7 Habits of Highly-Effective Wedding Planning Couples

This simple trick ensures that important emails don’t get mixed up with your daily emails and You can quickly and easily access emails from vendors and can check it whenever you have the time to deal with wedding-related issues. (Hint: use this email address for joint bills after the wedding for a super-organized home life!)

DIY weddings aren’t for everyone…the smartest couples play to their strengths with DIY and only take on projects that they feel like they’ll do well or that include a new skill they’d like to learn.

Navigating future in-law relations is one of the hardest aspects of wedding planning, and taking sides or putting all the blame for a tough decision on your fiance is bad for your relationship and sets a bad precedent with your families. We know it’s hard, but even though it may be hard for you or your parents to accept, it’s time to start putting the new family you are creating with your partner first.

Unless they have an unlimited budget, a couple can’t have the best of the best in every single wedding category. Smart couples start by talking about what they care about most (whether it’s great food, an awesome band, or a venue that accommodates 350) and the least. Then they put their time and effort into the things they care about most and don’t stress about things that aren’t the top priority.

We get it, you’re Type A and love logistics…but you simply can’t-do All the Things, especially not on your wedding day. So when people offer to help, take it! (They wouldn’t offer if they didn’t want to help.) Whether you hire a day-of coordinator or just ask your brother to run that last-minute errand for you, having people you know can help you on your big day is crucial.

Every couple is different; some like to put all their wedding expenses on a single credit card that they pay off each month, while others might create a separate wedding account that they deposit money into each month. When parents are helping to pay, they may offer to pay deposits up front, pay balances as the date nears, or just give the couple cash. And we happen to think spreadsheets work great for tracking everything, but there are many online tools available as well. No matter which route you take, having an agreed-upon system that you can easily reference is crucial.

While etiquette says that couples technically have a little time to send out their thank yous, efficient couples know that doing it right away — when the gifts, cards, and addresses are still well-organized — is the way to go. What’s your secret to highly-effective wedding planning? Let us know in the comments below!

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