Planning a wedding can be the most joyous – or chaotic – time in your life.
With an obsessively-detailed wedding planner journal to guide your way, planning your wedding could actually be a lot of fun and you’ll have a more organized, smoothly running event at the end.
In the past, it was left to the mothers to plan the majority of the festivities, the bridesmaids to assist the bride in her limited selection of choices, and the fathers to foot the bill. I think we can all agree, that model is out and all bets are off!
Today’s weddings are a spectacle to behold: some are a fairytale set against a starry night sky, dancing the night away in a decked-out vintage barn with a million twinkle lights and mason jar lanterns. Others are a small personal affair in a family member’s backyard, complete with the family dog as the ring-bearer.
Whatever your choices for wedding decor, style, and experience may be, there are a lot of choices to make.
If you’ve opted out of hiring a professional wedding planner, or are doing your best to manage the outcome of your wedding with a little input from all the wedding unofficial wedding planners in your life (hello, future mother-in-law!), it’s imperative to choose a tool you can rely on for the duration of the event planning to keep you on track and happy.
As soon as you know they’re the one, it’s time to find your next “one”: in other words, your wedding planner journal.
What to look for in a wedding planner journal:
- It’s something you’ll actually use. We’ve all bought a beautiful planner or journal because of its aesthetic, but the interior spreads, prompts, and line-spacing might have been virtually useless to us in the long-run. Consider your planning style, comfort level when writing, and how you’ll want this wedding planning journal to feel in your hands. You’ll likely be visiting it almost daily for the next year!
- All of the necessary information is included – and there’s more in it than you already knew. Unless you’re a professional wedding planner, it’s unlikely you know every single detail that goes into a wedding. How could you? It’s a unique occasion. However, keeping track of each dollar, guest, and floral consideration is a huge undertaking, and having a journal that is many steps ahead of you will help you stay on-track without the stress of “Oh no, I forgot!”
- There’s space for you to work out ideas and thoughts between the prompted sections. If you’re a binder-planner (someone who likes to print their planner from a PDF and keep it in a binder), you can simply add pages into sections and customize your ability for note-taking. If you’re a hardbound or digital planner, make sure there’s space for you to brainstorm and sketch in the journal so you don’t have to tack in loose extra pages.
Can you use an Ink+Volt Planner for wedding planning?
We love seeing the creative ways that people use their Ink+Volt Planners. And while most people use the planner to accomplish professional goals, it can be customized for anything from accomplishing a health and fitness goal to running a marathon to planning a dream vacation… or even planning a wedding.
Using the yearly theme, monthly goals, and weekly planning tools to break down your wedding timeline and most important tasks, you can easily define your priorities and accomplish the many tasks you need to complete along the way.
Get clear on what matters to you for your big day, and plot out the most important tasks with monthly goals and daily time-blocks for getting things done. Set deadlines for everything from reserving a venue to ordering flowers, and let your yearly theme (which could be modified to be your “wedding theme”) guide you and help you design a day that stays on track and looks just like your imagination.
However, there are so many options for wedding planning journals on the market today. If you’re looking for something specifically designed to help you plan your wedding, then scroll down for our picks for best wedding planning journals.
What exactly should be included in a wedding planning journal?
You don’t know what you don’t know… and that adage is all-too-true when it comes to planning a wedding.
We fierce planners at Ink+Volt can’t claim to know everything there is to know about wedding planning, but aren’t afraid of a little DIY when it comes to planning. Here are some necessary sections to consider when creating your own wedding binder:
- Important information
- Attire
- Beauty
- Registry
- Stationery
- Bridal shower
- Rehearsal
- Ceremony
- Reception
- Decor
- Honeymoon
Keeping track of all these important details gets them out of your head (where they swirl and meld and create stress) and into a concrete state on paper.
For those who want to skip the arduous task of creating a wedding planner journal on their own, we’ve curated the top 10 wedding planning journals, all available for purchase online.
1. The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planning Binder by The Knot
The Knot may be one of the biggest and most reputable online wedding hubs, serving as an informative blog, magazine, and multi-offering bridal support service. Their planning binder features insight from their team of experts and the wealth of experience they have from years in the wedding industry.
2. Little White Wedding Organizer by Little White Books
One of the best-selling wedding planning journals on the market, the Little White Wedding Organizer is the antidote to those who don’t want a big, bulky planning binder or an A4 sized spiral-bound journal. This minimalist chic hardbound white journal contains a 12-month diary structure for note-taking and daily usage (so you can live your life and plan your wedding), necessary wedding checklists, and more.
3. Better Together by Erin Condren
Planner maven Erin Condren has curated a bright, colorful spiral-bound wedding journal to keep you on track for your special day. With monthly spreads, necessary checklists, and curated tip lists, you’ll not miss a detail in planning your dream wedding.
4. Printable PDF Wedding Planner by Willow Lane Paperie on Etsy
Perfect for the iPad Pro + Pen, this extremely comprehensive PDF wedding planning suite contains more templates for information than we believed possible. 120 pages with interactive options make up this sectioned, in-depth planning guide for the wedding of your dreams.
5. Miss to Mrs by Kate Spade
For the minimalist bride who doesn’t need to manage every single little detail, the Miss to Mrs wedding planning journal by Kate Spade is an A5-sized hardcover journal in blush pink, with 48 pages of necessary wedding details like Important Information + Contact cards, a schedule for the planning timeline, and other essentials.
6. The Wedding Planner and Organizer by Mindy Weiss
You may recognize Mindy Weiss, wedding planning extraordinaire and oft-turned to professional for the Bachelor and Bachelorette series weddings. She’s compiled her wealth of knowledge and experience into this wedding planning journal and organizer, complete with pages for planning and pages for learning (and reassurance) along the way.
7. Joyful Wedding Planner by Southern Weddings
The editors of Southern Weddings Magazine collaborated on this gorgeous and informative wedding journal. It’s sweet cover, emblazoned with Love Never Fails, will surely be a keepsake long after your vows are exchanged and the last slice of cake is devoured. This wedding journal features a vast collection of spreadsheets and worksheets for your most important decisions, as well as invaluable advice-focused articles.
8. Custom Wedding Planner by Purple Trail on Etsy
What could be sweeter than a notebook that has your name and your partner’s doodled on it already? Take their last name ahead of time with this custom, made-to-order spiral-bound wedding planning journal. This journal features numerous sections for recording the most important details, as well as a Wedding Day section so your day-of can be smooth as silk.
9. Over the Moon keepsake wedding planner and album.
Turn your wedding planner into a scrapbook along the way with this gorgeous keepsake wedding planner and album by Over the Moon. This large coffee-table sized book features a full suite of wedding planning pages as well as places for writing, pasting pictures, and creating memories with your future spouse through the whole planning journey.
10. *Free* Wedding Planner Binder Printables by Botanical Paperworks
Botanical Paperworks has created a superb collection of free wedding binder printables. These templates are colorful, comprehensive, and easily printed or used on a tablet with a stylus pen. If you’re feeling up to a DIY project, grab these free printables and head to the Gagen Girls article to get started on your wedding planning binder.
