DIY Wedding Planning Binder

Chances are if you're reading this, you may be newly engaged. If so, CONGRATULATIONS! Welcome to the planning! In this blog post, I hope to help you stay organized with tips on how to create your very own DIY wedding binder. When I was planning for my wedding, I remember the binder being the very first thing I did in terms of planning. It was a one stop shop for invoices, contracts, and everything in between. I had peace of mind knowing everything was in place and I didn't have to shuffle through papers to find what I was looking for!

What You'll Need:

3 ring binder
Dividers (major win if you can find some with pockets!)
Lined loose leaf paper
Page protectors
Sticky Notes or Post-Its
Highlighters
Colorful "Thin" Sharpies
Decorative insert for the front and back ( I made mine personalized in the colors of my wedding but this is up to your discretion!)

1) SET UP A GENERAL OVERVIEW

This section you want to include items that you will be referencing the most.

In this section I included dividers for:

Calendar
Checklist
Contacts (Vendors, Wedding Party)

2.) PRINT CALENDAR

On your calendar, you want to make sure you write in things like vendor appointments, fittings, shower dates, etc. Your calendar will become very full once you begun your planning, so having everything written down in one place will make

3.) PRINT CHECKLIST

Another major portion of your binder is going to be your checklist. Here is a collection of printable checklists to keep you organized.

4.) SET UP YOUR DIVIDERS

In my wedding binder, I had sections dedicated for: venue, vendors, budget, ceremony, reception, transportation, and accommodations. Some other good divider ideas could be: music (preferred playlist or ceremony music) , rehearsal dinner (details on when and where), honeymoon (include your hotel and flight accommodations and itineraries) , seating (the dreaded seating chart), guests (guest list), bridal party (I had information like the groomsmen suit rentals and bridesmaid gifts), receipts (keep all your invoices together or within their dedicated subsection -- see below), etc.

5.) SET UP SUBSECTIONS

You may not have subsections in your wedding binder but for me there were some areas that needed to be broken down further. One of those areas was my vendors so within my vendor section, I had subsections for specific vendors like my DJ, photography, videography, florist, photo booth, etc. In those sections, I kept invoices, contracts, and notes. For example, in my photography section I had questions I wanted to ask photographers as I had vendor meetings and a list of must have pictures that both my husband and I wanted to make sure we took on our wedding day.

6.) ADD PAPER AND PROTECTORS

Make sure you have included plenty of paper in your sections because you want to make sure you have space to write down notes when meeting with vendors. The page protectors are a great way to hold papers so you don't need to hole punch (brochures, business cards, menus, etc)

7.) PRINT HELPFUL TIPS

I printed out infographics to help me stay on track like how to manage my guest list or tips on wedding dress shopping. Whatever you print off, make sure that it is useful to you!

8) PRINTABLES

There are so many amazing resources readily available for use. Like--