Planning a wedding? YAY!

I mean–I’m already exhausted for you. Wedding planning these days is so frustrating and involved! No matter how simple you think you’re taking it, it’s likely the biggest ceremony and party that you’ll ever plan.

So, this is our attempt at making a helpful list of what’s out there–certainly not everything. You may have noticed there is SO MUCH to this business of weddings! Yikes! 

ORGANIZING AND RESOURCES

Most people nowadays have chucked the ol’ wedding binder and are doing their organization with websites and apps. Because of this popularity, there are a lot of sites that attempt to make your life easier. Let’s start with a big one. 

One of the first and most successful planning websites (a one-stop-shop if you will) is this giant one here.  It’s the Knot, in case you’re afraid to click.

The Knot really is everything you’d need for a wedding–you can create a budget guide, look at men’s suits, read articles, see what’s trending.  You can even find local venues. It’s, honestly, like walking into a virtual wedding expo.

Their ideas and advice section is modern and well-thought-out.  Also, you can create your wedding website (I had one, and I highly recommend it!) and registry. 

If you haven’t checked out organizational apps (ha, like you haven’t already seen pretty much everything!!) Wedding happy is a great, free, super type-A organized, get all your ducks in a row right now kind of app. 

So you can stave off the anxiety by checking this amazing wedding secretary for your phone on a constant basis. You can also use Wedding Happy to share everything with your spouse-to-be at any time. 

Wedding happy is basically all the things us organizing types love–calendars, to-do lists (you can check them off as you go, it’s very satisfying), payment schedules, budgets, etc.

INSPIRATION AND IDEAS! YASSS!

If you’ve been living under a rock and you haven’t noticed Pinterest, they are basically the biggest online idea source out there. You may want to finally get an account and keep track of what they’ve got going. 

Be careful, though, Pinterest can quickly take you down a rabbit hole of inspiration! Make sure you’ve got a plan and learn their system of pinning ideas to keep them organized and on task (kind of like you!)

It may seem outdated, but we are still fans of the Queen of Party Planning, Martha Stewart Weddings. In terms of beautiful ideas and information, this is an unmatched site.

Recent articles on Martha Stewart Weddings include information on 2019 and 2020 wedding trends, a great article on dressing the men in your wedding, and breathtaking cakes. Why am I not back there reading stuff now!?

Also, as pretty much everyone is looking for ways to save on the wedding, don’t skip the few but helpful sites which provide ideas on doing a wedding with a budget. One of these money-saving websites is the Budget Savvy Bride, which has really great ideas on saving in different ways.

I even read an article this morning on how to save on eco-friendly weddings, which sounded amazing. 

Budget Savvy Bride also has a wealth of information when it comes to figuring out apps for saving money for your wedding–so even before you do the spending, you can do a little preparing! Your parents would be so proud.

GIFTS (You know you have to)

At this point, everyone knows the tradition of gift-giving at weddings, and I don’t mean just your registry!

You will want to get gifts for the mother of the bride and groom, for your bridesmaids, your groomsmen, the junior versions of those two. . . it’s a lot. And it’s not usually on the top of everyone’s planning lists.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to do some sites that do personalized gifts or can get you a bunch of gifts (say, for five bridesmaids. . . ) while not making you run to different stores or spending hours trying to get individual gifts at different sites.

You might know JJ’s House for being a dress shop, but it’s also a source of hundreds of bridesmaids’ and junior bridesmaids’ gifts. The range in price is phenomenal–you can get $1 gifts (for a basket perhaps?) or $70 gifts.

Most of their items can be personalized, and this is also a great place to shop for bridesmaids’ dresses and accessories, so it could be two birds with one stone. 

Groomsmen gifts are ALWAYS a last-minute thought.  Partially because they are often left to procrastinating grooms (there, I said it) but also because they are notoriously difficult to choose. How do you buy gifts for a group of guys??

There is a massive resource for classy, elegant gifts at https://www.groomsmengiftsource.com/. Hundreds of very “manly” gifts with classic ideas such as toiletry bags, grilling sets, whiskey decanters, and wall decor.  

Everything on the site can be personalized, including the wooden boxes that most of the gifts come in.

If you don’t know already, Etsy is full of amazing stores that sell personalized and individual gifts for all members of your wedding party.

The nice thing about Etsy is that it is easy to find gifts that are hand-made by small business owners. You’re more likely to get good communication, and, like we’ve mentioned before, to get it all done in one stop!