Wedding planning: Malden strikes back

Now that wedding planning seems to have kicked into extreme overdrive, staying organized is more important than ever. Not that I should have a problem with that, right? Remember this guy that I deemed the best wedding planner around?

And then I added this guy since he was far more portable?

I have four words for you: complete and utter failure. Okay, that might be taking it a bit far, but failure nonetheless. I still have both books- I even still carry the smaller red one in my bag. But honestly, the most it ever gets used for is to be a solid surface for doing my crosswords on the train. And the big binder has never even left my house. I do still go in and check things off the checklist, but that’s about it. I haven’t used the fancy sheets yet, nor any of the advice sections. Maybe I will once the wedding gets closer and I need itinerary templates and the like, but for now he’s just occupying the corner of my desk.

Why have my wedding-specific planners failed? I blame it on the Malden! Even though the other book is in my bag, my Malden is EVERYWHERE with me. And he’s flexible. And he has perfect little spaces for the awesome wedding stickers Sandra sent me…

Seriously though, I didn’t even notice it happening, but suddenly Mr. Malden was stuffed with bits like this stuck to my today marker:

And bobs like this clipped somewhere randomly into my Etc. section:

That’s when I realized something needed to be done. Even though I tried to avoid it, it became obvious that the Malden was my essential, go-to wedding planning tool. It just so happened that all of my wedding details happened to be completely unorganized inside.

I knew straight away that I needed to add a section back in, which wasn’t too bad considering I removed quite a few when finalizing my 2012 set up. So I went back through some of my old, removed dividers. Remember this guy?

I decided that my old lists tab (who had been chilling around in the retired Filo box) would be the perfect vintage looking tab for my new wedding tab.

As you can see from the photo, I also added a slew of top tabs to keep each section organized. Each section then has a blank page which can be used for notes, or as a dashboard to stick notes, business cards, and whatever else I come across.

I decided the following sections should cover just about everything:

• Ceremony: Anything to do with our ceremony venue, officiant, etc.
• Expenses: All of our costs-to-date. I also have an excel sheet going, but it is nice to be able to add little on-the-go costs so I don’t forget about them!
• Gifts: At some point this section will include gifts received, thank you notes sent, etc. but for now it has a list of ideas for bridesmaid gifts!
• Food/Cake: Caterer info, a list of bakeries from Brian’s mom, an anything else related to eating!
• Decor: Empty for now, but figure I’ll have stuff to add in here soon.
• Honeymoon: We’re still fairly set on Costa Rica, so right now I have some sticky notes with hotel possibilities in different regions of the country.
• Misc: Always a good tab to have! I figure if it isn’t captured above, this is where it will go! Right now it has a copy of our save the date, business card and info on our hotel room block, and ideas for our invite. 

After his little makeover, here’s how Mr. Malden is looking:

An organized wedding planner, how novel! And look, he still even snaps shut!

I was a bit worried about how full the poor thing would be after this addition, but we’re a day in and it’s feeling pretty good. Hopefully I’ll stay a bit more organized, or at least be able to find everything a bit faster now!

On a side note, some of you may notice another new addition from the photo above- a pencil! I have never used the pen loop in my Malden; at first it was just because I carry a small pen case around with me. Now that I use the Franklin Covey inserts, having a pen in the loop would smash the tabs and drive me insane. But there have been a few times where I run a quick errand with my binder and then realize I have no pen to write with. So, I picked up a cheap little pen loop at Staples and voila- problem solved!

I love having the addition of a pencil to my binder, especially since I left the beloved FriXion pens for the more archival friendly Pilot V5s. It has been really nice to write something in temporarily, and then either erase it or rewrite it in permanent ink. Just another little thing to make organizing easier!

Hopefully my little wedding section addition proves to be exactly what I needed. I feel like I’m staying on top of everything, but it is still nice to have a dedicated section for all things wedding instead of just sticking items in wherever they fit. You know I’ll keep you updated as to how it’s working out!

Pssst- I know these photos are terrible! They were taken in my crappy apartment lighting with my crappy phone. But I knew if I didn’t take them when I did, I would never get it done! Hopefully I can add some more photos of the wedding section as it starts filling up!