I'm Getting Married Monday

Well, our engagement pictures got cancelled Sunday due to all the rain. I guess I shouldn't complain, we really needed the rain, so now we're shooting to do them this Sunday. Fingers crossed.

The wedding is 131 days away. It makes it seem like a lot less time when you break it down to days. I much prefer saying four months - it makes me a little less panicky. Today I thought I would share with you how I'm staying organized and keeping myself from getting too stressed out.

I think doing all of this in 6 months has been a huge help. It doesn't give me a lot of time to be wishy washy and to make decisions and stick to them. Plus, in the beginning, David gave me a '5' rule. I was only allowed to pick 5 options for each thing (dresses, invites, bouquets) and had to make a decision from those five. Honestly, his rule has really helped and kept me focused.

Right now I live and die by my Erin Condren Life Planner. It was a little pricey, but well worth it for helping keep me organized in all the wedding planning.

The other tool that I couldn't live without is the wedding checklist on The Knot. This checklist is my sanity. It breaks down every single task you need to complete by due date. For example, it will tell you at the 4 to 5 month mark you should be announcing your engagement, finding a ceremony officiant and booking your honeymoon (among about a million other things).

What I did at the beginning of the planning process was take that list and all the 'to dos' that applied to our wedding and wrote them down in my planner by the month that it should be done. For example:

MARCH:

- Engagement Pics

- Submit announcement to papers

- Order wedding rings

- Wine tasting at the winery

- Order invites

- Book honeymoon

- Block hotel rooms

- Pick out tuxes

Then, I chose to break it down even further by writing down tasks to accomplish per week. This way, I don't get overwhelmed and I am able to check things off my list a little bit at a time. I'm a list maker and I love the feeling of putting that little check mark by each task accomplished.

Of course, another tool that really helped me in all of this was Pinterest. I think in total I only bought 3 or 4 wedding magazines. It was so much easier for me to find the things I really loved and pin them to my board, so they were all in one spot. This really came in handy when it was time to meet with the wedding coordinator. I was able to log on and print out all my pictures and didn't have to look in a million places for them.

My Wedding Board

Another feature of The Knot that I love and have used is the Guest List feature. This allows for you to enter your guest list in, with the addresses, and keeps a running total of how many people you have invited. If you will be doing Save the Dates, invitations and Thank You cards, this is a great resource. All your addresses are stored in one place and you can also keep up with your RSVPs there as well. You can also keep up with your budget on this website as well and track how much money you are allocating for everything and how much you actually spent.

So, that's a little look into how I'm keeping my sanity and making sure I don't miss anything. Next on my list is to go get registered and to do a wine tasting for the reception (that's one I'm really looking forward to).

How did you stay organized when planning your big day? What resources are out there to use, that maybe I've overlooked?