The Planning Document That Replaces Nineteen Browser Tabs

The options around a working wedding planning document are set out side by side below, with the conditions that genuinely favour one over the other.

What the document is actually for

Its job is to answer questions without you, which is a different goal from recording everything you have thought about the wedding. That means it needs to be readable by a coordinator, a parent or a supplier who has never seen it before and has two minutes.

Anything that only makes sense to the person who wrote it is a note, not a plan, and it will fail at the moment it is needed. Elaborate planning tools tend to fail this test, because their structure serves the software rather than the person holding it under pressure. A plain document that is current beats a sophisticated one that is three weeks behind.

The contacts list

Every supplier, with the company name, the individual you actually deal with, a mobile number, an email address and what they are contracted to do. Add the arrival time and the location they are coming to, because on the day those two facts are what people ring about. Include the venue's duty manager, whoever holds the keys and anyone with an access code, since these are never the people you booked with.

Keep a copy on paper as well as on a phone, because the day it matters is the day the signal fails inside a thick-walled building. This is the single most valuable page in the whole document and it takes an hour to build.

The decisions list

Record what was decided, the date, and one line of reasoning, because the reasoning is what stops the question being reopened. Note who else needs to know, which turns a decision into a small piece of communication rather than a private conclusion.

Keep the open questions in the same place with a date by which each has to be answered, so nothing sits unowned. Reviewing this list monthly surfaces the decisions that have quietly gone stale while everyone assumed they were settled. It is also the document that ends most family disputes, because it replaces recollection with a record.

The payments list

Track what has been paid, what is owed, when each amount falls due and how each payment was made, without turning it into a running total you stare at. The point is cashflow and evidence rather than judgement, because knowing what is due next month is what prevents unpleasant surprises.

Between the two families, record the payment method too, since the protections available to you differ by method in most countries and matter if a supplier fails. Note what each payment secures, because a deposit that reserves a date behaves differently from one that is a first instalment.

Keep the receipts in one folder named clearly enough that someone else could find a specific one.

The timings list

This grows into the run sheet, so start it early as a simple list of fixed points and add detail as bookings confirm them. Keeping it in the same document as the contacts means the person ringing a supplier at short notice has both facts on one screen.

Once the deposit is paid, mark clearly which times are agreed with the supplier and which are still your intention, because the difference is invisible later. Every time a supplier confirms something, update the line rather than adding a note, so the document never contains two answers. By the final month this list has effectively written itself.

Keeping it usable

Date every version and delete the old ones rather than archiving them, since an accessible old version will be read by somebody. Resist adding inspiration, mood boards and half-formed ideas, which belong somewhere else and make the working document unusable.

Share it with the person coordinating, both sets of parents if that is appropriate, and nobody else, since wide sharing invites commentary. Set one recurring half hour a week to update it, which is the only maintenance it needs and the only thing that keeps it true. In the last fortnight, print it, because that is when it stops being a planning tool and becomes an operating one.

Side by side

The takeaway

Four current lists in one place will outperform any amount of beautifully organised nothing.

It is a party with paperwork attached. Keep them in that order.