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Friday, March 21, 2014

Spring Into Organization with these Easy Steps!

Happy Spring!  What better time to get yourself more organized so you can function optimally and manage your wedding planning more effectively. Here are five ways to get you started:
1)Create a Grab-and-Go Spot: All of us, at one point or other, have misplaced our keys, glasses, wallet, phone, or other essentials you leave the house with on a daily basis. The best way to stop the "where did I put it" syndrome is to designate an area for all of your key items. A small table, shelf, or wall mounted shelf near the entry is ideal so you can drop everything there when you come home and collect it on your way out the door. Not only will it save you valuable time each day, it will help you feel a lot less scattered.
2) Have Separate Wedding Detail Folders or Files:Keeping your wedding related material and research separate from your other paperwork is necessary for optimal organization. Every bride-to-be needs to have a wedding file to collect vendor information, contacts, receipts, contracts, etc. You can have several different files or folders for different vendors or categories. This makes wedding planning a whole lot easier since you can locate pertinent information fast. It keeps you on top of things and will be helpful when communicating with the wedding professionals you hired.
3) Create a Speadsheet: This may be a little more time consuming, but will be quite useful in the long run. Create a spreadsheet of all your wedding guests. Include names, numbers, addresses, and other contact information. Also include columns for invitations sent, gift received, and thank you note sent. You may also want to indicate engagement and bridal shower gifts, as well as their attendance at your wedding, shower or other celebration. This is a good way to make sure you have the details you need to contact guests if necessary (surprise, surprise some guests may forget to RSVP and you'll need to know who and how to get in touch), know the numbers, send thank you notes, etc. Hold onto your list after your wedding too. You may want to refresh your memory of your guest's gifts if they get married in the future, for example.
4) Take Action as Stuff Comes In:This is another one that may seem more challenging, but it's well worth it in time management. Between RSVP's, cards, and gifts, you may be receiving a lot more mail than you are used to. The best way to handle the new influx is to deal with it as it comes. Don't stack response cards to worry about later unless you have absolutely no time or energy. Same for gifts. Noting RSVP's or writing your thank you's as they come in means you'll be spending much less time doing so in the future. Think about it this way: would you rather spend ten minutes writing a couple letters or hours writing a stack of them? Your guests will appreciate your promptness and your hand will thank you too!
5) Toss it Out:Already found your wedding dress, but still have piles of images laying around? Don't hold onto things you don't need. Once you've made a decision on something, stick with it and remove anything that doesn't serve a purpose. It will relieve you of any clutter that might be piling up and help you focus on the tasks at hand.

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