A day to remember

by Andy Youings March 14, 2017

Planning your wedding, the most perfect day of your life, is a big deal.  You’ve dreamed about it since you were little and have it all planned out in your head. You know your colour scheme, the theme you want and possibly where and how you would like to get married. But as with any big event there is always a lot of planning…and we mean a lot! Here’s just a few handy tips on how your journal can help to take the strain and keep you organised and stress-free.

 

Get it all down on paper - no holds barred!

A great way to get started is by writing a “brain dump” list of everything that needs to be done, purchased, made and put in place for the big day. There will be so many things going around in your head so the best starting point is to get everything down on paper so you can start to organise your thoughts.

Some of the most common things you will probably need to include in your wedding checklist are:

• Invitations – make this your first task to you have plenty of notice to give suppliers of attendance
• Catering ideas (including suppliers)
• Venue – have several options in case your first choice isn’t available
• Favours - will you go off-the-shelf or something more bespoke?
• Decoration designs and inspiration (remember not all venues will supply these).
• Dresses, suits and shoes for the main wedding party
• Flowers
• Entertainment - DJs, live bands, etc.
• The cake - suppliers, ideas and inspiration
• Hen and stag do ideas
• Hair and makeup
• Photography
• Your honeymoon - destinations, costs, etc.

 

Section for sanity

Once you have your list (which we are sure will grow throughout the course of planning), we recommend separating it into broader sections to help refine your organisation further by dedicating each section in your Say Nice Things journal to a different topic. For example:

• Venue - to include locations, contact details, costs, decorations.
• Catering - menu ideas, cake inspiration, supplier contacts.
• What to wear - ideas for bridge/groom, the best man, ushers.
• Honeymoon - destinations, flight options, car hire, details of additional documents required for travel, insurance details.
• Guests - who to invite, address details, table plans (we recommend the ‘doodle section’ for this)

The beauty of using your Say Nice Things journal is each section can be adapted to whatever you need…your list may look completely different to the above, the important thing is to give you the template to get organised.

  

 

Clever calendar

Once you’ve done this, decisions can start to be made and details finalised. As you move into this stage, the perpetual calendar section will prove an invaluable tool for ensuring each task is actioned and completed in order to meet what is an unmovable target! Starting with the current month, dedicate a month per page and start to add in the important tasks and the relevant dates for meetings, appointments and key decisions. For example, once a bride’s dress supplier has been chosen, jot in the key date for dress fittings, etc. To add further clarity, our tip is to allocate a pen colour to each topic for a further visual aid.

 

Pocket your inspiration

Like any big project, the best source of inspiration will be other people’s weddings so don’t be afraid to steal (sorry, ‘collect’) ideas from others - the more visual the better. Cut out pictures, collect material swatches, copy menus, etc. and use the rear pocket in your journal as the perfect place to store ideas.

 

Reduce stress

When it comes to the stress, you’re not alone. Every bride or groom can have a mad moment or two in the run up to their wedding, but here are our top tips to help you stay as calm as you can along the way:

• Keep an open mind, you might not always get your first choice for venue but the one you do pick could be even better!
• Get everyone involved and make the planning fun, share tasks with your friends and family as after all, it’s virtually impossible to plan and organise an entire wedding all by yourself.
• Take a step away from the planning every so often– with everything to be done you might have forgotten that getting married is about you and your partner. So, every now and a again take some time out, have a spa day, an adventure - whatever takes you fancy to make sure you aren’t completely exhausted when the day comes.

 

With good planning and organisation, your dream wedding can come true. But with all the madness going on remember that you are marrying the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, so even if everything doesn’t go exactly to schedule, your day will be perfect and one to remember forever.

 

Happy journaling.

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