Wedding Planning/prganizing book

Mel_diesel

Hello there. New to the site and just engaged on NYE. While we haven't set a date, I am shooting for mid-late summer of 2011. I know it's a little early, but I already feel like I am in over my head.  See, we live in Houston and are planning our wedding in our hometown area of West Alexandria, Ohio.
I really don't know where to begin. My first thought is to turn to a wedding planning/organizing book. I had bought one for a friend last year that had a month by month schedule, as well as checklists for each step.
Wondering if there was any books you specifically recommend? I was planning to buy 4, one for myself, my mom, my MIL, and my MOH. Any thoughts?

Brie2010

Honestly, the Knot's checklist is the best I've ever found.

Other than that, get a three ring binder with plastic inserts so you can store inspiration pictures, contracts, and reciepts.

Please do not get them for your mom, MIL, or MOH.  This is your wedding and you should be the one planning it!  Their only "duty" is to show up at the wedding. Plus, it would be confusing to have things in four different places anyway.

chosen175

Ditto pp - the only one needing a planner is you.  If you want to share details, you can always make copies of your final contracts and give them to each person in a manilla envelope for safe keeping. 

I bought 3 different books and didn't like any of them.  In the end, I bought a 3 ring binder and a hole puncher.  I had divider tabs for each thing - dress, photog, cake, etc.  I put notebook paper in each section to take notes (one vendor on each page), or I'd print things out from the internet and hole punch them before adding.  As I eliminated certain things I'd just take those papers out of the binder.  As I got more info from each vendor, I'd print the emails and add them to the binder as well.  My final contracts went into a sheet protector in that section. 

My wedding is very low key so I could care less about checklists - doesn't take a rocket scientist to plan a wedding with 12 guests.  lol  But I hear The Knot has a good one that you can probaby print out for yourself. 

I <3 Seabass

Agree with pp, your mom, fmil, etc don't need planners. As for you I think it depends on your personality and how you normally organize/work on things.

For me I do mostly everything online IRL so planning my wedding wasn't any different. Check list, inspiration pics, guest list, seating chart, etc were all stored in files on my computer.  The only thing I used my physical planner (given to me as a gift) for was to hold all of my contracts.

rnhall03

 SOON AFTER I WAS ASKED TO BE JASON'S BRIDE, I BOUGHT MYSELF A WEDDING KEEPKAKE PLANNER. IT HAS REALLY BEEN A BIG HELP THUS FAR, PLUS IT SERVES AS A MEMORY BOOK AS WELL. JASON AND I WILL PULL THIS BOOK OUT IN YEARS TO COME AND REFLECT ON THE PLANNING OF OUR WEDDING. BEST OF LUCK!
FUTURE MRS PAYSEUR..... JUNE 19, 2010

harbor_girl

There is no need to shout, mhall03 

Mel_diesel

The reason I was going to buy a book for each of them is because of the distance in planning my wedding. I know I will not be able to meet with caterors in Ohio, for instance. They will all be bearing a heavy  load unfortunately,but they have agreed to so in knowing I won't be able to everything from Texas. I don't know what else I can do to keep us all on the same page. Any input on planning a long distance wedding?

Brie2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_just-engaged-proposals_wedding-planningprganizing-book?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:683Discussion:d30499fd-23eb-401d-a939-9a3c3af5a136Post:f6fc8ccf-fa0b-4a16-b925-fef456d9b4b5">Re: Wedding Planning/prganizing book</a>:
[QUOTE]The reason I was going to buy a book for each of them is because of the distance in planning my wedding. I know I will not be able to meet with caterors in Ohio, for instance. They will all be bearing a heavy  load unfortunately,but they have agreed to so in knowing I won't be able to everything from Texas. I don't know what else I can do to keep us all on the same page. Any input on planning a long distance wedding?
Posted by Mel_diesel[/QUOTE]

I'm planning my wedding from 8 hours away, and honestly, with the phone and internet, it's been a breeze. We booked our photographer based on online reviews, e-mail references, and her portfolio.  We booked our florist again, based on her extensive online portfolio and internet reviews.  We booked our venue when we happened to be in town for a weekend, and did our cake tasting on another weekend visit.  Check out your local Knot board for recommendations--they've been really helpful to me.

Really, you and your FI should be the ones responsible for planning your wedding.  This day and age, it's really not a big deal to plan long-distance, and it's not fair to make other people do it for you!  I love my best friend, and I'd be happy to be her MOH, but if she asked me to plan her wedding I'd be pretty annoyed.

chosen175

I'm planning a wedding 18 hours away (by car) so I know how nerve-wracking it can be. 

What I did was get on the local TK board for that area and ask for recs.  I also posted on Craigslist in the area, asking for recs.  When I got all that info back, I did a lot of calling, emailing, and googling reviews.  I narrowed it down to 3 vendors in each category.  Then FI and I flew down for a whirlwind 48 hour "Vendorpalooza" - we interviewed close to 20 people in less than 2 days.  They were very willing to meet me on the weekend, even though they didn't ordinarily do that, when they heard I was flying down from Chicago.  I was surprised that the vendors I was most excited about turned out to be unprofessional/horrible and the ones that were "iffy" turned out to be the best.  I would not book anyone/anything until I had seen/tasted it personally so this was the only way I could have possibly made my decisions without losing my mind.

sgervais88

I got a wedding organizer/planner/big pink binder thing from my mom as a "congratulations on your engagement" gift from my very excited mommy. Lol. I haven't started planning yet, but I looked through it and I definitely will use it. It has got so much in it, things I wouldn't have thought of myself. And it's convenient to have everything in one binder. She got it from Barnes and Noble. I recommend it

It has charts and tables and information and folders and pockets and everything. And it's pretty.