Copyright 2006 Richard Keir
Wedding planning isn't an easy task. A wedding is an incredibly
complicated undertaking - unless you plan to elope or just go
downtown to the justice of the peace. For a relatively large,
traditional wedding there are many activities and events that
you'll need to track to keep the wedding on schedule.
Now there are people who actually choose to become experts in
wedding planning. That's what they do - day after day. While
hiring someone to help you with your wedding can be the perfect
solution, it's not always feasible. A professional wedding
planner may charge as much as 10% of the cost of the wedding.
For many couples this extra charge is quite sufficient for them
to take over their wedding planning themselves. Now there is
plenty of software available that can help make this decision a
smart one.
In looking at wedding planning software, one feature you
definitely want is a calendar. Remember that this is not just a
function for keeping track of dates. Your planning software
should allow you to set notifications for important events.
Wedding planning software usually uses E-mail reminders. And if
your mobile telephone has a text-messaging feature, the ability
to receive e-mail reminders on your cell phone is a great
benefit.
Since wedding planning includes a significant number of tasks,
being able to coordinate these tasks is essential in a wedding
planning software program. After sending out your wedding
invitations, you should be able to easily track who has
responded and who hasn't.
Also your tasks aren't limited to your wedding ceremony. There
are also specific tasks that are associated with the wedding
reception which you also must track. Since a seating plan is the
norm for a wedding reception, your wedding planning software
should help you track the seating arrangements. Also think about
gifts. No doubt, you'll receive many gifts from friends and
family. Tracking those gifts so you can send a thank you card is
a very handy feature.
Along with scheduling and tracking, wedding planning involves
money and budgeting. You really don't need anything as
complicated as QuickBooks or PeachTree, but you do want to be
able to monitor your spending so that you don't end up broke
before the ceremony.
Another advantage of some wedding planning software is that it
allows you to create custom stationary to use for your wedding.
This can be a useful overall plus because it can save you a
bundle of money. A software program with this feature will
usually contain templates that you can use as a guide for
creating invitations and any other stationary you might need for
your wedding.
The best way to look for wedding planning software is to do a
search on Google. You'll find a variety of options from free
online services to low priced online to dedicated software that
runs on your PC such as Smart Wedding. You must compare features
carefully - free is not always best, so be careful and do some
thinking about just what you need and just what you want to do
with the software. No matter which wedding planning solution you
choose, it'll make your wedding a lot easier.
About the author:
Richard is a writer and educator with a background in clinical
psychology, MIS and IT, and more experience with marriage than
he really wants to talk about. You can visit Elena's Completely
Weddings at
http://Completely-Weddings.com for on weddings and
wedding planning.
