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Wedding planning can be both super exciting and stressful at the same time. You may have already considered hiring a professional wedding planner to help you out, but before you do, consider what is included in a wedding planner book, and how it can save you time, money, and stress.
Unless you’re an event planner already, planning a wedding is an entirely new experience. Not only is it a huge event, logistically and financially, but it’s an intrinsically personal one – which often means it’s one that people hold strong views about. It’s easy to be influenced by others, including from your own parents and family, and often your future Mother in law, and family.
To avoid becoming completely overwhelmed by everything, and with all the pressures on you, you may find that after a while you are not getting any enjoyment out of the process. A wedding planner book, like our best-selling little white book can really help to make wedding planning easier, stress-free, and a lot more fun. It’s a resource for all your vendors, guests, expenses, notes, ideas and more – in one place, and also a 12 month journal with regular checklists throughout. It breaks wedding planning into bite-sized, manageable tasks to complete within your entire engagement.
Our wedding planner book, the little white book is unique, in that it is not only a planner, but a 12 month diary, so that you can use just one book, and integrate wedding planner within your everyday life. Named the best wedding planner book in Australia by Bridal Musings and Modern Wedding Magazine, we say it’s what couples not only want, but actually need to plan a wedding.
Below we outline what you’ll also find included in our wedding planner book, and why we consider them necessities. You can also download a sample of our wedding planner, so that you know exactly what’s included.
We think your love story so far is incredibly important to take into account when you’re wedding planning. It will help with working out your wedding priorities (what’s important to you), your wedding speeches and vows, and coming back to your initial notes and reflections during your wedding planning journey will help to keep you grounded, and remember what’s important.
We suggest you start the wedding planner book with the ‘our love story’ pages (taken directly from the our love story couple’s journal). Get inspired to plan a Big Day that is meaningful to you by taking a moment to reflect and make note of the proposal.
All memories fade, even the ones we want to hold onto the most, and such a special moment deserves a special place in your keepsake.
If you haven’t already got the little white book, or your wedding planner book doesn’t have this section included, feel free to use ours:
Take a moment to reflect. Write about the day you got engaged, how you shared your news, and what you’re most excited about. Do you already have some ideas about your Big Day?
Your Wedding Party is special, and asking your closest family or friends to be a part of your Big Day is a very special privilege. Our wedding planner book encourages you to record not just who you are including in your Wedding Party, but why you chose each of them, how you asked, and what you’re planning on asking for help with.
Ours is a completely gender neutral wedding planner designed for same-sex couples to use as well as so we call it a Wedding Party rather than a Bridal Party, and we have a space to make your own, rather than specifying that you record your maid of honour, bridesmaids, best man, groomsmen etc. For many couples, these terms aren’t appropriate, so instead we let you fill it in the way that suits you best.
Our wording is:
Your wedding party may have important roles in helping you plan the wedding, and to support you on the Big Day. Record who you’ve asked to be part of your wedding party, how you asked them, and what you’re planning on asking for help with.
This will also hopefully get you thinking even more about the tasks you can delegate and take off your plate.
Credit: Amanda Gillian Photography
This is a big one, and in our wedding planner we provide up to 10 pages of guest names, and a further double spread for notes too.
Your wedding guest list will really help you determine your venue, so it is something you will want to organise early – it’s also crucial to establishing your wedding budget. We have included space for names, addresses, the number of people who have RSVP’d (if you invite a couple, but only one can attend, for instance, it’s easy to note this) followed by a space to note the gift received, and to tick off that you’ve sent a thank you note after the wedding.
At the end of the list, we encourage you to record the number of invited guests, RSVPs, any cancellations, and a final number, followed by two pages of notes for dietary requirements, number of children attending, and any other special requests or notes for your seating plan.
For more help with this, have a look at How to Start Your Wedding Guest List.
Credit: This Glam Wedding at Academy of Music in Philadelphia.
These pages are ones you will return to most frequently as you secure each booking and your budget allocations change. Each line has space for a Budget Estimate, followed by Actual Cost, Deposit Paid, Balance Payable, and Due Date – so that you can stay on top of it throughout.
