Wedding Planning Apps and Hacks
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Event planning technology is already ubiquitous in the corporate world and now thanks to a lot of new tools and apps wedding planning is going ‘tech’ as well!
In earlier posts I talked a lot about strategy when hunting for your perfect wedding venue and tips and tricks for building your fundamental wedding planning documents – your ‘to do’ list and your budget. Here are some recommendations for apps and websites that really take these documents to the next level in terms of delegation and real time management:
1. Budgeting:
There are some great tools out there that go far beyond any spreadsheet. Notably there is a great app in the app store called Wedding Budget. Your budget is automatically allocated to specific areas based on what you want to spend overall and it tells you how much you have left to spend with a reminder when each payment is due.
2. Ideas and Brainstorming:
Whether it be your fiancé, your family or close friends, the beginning stages of planning are all about collaboration and brainstorming. I've always been a fan of Pinterest pages, the visual bookmarking tool that allows your boards to be top secret or shared publicly. Wunderlist is a free to-do app that lets you create lists of tasks and assign them to other people. Tasks can even be commented on so you and your partner can go back and forth on what needs to get done. Drop box or Evernote are also great websites for collaboration and tracking individual comments.
3. 'To-Do' Lists:
Wedding Happy is an incredible online resource for creating to do lists. Just enter your ceremony date and the app will break down all the tasks you need to have completed, along with estimated dates you should plan on completing them by.
4. Wedding Website:
I encourage my couples to consider a wedding website leading up to their wedding day since so many weddings attract a number of people from out of town, looking for additional information. Personalized websites are a great way to keep your guests updates and engaged through message forums and photo sharing. Websites like Square Space are awesome because they have so many visually driven and beautiful templates and it is very user friendly. Appy Couple is another great wedding website that doubles as an app which allows guests to share photos and even live stream your wedding day if guests can’t be there.
5. RSVP:
It’s becoming more and more common to send out e-vites which allow for great RSVP tracking and attendee messaging. Paperless Post or Greenvelope are popular options.
For couples that still send out hard copy invites, many now receive guest RSVP’s via email. If you go this route, I recommend creating a tailored email account for your wedding to help stay on top of wedding emails and keep all wedding items in one central place. For online RSVP’s I recommend a custom Google form for all guests to fill out so you ensure required information like dietary restrictions, proper guest names and menu selections are addressed in an efficient manner.
6. Gift Registry Tracking:
Gone are the traditional department store registries! My Registry in the app store is a great option. It's easy to use and lets you pick from multiple brands and even ask for money to fund experiences, like a honeymoon trip. There's also a price checker on each item which tells you which store has the best prices for the items you want!
7. Vendor Selection:
It can be overwhelming to know which vendors to choose for your wedding day. To help narrow down the search I love Style Me Pretty or Wedding Wire which are free online resources for brides to help source vendors in their region with lots of (free) tips or tricks along the way. Alternatively you could hire yourself a wedding planner to help you source the perfect vendors for you! So how do you plan to incorporate technology in your wedding day?
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