Today we are sharing tips from one of our favorite 530 Bride-To-Be Contributors Kristina! Read on to see her recommendations on staying organized!
One of the best pieces of wedding planning advice I got from another bride, but unfortunately didn’t take was a simple one – create a wedding email and use it to stay organized from the get go. I think I gave myself a little too much credit about being able to stay organized throughout the wedding process. I’d create folders in my primary email. I didn’t want to forget to check that other email account. I’m always good about responding back to people right away. All lies.
The truth is that I am usually very organized, but wedding planning is its own monster entirely. Especially if you aren’t lucky enough to have a full-service wedding planner that will be spending the countless hours vetting the right vendors for you.
It takes time to research vendors, check referrals, read through reviews, fill out forms and wait to hear back. Then once you’ve started a dialogue it’s time to start the back and forth string of emails or phone calls about what you’re looking for in terms of services and learn what they offer. Next you have to negotiate pricing, set up face-to-face meetings, read through contracts and do your best to keep to your budget while filtering out any vendors early on that aren’t going to work so you don’t waste too much time talking with the wrong people.
I was four months into the planning process and backtracking to try and remember which photographers I need to follow up with, which DJs I still need to read reviews for, what items on our budget need to be adjusted to account for the quotes I’ve gotten back and so on… Sure I have a wedding email folder and a bunch of starred, color-coded and flagged emails but I can’t remember why I marked them and it’s all mixed in with my everyday emails that keep multiplying.
If that chaos wasn’t enough to encourage you to create a wedding email, then do so because of all of the wedding-related spam you’ll receive. It’s inevitable that you’ll end up on a wedding-related mailing list at some point and having a separate email will keep those promotional emails from crowding your regular email account.
Here are 5 example situations where having a wedding email will help with wedding planning:
1. Wedding Expos & Bridal Shows
Expos and bridal shows can be overwhelming for any bride-to-be because each vendor will attempt to attract you to their booth so they can sell you on their services. If you’re armed with a wedding email, sign up to receive their information after the expo when you can read the email from the comfort of your couch and can actually digest all of the information on their services without other distractions. You can also ask for a business card or brochure and contact them afterwards when you have more time using your new wedding email.
2. Wedding Planning Websites
There are several wedding planning websites out there and each one will require you to set up an account using an email. If you create an account using your wedding email then you can be sure any notifications related to your wedding website are all centralized in the same email account and any promotional email lists you may end up on won’t cause your regular email account to get bombarded.
3. Bridal Shops & Party Supply Stores
Signing up for discounts, sale alerts and wedding giveaways can be a great way to save money on wedding items. Usually a store will require you to give them an email so that they can track you as a customer and send you marketing information. If you use your wedding email you can benefit from the bargains while at the same time keeping your regular email account spam free.
4. Invitation Design Websites
If you’re planning to design your own invitations or at least use templates found online, you’ll most likely have to save your drafts into an account no matter which website you use. Use your wedding email to create an account so you can save your favorite styles, draft invitation samples with the details for your special day, and have proofs emailed to you to test print.
5. Vendor Contact Forms
Use a wedding email when filing out online forms for potential vendors. This way when they respond back you can keep track of all the quotes you receive and easily compare their packages and pricing in one email account. Then in use category systems like folders, stars, flags, etc… to categorize vendors by type, potential and who you need to get back to.
Even if you’re like me and starting wedding planning without having a designated wedding email, it’s never too late to get organized. Create the email now and start to respond back to your current and potential vendors using this new email. Let them know that you’d like all future communication directed to this new email, and trust me, it will be so much easier to keep track of all your wedding-related communications from here on out.
Wedding wishes and celebratory cheers!
Kristina Nobriga // A 530 Bride-To-Be Contributor
*Our Bride-To-Be Kristina is now married! All of her planning tips and experiences were spot on, and we couldn't be happier for her and Mark!