List Your Way to Wedding Glory

Organization is key for a well-managed wedding package, and a well-maintained to-do list can save a couple from last minute panicked phone calls and bulk orders that you really don’t need. In fact, couples often loose money when they don’t stay organized, as late fees and panicked bookings can really eat into the wedding budget and leave you with a wedding that wasn’t quite what you had pictured. Aside from your obvious to-do lists, here are three lists you, as a couple, should be keeping right now:   A List of Vendors
A list of potential vendors as you begin choosing and booking locations will make it much easier for you to compare prices and services that a notebook full of brochures and jotted down info on napkins and scratch paper. A list makes it easy to see immediate side-by-side comparisons, and once you’ve chosen vendors for your event, keep a list of who you’re using, what services they offered, what they’re providing, and the projection of the total cost, with tax and tip. While you should also keep your contract, a separate list will keep all of this information organized and ready for reference when you need it most.
After the big day, this list will be an easy reference guide for who has been paid, when they need to be paid by, and whether or not their end price was anywhere near your quote. This is the list that will save you money and protect you from scammers! A List of Addresses
It’s starting how often couples scramble for addresses and full names right before sending out save-the-dates or invitations. You should always take the time to be sure you’re sending out your stationary with accurate and recent information, as it can be difficult to keep up on the address changes and happenings of fifty families in the weeks leading up to your wedding in your head. Keep a running list of family addresses and relevant last names right up until your stationary goes out.
If you hear about a pending divorce or an adult moving out of his grandmother’s house, it’s important to log that information into an already-ongoing list to be sure that your guests are informed and aware, no matter what has recently changed in their lives as far as residence and reference goes.   A List of Gifters
There are several gift-giving occasions that lead up to the big day, and you will need to write and send out thank-you notes for all received gifts for each separate occassion. Guests realize that this isn’t the easiest task to pencil in during the hustle and bustle of wedding planning, but it would be tragic to forget who sent what when the time finally comes to sit down and get the notes out of the way. Some notes should be written before others, such as shower and engagement party notes, and an organized list keeps this from becoming a logistical nightmare.
Keep a tab of gifts received and log who they were from and for what occasion. Keeping different notes and lists will spell disaster for your organization later on. Trust me; this is one list you can’t afford to skip out on!