Found something else!

So I was trying to create my own timeline for the months leading up to my wedding. Why? Well, my ideas are all over the place! Now of course, as they say, let's not reinvent the wheel. But I'm trying to make something custom to me and the flow of my wedding planning.

It's like that cliche "You can know a lot about alittle, or a little about alot, but you can't know a lot about everything." It's true, spread yourself too thin and try to have everything mastered and completed all at once and you will surely go into burnout mode. Not to mention you might miss new ideas and concepts that you might see over the next 12 months or so.

Anyway, I found that Wedding Wire has a WYSIWYG (wiz-ee-wig, a.k.a. what you see is what you get) drag and drop timeline creator. Pretty neat becuase you can enter your own timeline tasks and appointments and they can be custom to your needs. Like if your friend is doing your makeup in your "ready room" but you have to get your hair done at a salon appointment, you can customize your beauty appointments and it will make more sense to you when you read it later and see that your hair appointment is at 10am and your makeup isn't getting done until 2:30pm or whatever. It's not so cookie cutter. You are free to be your own control freak!

Downside? Well, if you don't happen to be a list writer, or have 45 wedding books around to remind you of timeline tasks and when things should get done (Thanks, Kristin!), you might get overwhelmed trying to create your own timeline. In addition, if you have never seen a wedding timeline before, you might put too much or (most likely) too little information and you may not be able to organize yourself without some sort of guide, be it wedding planner/coordinator, book, Internet, previously married friend, etc.

Most wedding books give you a general overview of when things should be thought about, planned for, and then completed. But think about a Destination wedding (DW for short) for a moment. When you have a DW, you then have to consider everyone you invite. And then you have to consider your destination. If you are getting married stateside (in the US), sure it's fairly easy to modify a few timeline tips to get the job done smoothly. But what about an international destination? Take Mexico for example. As of June 1st, passports are required for ALL Mexico destinations. Are the passport offices backed up? Is it high season for passports? And when is the best time to book flights for Mexico? So how can your guests be properly prepared for this? If you don't keep tabs on some of these things yourself, your guest might end up paying rush fees, higher airfares, elevated hotel fees, and more just because they really want to share in your joy.

So this would certainly require you seriously considering a website to inform your guests, you keeping tabs on airfare every so often, booking your hotel block early and getting a clear cutoff date for the special rate from the hotel, keeping tabs on passport office cutoff dates, and sending your invites out more than 2 months before your wedding date. ALL affects and is affected by your timeline.

So be organized, and think clearly how all areas of your wedding have to work together for you and your guests.

And try out the Wedding Wire tools. They're pretty organized it seems and easy to use!