US meets UK

“I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?”

“I think you can in Europe?”

What a timely and accurate movie quote for my life (can you name the film?!).  While in England, I was mostly “whelmed” I had contacted all our vendors (except for alterations and MUAs), sent inspiration pictures and generally felt on top of things. We were focused on the visa, after all what more was there to do?

Turns out, the answer to that is “LOTS”, or “MANY” or even “SEVERAL”.  I’m admittedly not the best decision maker, and it takes me a while to decided, undecided, redecide and repeat that pattern a few times.  Which is why 3 months out, I’ve gone from “whelmed” to overwhelmed. Suddenly, I need to figure out where we’re getting cakes for the cake buffet from, send out the US invites, redecide on centerpieces, figure out hair and make up, find shoes for BMs, design DIY paper and other craft projects…the list goes on and on.

So, what to do when you’re feeling overwhelmed?

Find your friend Excel (or google docs).

Make your columns weeks (ex. 6/14-6/20) and your rows categories (ex. Catering, DIY, Ceremony, etc). All the way to the left after the last week of your columns create a goals column.  An example of a goal would be, mail invitations by 6/15, create seating chart by 8/16, etc.  Then go back, and fill in what you’d need to do to make those things happen.  So, all our RSVP’s are due by 7/27, I have the deadline on the chart, as well as the task of harassing people for missing RSVPS, and the goal to have all outstanding RSVP’s by 8/9.  This way I have an accurate headcount to work on the seating chart.

For the invitations? create bows on 6/10, assemble 6/11, print/address 6/12 and 6/13.  These all went in the same square on the chart though, because they all need to occur within the same week.

I took a few screenshots so you could see snipets, but it’s a bit hard to understand the scope of it on a computer screen.

So I made an absurdly sized poster of it, because this way I can see the plan in it’s entirety and it isn’t hidden away in a file within my wedding folder.

These are a few of the goals.

By planning backwards I’ve thought through each step and what will need to occur in order to achieve the goal.  I also highlighted (in yellow) the places where people could help Mr.D and I and we wouldn’t have to face a project alone.  I then sent this to my parent’s and bridal party so we could all be on the same page and I think it’s really helped everyone to know what is coming and what they can help with.

My father now knows when deposits or payments are due, my crafty BM’s know when I’ll ask for their help and I even included appointments in case anyone wants to or is free to come along to a fitting. I also have no excuse to procrastinate – I literally have a giant poster looming over me!

I’ve shared my 3 month timeline with you, you’ll just need to change the dates/categories to suit your needs.  Remember to start with your goals, and work backwards!

How do you stay organized?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 1:02 pm and is filed under DIY, Wedding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.