create an email address just for your wedding. I am very organized, and I thought to myself why would I do that? I’m here to tell you that I wish I had done this. If you are planning your wedding on your own, without the help of a planner, then you should highly consider setting up an email account that you can use during the wedding planning process and then just use the account after you are married. At minimum create a “wedding” folder in your email account where you can store quotes and any communication from your vendors to easily access throughout the wedding planning process.
Wedding Day Organizational Hacks Bonus –> Free download to help you stay organized during your wedding planning on GrowingUpTexas.com