Useful Wedding Planning Websites For Every Type Of Couple
There are a multitude of tools out there to help you plan your wedding, which is great, but which ones are more helpful than others? Wedding planning can be a complete minefield, and seeing as everyone has different views on organization, there’s no single universal tool for everyone when it comes to planning a wedding. First you should sit down and work out how you want to plan your wedding. Are you more of a super-organised type who loves spreadsheets and ironing out every little detail ahead of time? Or are you more laid back and prefer to take things as they come?
There are so many digital tools out there to help you plan your wedding, and some may be more beneficial to you than others. In this blog I have researched a huge amount of planning sites and determined which ones would be more helpful to you, depending on how you want to tackle your wedding planning. Whether you are super organised, chilled out, planning a DIY wedding or want someone else to do the planning for you, there is a tool for you!
Are You Super Organised?
Are you the type of person (like me) who wants to be in control of every detail from the get-go and loves a good spreadsheet? Then these websites may be useful to you. These sites will help you plan every aspect of your wedding, offering you tools such as spreadsheets, checklists and online guest lists, as well as directing you to pages that can offer you inspiration too.
Great Sites When Starting From Scratch
Wedding Wire- Wedding Wire has a huge database of wedding venues, vendors, reviews and more, and you can even narrow down your search to your local area too or set a maximum budget on your searches. It also comes with a whole host of checklists you can use online or print. It is available on both desktop and mobile.
Hitched- Hitched, just like Wedding Wire, offers a host of different venues and vendors, all categorised into different locations and budgets. If you sign up, you can save any favourites to a shortlist too. It also has planning tools, such as to-do lists, guest lists, seating planners and budget planners. It is available on both desktop and mobile.
Bridebook- Bridebook also offers the same features as Wedding Wire and Hitched. Alongside the planning tools and venue/vendor lists it also has an inspiration hub full of creative ideas, expert advice and examples of real weddings. It is available both on desktop and mobile.
The Knot- The Knot is yet another all-encompassing wedding planning site that offers inspiration, vendor and venue directories and planning tools. You can also host your own website through The Knot as well.
Great Sites For Spreadsheets and Checklists
Trello- Trello is the ultimate tool in online checklists and task sheets. It has a pin board where you can collect your ideas and pin your tasks into different categories (such as venues, florists, photographers, etc.) and saves you carrying a big notebook around for sure! It is available on both desktop and mobile.
A Practical Wedding- A Practical Wedding is a great site to visit if you are after some spreadsheet and checklist samples. You can organise all your guest and vendor information, create a budget list and they even have spreadsheets for your honeymoon packing. There are also downloadable day-of timelines for you to customise.
Wedding Ideas- Wedding Ideas have a whole load of free downloadable spreadsheets; you name it, they have a spreadsheet for it!
Great Sites For Budgeting And Money Planning
Money Saving Expert- If you need any advice on budgeting for a wedding, this is the website to go to. Though all wedding planning sites will have some form of budgeting advice and spreadsheets, Martin Lewis is, in many people’s opinion, THE go-to guy for any up-to-date advice on saving and managing money. He has a section on his site dedicated to wedding planning, which is really worth checking out regardless of your budget size.
Bride Magazine- Bride Mag Online has really useful tools to help you plan your wedding, including guest managers, seating charts, to-do lists and more. It has a particularly good budget planner though, which automatically fills in the average expected cost for each vendor (saving you having to do lots of research) to give you an idea of how much you could spend. It also lets you fill in the actual amount you spent, and whether you are currently under or over budget.
Microsoft Templates- Microsoft has many templates and checklists you can download for free, including templates for budgeting spreadsheets. They even have one dedicated to creating a wedding budget.
Nailing Those Finer Details
All Seated- All Seated is a fantastic virtual reality tool that enables you to visualise how to decorate your venue space and figure out where everything needs to go. You simply send a photo of your venue to All Seated and you will receive back a 3D render of the space, in which you can arrange different tables and vendors to your liking in order to properly visualise how your day will look. Once you’ve figured out where you want your tables to go, you can even manage your guest list, including RSVPs and even their meal types and use the information to create a seating chart. It is available on both desktop and mobile.
Postable- Postable is a great site for keeping track of all your guests addresses, and you can use it for sending out all your save the dates, invites and thank you cards in one go.
Are You Super Relaxed?
If you are the type of person who’s a bit more care-free and prefers to take everything as it comes, then the sites that help you go over every little detail may not be as beneficial. Instead it might be more helpful for you to look at sites that simply offer inspiration and you can take it from there; you may also benefit from sites that have wedding forums so you can discuss ideas with other brides too.
Great Sites For Inspiration
Pinterest- Pinterest is an all-time favourite for most couples who need a bit of inspiration for their wedding. Create different boards to pin your favourite photos to, to help you decide on both the over-all look of your wedding and the finer details too. It is available on both desktop and mobile.
