Our Top 6 Wedding Day Organizational Tips – How To Be Organized on Your Big Day

Are you a Type A bride getting married soon and in need of a few organizational tips for your big day?

Well, you came to the right spot! We know that when the wedding day comes around, things will be a little chaotic, but that’s what you’ve hired the CJM team for! To help you be as organized as possible on your wedding day, which will then allow us to do our job to the best of our abilities, we’ve gathered a few of our many wedding day organizational tips and are sharing them with you so that you can get ahead of the game to help ease your stress levels! 

1. Hire a wedding coordinator!

Obviously, this is our first choice! I could go on and on about all of the amazing benefits you get from having a wedding coordinator on your big day, but the biggest benefit is having someone to take all of that stress off of you! With a wedding coordinator, you’ll have someone that is running your show behind the scenes so that everything is executed perfectly and exactly how you want it – all you have to do is show up and marry the one you love! At CJM, we also provide a color-coordinated, hard copy of your timeline to all of your vendors the week before your wedding, as well as to your entire wedding party at your rehearsal so everyone can reference where you’re at the whole time (and where they should be, too!)

2. Plan out your breakfast and lunch meals for the day

Something that goes under the radar many times when thinking about the timeline of your big day is when you are supposed to eat! In the beautiful chaos of all things wedding, there are minute-by-minute things that you’re doing all day long, so it is normal to forget to eat until dinner! Planning out your breakfast and lunch meals in advance allows it to be worked into your schedule, and that way you’re all fed, you have energy, but most importantly: no one is hangry!

This can range between so many different things, like eating before you come to the venue, having a designated person to pick up food for everyone, ordering Jimmy John’s sandwiches for delivery to the venue, placing a Panera catering order in advance, and so on! Either way, our team has it built into our timelines to make sure we know what the couple and their prospective tribes will be eating for breakfast and lunch that day, how many people they will need to serve, who will be responsible for placing the order, and who will be responsible for picking up the order. When it comes to making sure you eat on your wedding day, we don’t mess around!

3. Pick a designated “personal belongings” person

This is a person that you trust to hold onto and be in charge of all of your personal belongings throughout the day! When someone else takes over remembering where all of your things are, it takes stress off of your plate that you might not even know is there! This can even be a person that you want to have take home some of your things if you don’t know where everything might end up. That way, if you get to the end of the night and think about where all of your things are (like your phone and your wallet), at least you’ll know who has them!

4. Have all of your details in a separate (and labeled) box for your photo/video team!

This is a personal favorite that helps everyone without even knowing it! When your photographer and videographer get to the venue, they will want to get shots of all of the “details” of your day, so having everything put together in one place makes it very easy to be able to get all of it done quicker and more efficiently! Your details box can include things like the full invitation suite (including envelopes, stamps, ribbon, etc.), both wedding rings, ring box, shoes, bride’s jewelry and/or accessories, groom’s jewelry and/or accessories, any family heirlooms, and more!

5. Try to keep your getting ready space tidy

This one may be quite the challenge – believe me. When it comes to getting ready, there are so many different things being used and many different people all getting ready at the same time! However, when the photographer and videographer come in to capture all of the moments, the last thing you’d want to see when you’re looking back at the footage are random things all over the place (and in the background of your wedding photos and video), like clothes, water bottles, food wrappers, and so on!

Don’t worry, we also build this reminder into our timelines and will remind your wedding party at your rehearsal to please make sure they’re keeping the room tidy to avoid this issue!

6. Create & label decor bins

This is one of my personal favorites in order to keep all of the decor together. If you’re like me, everything has a place, and you want everything in its place! Making decor bins allows you to know exactly what there is, how many of each item there is, and where to put each item. If you really want to get organized, you can always put a little note or sheet in the bin that describes each piece of decor, how many of each piece of decor there should be, and where exactly you want it placed! The more organized you are, the more organized our team will be, which will result in your wedding day being the most organized it can be!

P.S – You could even set up the table decor beforehand and take a picture of it, then add that to the sheet so you’ll know in advance exactly how it will be set up! We only suggest this if there is a really specific way you want things displayed; otherwise, our team knows you trust us to make our best judgment to make everything look beautiful!

If you take our 6 organizational tips into consideration, we know you will be able to fully enjoy your big day!

You spend weeks, months, and maybe even years planning out every single detail down to the last napkin color, and your wedding day will fly right by when the time comes. Take every moment in as much as you can while it’s all happening, and enjoy your day with the ones you love! But before then, make sure you follow our 6 tips to ensure your day runs as smoothly as possible!

Photos by Kristen van Gilse Photography