Staying Organized

I can't speak for everyone and I'm definitely not some organization queen. In fact, if you were to see my work office, it's what I like to call an "organized mess", but I do know where everything is located. Okay, I know where things should be located. BUT I did manage to stay pretty organized during my wedding planning. I kept everything in one binder. Everything.

I know some gals buy those nice, fancy, overpriced wedding planners, but with planning a destination wedding, a lot of what they had in those thorough binders didn't pertain to me and my minimalist destination wedding. And I'm cheap; I used a plain, 1 inch, white binder. Now don't get me wrong, I did spruce it up in my own way.

I had dividers separating different sections, ex. Ceremony, Reception, Travel, Receipts, etc.. In each section, I had not only the agreements and contracts of each vendor (I had all my vendors that had to do with the ceremony in one section and all the vendors that had to do with the reception in another section, my hotel reservations, car rental info and travel itinerary in the travel section, etc.)

but I also kept all printed email conversations (if I dealt with them via email) and receipts of payment. I also made sure that I had every vendor's contact information, just in case.

I had ALL papers for each vendor placed in a page protector. So, if I had a 1 page contract with my photographer, plus 2 pages of emails and 1 page invoice, they all went in one page protector. That way if I needed to find my invoice from my photographer, I knew it would be within that page protector. I also used a single page protector to keep my one-time purchases (ie. ribbon from the art store, shoes from zappos, etc.), so that I could keep track of all my purchases (great for figuring out your final cost of your wedding later).

When traveling, I kept this in my carry-on, that way I had all my information and I didn't have to worry about me losing proof of payment or vendor contact information in any possible lost luggage.

It was real convenient to refer to my binder for our plane itinerary, then double check it for our car rental, and check again for our hotel address and reservation information...all in one swoop.

How did you stay organized?