Carats and Cake- Carats and Cake have a whole range of real weddings on their site, each one listing all of the vendors who helped make that wedding possible. So if you’ve ever seen a flower arch you love and wanted to know who made it, now you can! You can even book vendors through the site to make things even easier. It is available on desktop only.
Green Wedding Shoes- Green Wedding Shoes is a great site for inspiration. It is constantly updated with blog posts on the latest wedding trends and also has a section dedicated to real weddings. Definitely a site to look at for those unique wedding details.
Great Wedding Forums
Wedding Bee- Wedding Bee has a great forum for everything wedding related. If you are encountering any issues, you can be sure to find a solution here. The site also has a wedding planning blog for inspiration and a directory of wedding vendors too.
You And Your Wedding- This forum is great for both individuals and couples to express any concerns, ask questions, and get inspiration from others. The forum is split into different categories as well so it’s easy to search for particular discussions.
UK Bride- UK Bride is currently (at time of posting) the number one wedding forum on Google, boasting 800,000 members and counting. If you need any wedding advice, you can’t go wrong here!
Are You Planning ‘On The Go’?
If you are very busy and prefer to do everything on the go, or you prefer to have all your planning tools in one place, then utilising mobile apps may be the way to go.
For In-Depth Planning
Wedding Happy- Wedding Happy is a mobile app that covers all aspects of planning, including a tasks list, vendor lists, guest lists, budgeting and a countdown too. I used this app for all my planning, and set it up to notify me when I was due to complete a task or make a payment, which was very useful as it kept me on track the whole way through and it meant I never missed a payment instalment.
Bridebook- This app takes you right from the very beginning all the way through the planning process, giving you access to vendor and venue directories straight to your phone, as well as supplying you with a multitude of checklists.
Great Apps For Keeping Track Of Money
Mint- Mint is an online money tracking tool that can help you with your everyday budgeting as well as specific things like weddings. You can even sync it with your bank accounts so you can keep track of what you are spending and you can set it up to notify you when payments are due. It is available on both desktop and mobile apps.
Clarity Money- Clarity Money is a free app that allows you to link your bank accounts and keep track of all your expenses, income and outgoings, in order for you to be able to track how much you are spending and how much you can save. You can even track your credit score!
Mobile Guest Lists
Appy Couple- The Appy Couple app is perfect for sorting out your guest list and monitoring RSVPs and all the relevant guest information. You can even use it to send your invites and save the dates.
Snafflz- This app allows you to create your guest list (free for up to 100 people), keep track of all their information and even send out invites and receive RSVPs.
Wedding Inspiration Apps
Pantone- The ultimate guide to colour palettes. You can build you colour palette (up to 5 shades) to see which colours work well together and you can even get exact colour matches- for example, you could take a photo of your bridesmaid dresses and the app will tell you exactly what colour they are and what colours match with it. It is available as a free trial for a limited period.
Etsy- The online marketplace Etsy has a mobile app- great for getting some inspiration and doing some shopping on the go!
Still White- This app helps you find your dream wedding dress! Shop for new, used, pre-owned and sample gowns, or simply browse the selection for some inspiration.
Are You Planning A Budget Or DIY Wedding?
If you are on a budget or simply love the idea of having a ‘homemade’ wedding, then you could definitely benefit from sites that offer help in this regard, whether it be purely for inspiration or to help you purchase everything you need to get creative.
DIY Inspiration and Projects
Handmade Wedding Blog by Emmaline Bride- This blog is jam-packed full of DIY wedding inspiration. It also has a marketplace for handmade items too! Definitely worth checking out if you need some ideas.
Intimate Weddings- This site is perfect if your planning a more intimate, handmade wedding. Packed full of inspiration for DIY projects, it also features a venue list dedicated to smaller, local venues and vendors.
Budget Savvy Bride- This site is full of ideas on how to spend your money wisely and showing you where you can save. It also has a great section dedicated to DIY projects, from creating your own decor and stationary to making your own flowers.
Online Retailers
Hobbycraft- Hobbycraft has a wedding section that offers a huge amount of inspiration and materials for you to create your own DIY wedding projects.
The Range- Just like Hobbycraft, The Range also has a wedding section full of decor, floristry, stationary and more.
Tradesy- Tradesy is a fantastic site for buying designer items at low prices; perfect for those on a budget. Including new and pre-owned items, you can shop for anything from dresses and jewelry, to decor and stationary.
Wedding Buying And Selling Sites
Facebook Market Place- This should definitely be your first go-to if you are looking for any local second-hand wedding items. The Facebook Market Place is flooded with sellers who want to pass on their own DIY creations. There are also plenty of local wedding pages on Facebook for buying and selling wedding items; a quick Facebook search will no doubt come up with loads in your local area.
Bravo Bride- A great, authentic site for buying and selling second-hand wedding fashion and decor, that doesn’t take commission on most sales.
