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How to Buy Wedding
Planning Software
Written by Kim Roberts, Wedding Magic
Efficiently managing the tasks that need to be done for a wedding is essential for the
overall success of the event. Turning your dream wedding into reality requires
organizational skills and a lot of time. Fortunately, now there is a tool available that
can help simplify the process and save time, wedding planning software for your PC.
There are several wedding planning software programs available on the market today. Most
of the programs help you organize everything from your engagement announcement to your
honeymoon plans. The decision to use a software program to help you plan your wedding may
be the best decision you could make.
Before shopping for a wedding planning software program, you should first identify the key
features that you feel will benefit you the most. Everyone buys a planning program for a
different reason - creating a budget, maintaining your guest list, printing envelopes or
tracking gifts - so as you evaluate programs, it is important to ensure that it will do
everything you need.
All wedding planning software programs cover the same basic features, but there are
differences in how the information is entered. User interface and program design are two
of the most important criteria to consider. A program should mimic the steps that are
typically used to plan a wedding and should be organized as such. As you look at the
software or the screens, visualize in your mind walking through the entire process and
make sure that the steps and the flow make sense.
Planning a wedding involves two main processes: tracking your guests and selecting
vendors. The process of tracking your guests includes creating a master guest list,
inviting the guests to the appropriate parties, tracking RSVPs for the parties and
tracking the gifts received at each party. The process of selecting a vendor includes
creating a budget, entering vendor estimates, comparing vendor estimates, and selecting a
vendor that meets your needs and your budget.
When entering guest information, you need to track the following information: main guest
(title, formal first name and casual first name), the spouse/guest of the main guest,
children of guest, who invited the guest and the role of the guest. One feature that only
some of the programs offer is the ability to track family members individually. This is
important if you want to be able to invite the wife to a shower as Jane Doe, instead of
Mrs. John Doe. Most packages allow you to print either envelopes or labels from your guest
list. This will save you hours in completing invitation lists for the calligrapher or in
personally addressing your envelopes.
After creating your master guest list, you then decide to which parties each guest should
be invited. Some programs have you select from a fixed list of parties as you enter each
guest. Other programs allow you to add your own parties (as many as you need) and then
select from your master guest list the guests that are invited to each party.
All programs allow you to track RSVPs. It is important to be able to track the RSVPs for
each party, not just for the ceremony and reception. Some offer the added benefit of being
able to track guest arrival information, accommodations and departure information.
Keeping track of gifts and thank you notes is another feature of wedding planning software
programs. You should be able to enter a description of each gift, the date received, the
store from which they purchased the gift, whether or not the gift needs to be returned and
if a thank you has been sent. Keeping track of your gifts and thank you notes is an
enormous, but very important part of your wedding. Software can make this extremely easy.
Whether your wedding is large or small, setting a budget and sticking to it can be the
hardest thing to do when planning a wedding. Wedding expenses will add up quickly, so it
makes sense to determine what you are willing to pay for the services you want. Wedding
planning software programs help you setup your budget and track expenses. Some programs
offer worksheets to assist you in setting up your budget which can be extremely useful if
you have never done this before and don't know what to expect. You should look for a
program that offers more than just a spreadsheet that you have to fill in. In addition,
you should be able to track tax and gratuity, otherwise you may be in for a surprise
later.
Once you have determined your budget and started calling on vendors, wedding planning
software can help you keep track of your vendors and perform comparisons to assist in the
vendor selection process. The program should allow you to enter the estimates and
important payment information for each vendor that you evaluate and compare the estimates
side by side next to your budget to determine which one meets your needs and budget.
Other features to look for in a wedding planning software program are: checklists,
schedules, newspaper announcements, table assignments for parties, music selections and
wedding planning tips.
Finally, probably the most important test of any software package is the reports. If you
spend months entering data into a computer, you should make sure that you can get reports
of the information, in a format that you can use. If you need the software to print
envelopes, labels or an address list for the calligrapher, review copies of these items
before you select a program to use. If these things are important to you, be sure to look
for the ability to: print inner envelopes, print individual guest names (wife separately
from the husband), children, labels, multiple line addresses, complete state names (not
just two letter abbreviations), and international addresses.
Regardless of the size or style of your wedding, there is a software program available to
help. It is important to shop for a wedding planning software program that best suits your
needs because not all programs offer all of the features discussed. Wedding planning
software programs range between $30.00 and $74.00. Most packages are available through
mail order, so allow at least a couple weeks for delivery. Good Luck |
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