Online Tools: EZWeddingPlanner

Since I have been introducing you to some great online resources recently, I thought I'd continue it this week.
See recent posts; My Wedding Websites, Wishpot Online Registry Service which are both free.

Today, another great and free resource.
I have recommended this site to all l the brides I work with at my venue.
As you know you can download a 'free wedding planner' at almost every wedding site on the internet. In my opinion these are a great starting point, yet hardly a planner. There are so many particulars that go into planning a wedding, it's almost insulting then you are given a 4 pages and wished good luck! These, my friends, are very very basic outlines.
EZ Wedding Planner however is all encompassing and is just fantastic. Kudos to the creators. Just take a look at all you can accomplish with this dynamic online service. There is no way I can describe their service better then they can. So from their site:

You have the perfect wedding in mind. But, with so many details to plan and track, how do you organize it all to pull it off easily and smoothly? EZ Wedding Planner can help! It's software you don't load onto your computer. It works from any browser, is password protected, secure and all your data is backed up daily. You always have the latest features and upgrades.

Budget: An easy place to calculate all of the costs contributing to your wedding. No need to overspend your budget. You can enter estimates, actuals, and what has been paid so far, along with who pays for each expense and comments on each expense. Are multiple people paying for different portions of your wedding? All expenses can be sorted by category (like floral, attire, music, etc.) and by who pays (family of bride, bride, family of groom, groom, etc.), for concise reports and easy budgeting.

Plan: A guide to help you keep track of all the must-do details, organized by due-dates, based on your wedding date. Don’t let important lead-times slip away, creating a time panic and/or booking conflicts. Over 100 items listed, plus the flexibility to add your own to-do’s and display all items or only those left undone. This feature alone is worth the whole package. You can get an instant look at what you have already accomplished and what still needs to be done and by when – from 15 months prior right up to the day of your wedding. You can also choose to receive emails of your planned items as they become due, so you won't forget anything. Plan items and dates can also be modified or deleted to fit your wedding. You can even see a month-at-a-time calendar displaying your items to do. Click on the yellow light bulb for great ideas and helpful hints about the Plan items. For example, Book organist and wedding soloists has lots of detail about ceremony music including over 400 suggested pieces.

People: After the Bride and Groom, the most important people at your wedding are your guests and attendants. Easily generate guest lists, track RSVP counts for wedding, reception and other planned events (like shower or groom’s dinner), and track gift lists and thank-you notes sent. Having a calligrapher address your invitations? Simply print out your invitation list with names and addresses and you’re ready to go. You can even enter birthdays, anniversaries, and other important information about your guests. Then view/print a report by date of these events, or choose to receive email x number of days before, so you will never forget to send those cards again. Your guest list is also automatically shown in the reception seating section, for taking one of the biggest headaches out of your reception planning. You can even specify if your guests smoke or not, for seating preferences.

Seating: The Seating feature simplifies one of the most complicated and tedious jobs a bride faces. Here you assign your reception guests to tables. You can select either to display the names of people who have rsvp'd yes, or to display the number in the party, regardless of if they have sent back an rsvp or not. You specify how many tables you will have, how many people can sit at each table, and the shape (round, rectangle, etc.) Table numbers will be assigned to each configuration. Then, you can "seat" each guest at a table. It's a snap to add or delete tables or to modify table data as well as moving guests to other tables, or off completely. You can even designate people as smokers (in their person profile) and a cigarette will show up after their name. So, you can easily group smokers vs non-smokers if you wish. Then, when it comes to making table cards, simply print your seating page and you will have all the names and associated table numbers in one handy list.

Vendors: All those people who help make your wedding so special will be kept in one handy place. Musicians, caterers, flowers, limo services, photographers and videographers, cake bakers, ministers, and anyone else of whom you want to keep track. Then on the day of your wedding, you will have a list of all of your important contacts, using the EZ Wedding Planner Vendor List. Did you have a wonderful experience working with your photographer? You can share your favorite vendors and venues with the other users of EZ Wedding Planner and look up vendors and venues from our master list.

Events: A convenient place to gather all of the details of those important locations (wedding, reception site, groom’s dinner, showers, or any other planned events.) Locations, dates, start/stop times, estimated and actual number of people attending, and notes for each event can be tracked. Have a bridal gown fitting at 4pm on the 22nd, meeting with a minister at 2pm on the 5th and then a hair appointment at 5:30pm on the 5th? Here’s a great way to organize these key events by scheduled times.

Options: This includes such items as allowing a change in the wedding date to automatically recalculate all of the Plan due-dates. You can choose to have email reminders sent to you reminding of plan and event items as well as guest birthday and anniversary dates. Your password to use EZ Wedding Planner can be changed here. The Wedding Day Timetable allows you to keep track of each scheduled event on the actual day of your wedding. Keep in one printable report details like when is your hair appointment, what time the photos begin, when the cake should be delivered, what time the reception hall is open for your guests, and a myriad of other details. Also, under options, you can assign a page where your guests can see details about your events, gift list, registries, bride and groom email addresses, your wedding day timetable and any personal notes you choose to tell them. You decide how much detail to show, assign them a password and specify if you want to be emailed with information of who looks at your guest page.

Lists: Printable worksheets for ease in organizing your wedding include: budgets by category and by who pays, including balances remaining. See your invitation lists alphabetical by name, sorted by address or by those who haven’t RSVP’d. Vendor lists with vital phone numbers and contacts, photography wish lists, event schedules and your wedding day timetables are included. You can list your registry preferences along with specific gift lists, both of which can be displayed on your guest page. Then track the thank you notes you have sent and those yet to be done. One of the items in the List category is the automated reception seating plan (or click on the SeatingList selections are an invaluable resource in wedding planning. icon). Here you can assign your guests to tables, of which you control the number, size and shape. Guests are easily moved around or deleted from tables. There is also a free-form notepad area to jot down anything you like. Overall, the

Gifts: Maintain a list of gifts needed and received along with details of patterns, sizes, colors, stores, models, etc. Select the gifts you would like from a large, categorized suggestion list containing hundreds of typical household needs in 25 categories. You can also specify at which stores you have registered.

Registry: This selection allows you to add and remove store names where you have registered. This list can be included on your guest page (selected under Options).

Advice: Over 50 major topics discussed, including advice on wedding invitations and programs, hair, music, flowers, caterers, reception details, seating, budget tips, and much more. Dozens of questions and answers are listed both on general wedding questions and on EZ Wedding Planner program operation. These questions have been emailed to us from brides all over the world who are using EZ Wedding Planner.

Log Out: This will drop your connection to your EZ Wedding Planner database. You will have to log back on to access and move around your EZ Wedding Planner data. This will ensure that anyone else using your computer will not be able to edit any of your data without first logging onto EZ Wedding Planner. If you are the only one using your computer, or this is not a concern to you, it is not necessary to log out.

EZ Wedding Planner!

I highly recommend using this tool!

More to come this week...

Happy planning!
~w.s.