Between jobs, family, and bigger than ever weddings, brides today are busier than any brides in the past and are looking for ways to streamline the wedding planning process. Digital address collection online with MyInviteList.com is a great way to save time, ensure you have accurate addresses for your invites, and keep a collection of addresses for thank you cards after the wedding. Below are some of the other great new tips out there for modern day brides that we wish we knew about sooner:
Budgeting
This one sounds like a no-brainer, but so many brides make the mistake of winging it on their budget. If you sit down right after the engagement and plan out your budget, you can save yourself from so much time and struggle later on. It helps to start by thinking about all of your resources. Will either of your parents be helping with costs? Do you have money in savings or any other resources you will be using to pay for the wedding, such as a credit card? Get an idea, even if it’s rough, of the total amount of money you will have to spend on the wedding. Next, start by subtracting the costs of the higher ticket items on your list, such as the venue, food, and alcohol. Then move down to the mid-tier costs such as your dress, photography, decor, cake, and invitations, etc. Finally, start thinking about small budget items or lower priority expenditures that you can do without if needed. This process will help you work through what you really have money for and where you can be flexible if the budget gets tight.
Delegating
This one can be tough, especially for the bridge who has been dreaming about her wedding since childhood. But as much as you can delegate tasks to trusted friends and family, it will really help you save time and stress during the wedding planning process. Since wedding address collection will be so simple with MyInviteList.com, you already have one time consuming and error-prone task checked off your list. If you ask a sister or friend to help you handwrite addresses, you can have the personal touch of a handwritten envelope, without sacrificing any of your limited wedding planning time. Some other tasks that are easier to delegate are: planning the details of the bridal shower, bachelorette party, and the rehearsal dinner. If you have any strong preferences for these events, make sure they are communicated clearly and in advance with whoever you have delegated to tackle them for you. There may be many other opportunities for people to help depending on your circumstances. Anytime you find yourself doing pickups/dropoffs of items, or other tasks that don’t involve decision making, that is an opportunity to ask for help. Most of your family will be happy to assist you and excited to contribute to your big day.
Setting Deadlines
As we all know, wedding planning can be an exhausting exercise in logistics and project management. To ensure everything goes smoothly, having deadlines written down and adhered to throughout the process can help you stay on track and catch any possible issues early enough to fix them before they can cause a disaster on your big day. Search for a wedding planning timeline template or wedding deadline checklist online and stick to it! It will be a little bit of time upfront making sure you have everything spelled out, but you will not regret it later when you get things done on time with no stress.
Creating a Website
This is a new trend that is saving time and money for so many brides. A website provides details that guests would normally have to ask for from the bride or groom, resulting in tons of time spent answering the same calls and texts about your wedding details. If you and your family can redirect all questions to a URL for your wedding, it will save you so much time in having to explain the details of your wedding over and over again. The Knot, Zola, and Minted all have wedding website templates that can help you get your personalized wedding website set up quickly and easily.
Although wedding address collection is one great way to save time, if you combine all of the tips above you will be well ahead of the game when it comes to your wedding planning. Use every trick you can find and you can have less stress and more joy while preparing for your big day.
