Planning Tools Overview

Firstly, congratulations on getting engaged! Being engaged is one of the most exciting periods of your life, and we're here to ensure that planning your wedding is fun and enjoyable!

We have helped over 250,000 brides plan their weddings and so there is not much that we haven't seen in that time. With this experience in mind, we have put together a set of FREE online tools that will help you to master and complete every single step...

MY CHECKLIST

The most important tool that you will use is the checklist. When you create your free account (you can sign up here) we provide you with an interactive template which contains a comprehensive list of everything that you will need to consider. You can view a non-interactive version of your wedding checklist HERE.

The checklist breaks down everything that you need to do into bite-sized monthly tasks, which are much less daunting!

You can add your own items to the checklist or remove unwanted items from your checklist at any time. We have also scheduled every task for you, so that you do each task in the right order and at the right time.

To make things even easier, we will send you email reminders at the key stages in your planning process. These reminders are based on the wedding date which you supply when you register, which can be changed and updated under the My Big Day - My Details menu.

When you complete each task on your checklist you should mark it as ‘done' as this will automatically mark it as complete on your MY BUDGET planner.

MY BUDGET

• Once you have had a chance to look through your checklist, you will notice that there are lots of things in the run-up to your wedding which need to be paid for. The budget planner will help you to keep a running total so that there are no surprises.


• As with the checklist, we provide you with a budget template which mirrors your checklist. Every item on the checklist which has an associated cost will appear on your budget planner (don't worry it's really simple!).


• To get started simply add your estimated costs against against line in the budget planner. You can also select who will pay for each item from a drop-down menu. We realise that you probably haven't done this before and so we have added an estimate against each item, which reflects the UK average spend. Simple!

MY GUEST LIST

• Once you have your checklist and budget planner under control, the last big organisational task is to work out who to invite and whether they will be invited to the day, the evening or both.


• The guest list area enables you to keep track of all of your guests. You can add guests individually or as groups or families. This is invaluable for working out the total number of guests and tracking whether they have replied to your wedding invitation.


• For each guest you can enter:
  
  
  
  • Whether they are invited to the day and evening, the evening or just the day
  
  
  • Their relationship, such as father of the bride, best man, bride's guest etc
  
  
  • Whether they are a child
  
  
  • Whether transport will be required
  
  
  • Track their RSVP status
  
  
  
  

MY FAYRES

• We provide a lots of inspirational ideas through the blog, the weekly inspiration articles, the boutique and of course through Pinterest. However sometimes it's also great to go out and actually touch things!


• If you're looking for hands-on inspiration, then you might want to find the local wedding fayres in your area. Wedding fayres typically take place from January - March and from September - November,


• You can find a list of local wedding fayres either through the icon on the home page, or under your My Big Day drop-down.

MY MENUS

• You will need to decide on a menu for your wedding breakfast and send it to the caterers with numbers. The menu tool simply enables you to create your menu course by course. You can then print off the screen and either give it to or email it to your caterer.

MY TABLES

This is the last of the 'main' wedding planning tools. The table planner enables you to create tables, and assign your guests to them! From experience planning the tables is a fluid task and so holding the information online saves a huge amount of time and of course paper!

Once this task is complete the final details can be emailed to the wedding venue, friends or stationers to create a table plan for the day.

MY SUPPLIERS

This area allows you to keep personal notes on each supplier, including quotes, deposits, final payments and whether you have selected them as one of your suppliers. You can sort the list by category or supplier name and can also filter the list to only show the chosen suppliers.

VENUES and SUPPLIERS

You can search for local suppliers and venues through the Directory. Simply click on the directory, enter the type of supplier category (from the category drop down menu) ,such as florists and the County (from the location drop down menu ) you are searching within. You will be presented with a list of local florists. If any catch your eye, you can click on the ‘add to my suppliers’ button and they will saved for you in the MY SUPPLIERS area of your account.

If you wish to search nationwide for suppliers and venues, then just leave the location drop down as ‘location’.