The little white book wedding planner has separate pages for your Engagement Party Budget and Honeymoon Budget. You will easily be able to track deposits paid, and due amounts with dates.
You can see our Wedding Budget Pages in The Actual Cost of a Wedding, and see also Organising Your Wedding Budget.
Once you have a guest list drafted and have estimated your total wedding budget, the venue is the first booking to secure. Take a few days to have a look at the venues you love the look of. Make it fun. Take a road trip if you’re planning a destination and have a romantic weekend away at the same time.
Jot down what you loved about each venue or what you didn’t as much. Talk to the coordinator about how much they can assist with, anything you will need to hire, and what the total costs will be. This will help you make your final decision.
Our wedding planner has space for each venue’s name, contact details, appointment times, availability, cost and notes, as well as a journal prompt to record what made you fall in love with the wedding venue you chose. There’s also a blank page, for notes or photos.
Credit: Nicole George Events
Choosing your Photographer, and also a Videographer if you wish to have a wedding video, is such an exciting decision – many couples will have had their eye on one in particular, and will want to book as soon as possible. For others, it will require a lot of research. Choose wisely, these photos will capture your memories to last for a lifetime.
Take note of photographers you like and make the final decision together once you have been through their websites, researched recommendations and even book an engagement photoshoot with them to see how much you love working with them. They are the wedding vendor you will spend the most time with on the wedding day, so it’s important that you feel comfortable and have a good rapport with them, as well as loving their style of photography.
Use the wedding planner book to record all the notes you have on each business, such as what’s included, what packages they offer, and get recommendations from friends if you’re getting stuck.
It’s important that your wedding planner book has space to plan your wedding attire (you may even want to use it for sketching options).Start booking appointments with your favourite designers, you may already envision a style from your Pinterest board or Instagram folders. Nothing compares with trying these on in real life, but it’s a good idea to start with inspiration.
Use your wedding planner book to take note of any styles you like, stick in picture from magazines, and make note of anything you see online too.
Credit: June Bug Weddings
Source: Green Wedding Shoes
Your wedding planner book also needs to have individual pages for each of your wedding vendors – as there are so many options. For instance, you can buy, hire or make your décor – or your wedding venue may already look exactly as you want it to. Take your wedding planner book with you everywhere, as you meet with your florist or caterer, choosing to take note of certain styles and colour themes you like.
The part a lot of couples struggle with. Perfecting the vows. When you get to this stage, take a look back through your wedding planner over the past 12 months and reflect while you write your vows to your partner. This will help as you read through your moments together and your planning. Return to the original ‘our love story’ pages, reflect on the proposal, and write vows and wedding speeches from the heart. Nothing beats beautiful, personal memories that you can share as part of these.
Once you’ve booked your wedding venue and first few vendors, the countdown really begins.
We have included a 12 month undated diary, with checklists throughout, for you to use as your daily diary, while also creating a keepsake of your engagement. Your feelings, what you have achieved for the month past. We have even included little prompts such as “What do you hope to accomplish this month?” and “What are you grateful for?”
If you aren’t a regular journal writer, this will help guide you into what to fill you pages with and also remind you of things you need to do, and having those checklists throughout will ensure you don’t miss a thing.
It’s vital that you make an on the day plan, as well as having a list of key contacts (for somebody else to call – you will be far too busy). Set the timeline. How much time do you want to allocate for Photography, Speeches, etc.
Both of these lists are within the little white book, so you can make copies and delegate/hand out to to others to to deal with any hiccups on the day – so you can spend the entire day enjoying yourself.
Did someone say holiday?! The next party begins. Your honeymoon. YAY!
Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? and… are you ready to relax?
I think so! Use your wedding planner to think about the future too. Ours even includes a few pages after the honeymoon, ‘the adventure continues’ so that you can relive all the fun of your Big Day and think about your future together.
Source: Pinterest
“Undoubtedly the best wedding planner book!”
Frequently voted the best wedding planner book and featured in international magazines and publications (Cosmopolitan, Glamour UK & CNN to name a few), the little white book is a the ultimate wedding planner, 12 month journal, diary and keepsake.
