5 Top Tools to Give Your Wedding Planning The Edge

You’ve barely had time to catch your breath from the big proposal, and now it’s time to start planning the wedding! We know you are probably already busy and can use all the help you can get, so we’re here with five tools to give your wedding planning ‘The Edge’.
1. WedPics
Wedding Photo App available on iTunes and GooglePlay, WedPics is a fun and easy way for the wedding party and guests to share their photos and videos in a personalised album. Enter the unique Wedding ID, take photos, apply custom filters and upload instantly to the wedding album!
WedPics lets you capture unlimited photos taken by all your wedding guests and gives you the ability to download your wedding photos in full resolution. It serves as your wedding website, allowing you to share events, accommodations, and wedding registries. You can order wedding prints and have them delivered straight to your door. It even allows guests with regular digital cameras to upload directly to WedPics and provides easy sharing to Facebook and Twitter. Create albums for different wedding events like your engagement party, wedding shower, rehearsal dinner and honeymoon or whatever you like. It’s the modern answer to those old disposable cameras of yester-weddings.
2. WeddingHappy – Wedding Planner
WeddingHappy is only available on iTunes, but it’s a great app for planning every detail of your big day, especially if you have an already busy life.
This easy interface starts with the basics, like your anticipated wedding date. From there, it will help you build a customized schedule and to do list with suggested completion dates. You can change the tasks and dates or go with their recommendations. The wedding day countdown feature will help you count down those days until your event.
The app even includes payment tracking to help you manage when payments are due and which ones have been paid. This integrates nicely with the spending summary, allowing you to keep an eye on your budget by showing you how much is left and calculating a current cost per guest. The vendor management is completely integrated with contacts integration to allow for easy contact from the app. It will even associate your tasks with specific vendors, so you can quickly check on the date of your dress fitting or call the bakery about your cake.
Some of the other great features include:
* Look for wedding professionals and contact them directly from the app.
* Add tasks to the built in calendar and automatically adjusts them if your wedding date changes.
* Set up notifications for when tasks and payments are due.
* Email tasks to yourself or others.
* Includes a dashboard review of your overall progress.
* Doesn’t require constant network connection, works perfectly fine offline.
* Share your wedding planning progress to Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook.
Never miss a beat with this app. It will keep you right on track.

3. Google Keep
Available on GooglePlay or in your Chrome Browser, Google Keep allows you to capture inspiration when it strikes! Keep is simply the quickest way to offload ideas, thoughts, and to-dos without losing focus. Use it for your wedding and you’ll not stop, letting it continue to help you with your day to day needs long after your big day has passed.
Here are some of the great features it offers:
* Create notes and lists, set time and place reminders, and check off your completed tasks.
* Add a collaborator to your notes and lists, then get things done together.
* Add photos and drawings, or just draw on your photos.
* Dictate your thoughts, Keep will transcribe them for you.
* Search notes by automatically created topics.
* Group notes together with #labels.
* Color notes for easy scanability.
* Access your notes on any device. synced automatically to your phone, tablet, watch, and laptop via the Google Keep website, or Chrome app.
* Use “Ok Google” voice commands to “take a note” or “add to to-do list”.

4. Guest List Management
PerfectTablePlan was first released in 2005. Since then, it has been used to seat millions of guests at weddings everywhere. Available for both Windows and Mac, it is quick to download and install. After the initial download, no internet connection is required for it to work.
While there is a free trial that you can use for as long as you like, you won’t be able to save, print or export plans with more than 30 guests until you purchase the full program. Luckily, several plans are available to suit your needs and the price is very budget friendly.

Here are some more reasons to give this tool a try:
* Easier and faster than scraps of paper or Excel.
* Manage guest details, RSVPs, meal choices and preferences.
* Flexible licensing. Install on more than one PC/Mac.
* Use for any number of events from a small wedding reception to a 4000+ seat banquet.
* Experiment with table shapes and sizes.
* Try it for free or purchase a suitable plan for a one-time fee.
* Work offline. No Internet connection required.
* Print elegant floor plans, seating charts, place/escort cards and other stationery.
* Assign seats automatically or by drag and drop.
* Technical support by email included in the price.
* Handle inevitable last minute changes without stress.

5. Browse Pinterest for Ideas
Pinterest is full of great ideas from across the globe. It’s quick to set up an account and free to browse millions of ideas on planning, dresses, hairstyles or honeymoon destinations. No matter what kind of day you are planning, you are bound to find something you like shared on Pinterest.
Share boards with other brides or check out various vendors pins. There is no end to what you can find on Pinterest to spark your imagination or flesh out an idea you haven’t quite worked out.
While you’re there, don’t forget to follow the board for North-West Brides, chocked full of the best ideas for all your wedding needs. You’ll also find plenty of links to our helpful articles on everything you need to know to plan the wedding you have always dreamed about.
By Amy Naves, Excalibur Press

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