TOGETHER JOURNAL X AN ORGANISED LIFE Wedding Planner

With physical gatherings and weddings currently off the menu, for now, there really is no better time to be plan, plan, planning that wedding! We thought we would take this opportunity to help the couples who have had to postpone their wedding or those who are newly engaged to plan the perfect future wedding. Using our Together Journal X An Organised Life wedding planner of course…

For over a year, our very own Together Journal editor Greta Kenyon and An Organised Life founder Beck Wadworth bought their combined skills together to design and develop the most innovative, modern and relevant wedding planner for the modern couple. Both successful entrepreneurs, neither Greta nor Beck do things by halves, and the perfectionist pair considered every last detail in creating this ultimate planning guide. The TJ X AOL Wedding Planner was released in July last year and has quickly become known as the wedding planning tool you simply cannot do without.

What better way to use this ‘wedding down time’ than to tell you a little bit more about our planner as well as share some tips and tricks to help you plan your own best possible wedding for what the timing is right.

The result of the passionate TJ X AOL collaboration effort is a stylish compendium featuring timings, checklists and tips galore. Visually pleasing yet highly practical, it stays true to both brands’ covetable looks, while its 14 sections provide everything you need to arrange your day with less stress, not forgetting the occasions before and after. And unlike other wedding planners on the global market, this one is suitable for a diverse audience and all types of couples and unions.

There are functional tabs, title pages for each section, gold spiral binding, black end pages and a neat little back pocket. And the planner comes boxed in a signature An Organised Life stationary box to protect it while you are on your planning rounds.

As mentioned there are 14 sections and we would like to cover a few of the sections in this post with more to be continued.

At the beginning of the planner, you will find a blank ‘Our Story’ page where you can note down how you met, how you become engaged and anything else specific fro you. The planner is so beautiful that most people keep it as a memento to look back on. So what better way to start than with the story of how you met and fell in love. Imagine reading over these notes each wedding anniversary to remind yourselves how special your own unique story is.

Following on from this you will find adaptable and multiple calendar months that you can use to forward plan and book in all those special and unique lead-in dates, reminders and meetings. And so you know how to structure your own personal planning calender we have included checklist guides for what you need to do in the months leading up to the wedding. Eight pages of written guides full of tips from couples and wedding experts to be exact, seriously we have thought of EVERYTHING. But of course, you don’t have to use everything, we wanted to make you aware of all the possibilities, it’s up to you what you take from the guide and how you adapt and apply it to suit your very own dream wedding. And then we have ample space and a format for you to create your very own personalised checklists with tickable boxes.

Then it all starts with YOUR dream plan. In this area you can sketch, create colour palettes, stick in fabrics, momentos, social notes. What ever YOU like.

Budgets & Finances:

Beck and Greta are both creatives, but they believe business and planning is just as important as the creating, and that is why we start off with the budget section. This really is the foundation of your plan and will ensure you stay on track and are spending money in areas that are most important to you. We give you tips on how to allocate your budget, advice on what to obtain from vendors and neatly designed budget sheets so you can put everything together in an easy to understand and effective format. We realise that this will likely be the first tie you have planned a wedding, so the aim is to make the process as seamless and stress-free as possible while ensuring nothing gets left out. Surprises that cause budget blowouts down the track or close to the wedding date are surprises no one wants to have!

Guest Lists:

Then it’s on to creating your guest list. This really is one of the hardest tasks of planning a wedding and that is why we have spent so much time collecting advice and tips for you. There is a whole page dedicated to tips on how to put a guest list together at the start of this section. We spoke to so many couples and experts in the industry like; wedding planners, event managers, venue operators, caterers and more. And both Beck and Greta have worked in large and small scale events management in the past and had a lot of knowledge to impart, not only in this section but in others too. We even give you an invite checklist as well as areas to record RSVP information, dietary requirements, notes, tables and gift information for when you need send thank you cards after the event. And of course, there are also numerous blank pages at the end of this section for when you need to do your seating plans once all of your RSVP’s are in. You can sketch them onto the pages directly or attach sheets into the planner. Because the planner is ring-bound it can easily expand in width to accomodate extra sheets and add-ins.

Choosing your venue or location:

Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who already know exactly where you are having your ceremony and reception, perhaps it’s at a family home or a place which is dear to you. But even if you already know where you will marry there are still many important things you will need to consider and check-off.

Within the planner, we give you all sorts of tips relating to locations and venues. So many things are often overlooked like permits, rubbish removal, back up generators, where the sunsets for photos etc. Often logistical things that are not overly exciting to think about but could turn into major problems if they are not confirmed and dealt with early on in your planning. Again you get a whole page of tips and tricks within this section that you need to think about when deciding on your venue or location.

And this is only just the tip of the iceberg! The sections we have covered off today have so much more within, and we have only covered the first four sections. There are ten sections to go! This planner will change your planning process dramatically and allow you to relax and enjoy the process knowing that nothing will be forgotten. Next week we will cover more section of the planner.

You can purchase the planner here in black or ecru with a complimentary copy of Together Journal issue 19 as well as An Organised Life notebook and pen while stocks last.

Planner imagery by Greta Kenyon, Ana Galloway and portrait is by Ana Sunday-Tanedo