DIY Stationary
Minted- Minted is a site that has both ready-made designs for your stationary and also allows you to upload your own design to be printed. You can upload your homemade invite design and order it to be printed, or alternatively choose one of their ready-made designs and print it yourself. Minted also has tools to help you make an online wedding website and digital invites too. It is available on desktop only.
Vistaprint- If you want to design your own invites but don’t want to print them yourself, using Vistaprint (and many other similar websites) can be a very cost-effective way around this. You can choose from their own designs and customise them, or upload your own design to be printed. I used Vistaprint for my own wedding invites and created a suite of matching stationary including main invite, RSVP card, information cards and matching coloured envelopes. I then tied them all together with matching ribbon when they arrived. Simple, cost-effective and definitely have that homemade feel!
Canva- Canva, just like Vistaprint, also has hundreds of pre-made stationary designs that you can customise and the option to upload your own design to be printed. This site is recommended quite a lot by brides on wedding forums for it’s usability and cost-saving.
Are You Looking For Something Non-Traditional?
If you are bored of seeing the same thing over and over and want to plan a wedding that is a bit more ‘out the box’ then these could be some great sites for you to visit.
Inspiration For Alternative Weddings
OffBeat Bride- OffBeat Bride is great for inspiration that steers away from the traditional. Not only does this site have great ideas but it also has really interesting blog posts and articles
Whimsical Wonderland Weddings- This site offers great inspiration for alternative weddings, especially those that include boho elements and a fairytale aesthetic. It also has a section for real weddings so you can see these ideas come to life and hosts a vendor directory to match.
Unconventional Wedding- This website is an absolute must if you are going for a completely non-traditional wedding. It has a whole section dedicated to themed weddings (so your fantasy of having a star wars themed wedding could be a reality!) and has a whole host of unique ideas for alternative wedding fashion, venues and decor.
Useful Blog Posts For Non-Traditional Weddings
How To Plan A Non-Traditional Wedding by Something Turquoise- A really interesting read if you want to include some unique elements to your wedding without going over-board!
How To Plan An ‘Un-Wedding’ by We Can Be Heroes Wedding Photography- A very in-depth blog post by a really great photographer, exploring all the ways you can break away from the traditional to make your wedding truly about you as a couple.
Alternatives To Having A Traditional Wedding That Won’t Break The Bank by Money Crashers- This is a particularly useful article about hosting a non-traditional wedding with a focus on saving money in the process. This website in general is worth a visit as well if you want some money-saving advice!
Weirdest Themed Weddings That Actually Happened by Best Life- To be honest this blog post is a great read regardless of whether you want a themed wedding or not! But if you are thinking about planning a wedding that’s a bit more ‘out there’ then this could give you some inspiration!
Want Someone To Take The Reins For You?
Wedding planning can be stressful, and whilst some love it, there are equally those who dread the idea. If you are in the latter group then hiring a wedding planner could certainly help ease your stress. If you are conscious about saving money though, there are also a lot of sites and forums that offer emotional support during the planning process. Alternatively you can ask family and friends to help with parts of the planning too!
Wedding Planners
Wedding Planner- This site helps you find a wedding planner local to you, for as much or as little as you need them for your planning.
Bidvine Wedding Planning- At Bidvine, you answer a few questions and then they will match you with quotes from local planners who they believe will suit you best. You can then compare different quotes and choose the planner that is right for you.
Sharing The Load With Your Bridal Party
Weddington Way by Adrianna Papell- If you aren’t keen on having to organise all your bridesmaids together for a big shopping trip then this site might be great for you. It’s a great way of doing your dress shopping online with your bridesmaids without the stress of having to organise everything (which can be a right pain if you all live far apart!). You can browse loads of different styles, colours and prices as well as being able to comment and share ideas in the virtual showroom. So why not get everyone on a video chat and have a browse through all the designs together?
Simple Wedding Tasks For Family And Friends by One Fab Day- If you want help but don’t know where to start, this is definitely a good blog post to read as it offers suggestions for which tasks you could delegate to your friends and family.
Emotional Support
Emotionally Engaged- This website is run by counsellor Allison Moir-Smith, who offers help to any brides or grooms experiencing wedding anxiety or stress. She has also written a lot of blog posts on sites such as Bride.com.
Things To Help Your Mental Health During Wedding Planning by Nu Bride- A great read; this blog post goes through the different stresses of planning, frequent issues and anxieties most brides and grooms go through, and how to tackle them.
Ways To Make Sure You Enjoy Your Wedding Planning by Weddings Online- This blog post has lots of little tips and tricks to help you make the most out of your wedding planning, and most importantly have fun whilst your doing it!
Hopefully this has been useful for you regardless of what stage you’re at with planning! This list is by no means exclusive, and there are a great many tools out there at your disposal; these are simply the sites, apps and blog posts that I found personally helpful when I was planning my own wedding (lots of which were recommended to me by other brides too!). So go explore through them and see what works for you.
Happy Planning!
