Good planning advice

[Christopher90]

any suggestions on good planning tools and making a timeline. I want a good document for sharing with vendors, bridesmaids, for myself and so on..

tricks & tips appreciated😊

Think about the timeline of the day from the guest experience. Every wedding I’ve been to that leaves guests standing around for 2-3hours after a short civil ceremony whilst lots of photos are taken ends with a fairly flat evening- everyone did the drinking in the long break before dinner and is all socialised out and sobering up by the time the party starts.

After 3/4 weddings that went this way, we opted for just an hours drinks reception before getting everyone in for dinner and speeches.

We had a live band for the evening instead of a DJ and had an absolute BLAST! Dance floor bouncing all night. I really don’t mind that we missed out on the long couples photo shoot- I have lots of brilliant shots of us dancing with all our friends and family.

So my tip is do 2 timelines- one for what you’ll be doing with the day, the other for what your guests will be doing and be mindful of any long gaps!

Can’t really help sorry, my day was so bloody relaxed there wasn’t much of a timeline.

I hope you get some more replies and everything goes just as you want it too

Have you looked at Bridebook? I found it really helpful because it's made specifically for weddings. You can build your timeline in there, manage budget, guest lists, all that stuff - but the best bit is you can share different parts with different people.

So like your bridesmaids can see what they need to know, vendors get their own info, but you're not bombarding everyone with everything. It's all cloud-based too so everyone's looking at the most up-to-date version.

Main thing I'd say is build in extra time for literally everything because stuff always takes longer than you think 😅 And maybe set yourself regular planning sessions (like Sunday afternoons or whatever) so it doesn't take over your entire life.