The Wedding Day Timeline

We have a long weekend here in Canada so I have a plan to knock out a lot of wedding related tasks over the three day weekend.  We have less than 60 days left to go, so there is no time for fooling around!

My big task last night was tackling our wedding day timeline.  I started with the Wedding Day Planner in Google Docs which was a great template.  I took out the things that didn’t pertain to us and put in my own times for when flowers are to arrive or when vendors have access to our site.  I also tried to think about the photos we wanted to have done, how long did I think they would take, and when in the day should we schedule them?

The biggest glitch I had was figuring out how the reception should be structured.  We go straight from the ceremony to cocktail hour and then straight inside the Brock House for the reception.  Do we have a few toasts before dinner or do we get started on eating right away?

Who toasts?  The Best Man, our Maid of Honour….do our fathers toast?  And since Mr. Gazelle’s parents are divorced Father-in-Law Gazelle can’t really speak for Mr. Gazelle’s mom so then what?

So then we are done with dinner and toasts…when do we cut the cake and do our first dance?  FYI, dancing is in the same room as the buffet so I don’t think we can do our dance before dinner which I know is popular right now.  And do you know that if you Google “when to cut the wedding cake” the majority of your results will be “how to cut the wedding cake”?  No worries, I’m sure Mr. Gazelle and I can figure out how to cut the cake!

Do you have any tips on toasts, particularly with divorced parents?  Or suggestions on when we should cut the cake in relation to our first dance?  How did you come up with a wedding day timeline?

The Wedding Binder

My girls were telling me that I needed a wedding planning binder.  Really?  I am all about keeping things digital as opposed to hard copies.  With so many wedding planning websites to choose from I was feeling a bit sceptical about needing a binder but I figured I should probably check them out anyway.  After all, one might be useful for compiling contracts and other bits and pieces along the way.

On a Sunday morning I popped into Chapters, our Canadian big book store, to scope out the selection.  The binders were pricey and there were a whole lot of things that seemed superfluous to our wedding.  I decided my best option would be to make my own so off to Staples I went.     

I picked a purple binder and printed off my inspiration board for the front cover.  Open it up and there is a pencil case in front.Inside?  I have pens (black, red and purple), white out, tape flags and some paper samples for some of the paper products I’m going to use.Next up?  The to do list!  I’ve checked a few different ones out, but so far I like the task list on The Knot the best.After that I have a bunch of different tabs:

• The venue: I have our contract, a booklet of steps to take now that we’ve booked the venue, the receipt for our deposit and other bits of pieces.
• The photographer: I have our signed contract and a price list.  I haven’t talked about our photographers yet, but trust me, they are AMAZING!
• The travel: I have our reservations for our trips out to Vancouver for our wedding planning, plus anything related to travel arrangements that have been made around our wedding.
• Receipts: Here I’m keeping all the receipts for any wedding related purchases that have been made.

I definitely feel like this is more useful since I can customize it and add to it as needed.  Did it wind up being more cost effective than the pre-built binders I saw at Chapters?  Hard to say since I then picked up this awesome purple Fast In Flight Bag from Lululemon to tote it around in!Just kidding, I promise I didn’t buy the bag just to haul my binder around…

Do you have a wedding planning binder?  Am I missing anything from mine that I haven’t thought of yet?