15 Must-Have Tools For A Stress-Free Wedding This Year

Weddings are stressful to plan at the best of times. Sorting through your guest list, picking the venue, and creating a menu is complicated; completing these tasks won’t scratch off a quarter of your checklist. So it’s easy to see why couples feel overwhelmed.

However, if you give yourself at least ten months to prepare, you can tackle your to-do list slowly and plan your dream wedding in a few easy steps. But with the help of wedding tools and software, you can stay organized, content, and stress-free before and during the wedding day.

Here are 15 wedding software and tools that help you effortlessly plan your wedding.

All-In-One Wedding Planner

The following tools and software on this list can be integrated to form one giant wedding planning software, but you may have to use different dashboards to complete tasks. This can get confusing quickly, mainly if you employ five or more tools or have a large wedding.

Instead of swapping between tools, consider combining them with an all-in-one wedding and event planning software perfect for solo planners, event planners, and project managers.

Budget Planning Software

The hardest part about planning a wedding is staying within a reasonable budget. Unfortunately, couples often underestimate how much a wedding product or service may cost, especially when you make each purchase separately. That’s why you should research your costs before leaping.

Budget planning software will allow you to customize your budget, delete expenses, monitor your costs, notify you when payments are due, and give you a breakdown of what you’ve spent. You can also set notifications that warn you if you’re close to going over your wedding budget.

Wedding Checklist Tools

Couples may not know where to start when planning their wedding, which makes sense considering they’re often a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Pre-filled wedding checklists will come in handy at every planning stage, regardless if your big day is a year or a month away. 

If you have certain traditions you wish to add to your wedding, research these planning steps individually, as your wedding planner may not be knowledgeable about your rites or customs.

Project Planning Software

Project planning software helps individuals track tasks, projects, and schedules, but they’re often more suitable for business projects. That doesn’t mean they aren’t helpful for weddings, as you could use them to collaborate with photographers, decorators, caterers, and makeup artists.

Some high-quality tools will combine checklists, calendars, and communication tools. If they don’t, project planning software can often integrate with other software, thanks to Zapier. However, remember that project planning software is more suitable for larger weddings or complex projects.

Itinerary/Route Planning Tools

Your friends and family members are likely arriving from different cities, states, or countries so they won’t know their way around the area. Route planning and itinerary tools, like Google Maps, can track your guest’s GPS signal and populate the best route based on their location.

Even if your entire wedding party is staying in the same hotel, they may still need directions to the venue or restaurants or use them to discover cultural landmarks or entertainment.

Wedding Calendar Software

If both couples work full-time, have a family to look after, or are generally busy, a calendar tool can help them make sense of the wedding planning process. With digital calendar tools, you can colour-code events, block off time, and stop being late or missing appointments. 

Although you can make physical planners work for you, digital calendars can coordinate with your phone app and desktop. This ensures you can share your plans, appointments, and schedule with your guests and keeps your scheduling information consistent across platforms.

File Sharing and Collab Tools

Most people aren’t aware of how dangerous it can be to share documents over email. Hackers can easily steal your data while in transit and read unencrypted files. So if any of your private info is stored on your wedding documents, use a file-sharing or collaboration tool instead.

File sharing and collaboration tools give you access to a secure channel that encrypts your documents. Plus, they’ll set up firewalls and anti-virus protection to stop hackers in their tracks.

Document Management

Document management software can handle everything from contracts to eSignatures to lead tracking, which can benefit solo planners. You need to sign many contracts when hiring people for your wedding, and you’ll need to keep these documents in one place.

Document management software can store, track, and manage contracts securely. It can also notify you if someone changes your documents without your permission. If that does happen, the software can serve as proof as to why you had to nullify the contract.

Task Management Software

Task management software is similar to project management software, but task management tools are for individuals, while project management tools are for entire teams. While you can’t coordinate with your wedding team, you can accomplish tasks quicker and easier.

If you’re planning you’re small ceremony, task management software can track vital tasks for your wedding or monitor individual functions that lead up to a wedding-specific job.

Event and Seating Layout Tools

Once you’ve chosen your venue, you can use event and seating layout software to create a series of charts that show where your guests, rental company, and caterer will go. You can sync your charts to your group chat or other planning tools to ensure everyone’s on the same page.

If you cannot see our venue in person before your big day, you can use this tool to create mock-ups of the required decor. Be sure to include unchangeable elements, like walkways, stages, dance floors, and walls, as the decorator may not account for them when setting up the venue.

Attendee and Check-In Tools

Couples are usually too busy to do a headcount before the ceremony, which makes attendee and check-in tools ideal for your big day. When combined with itinerary, RSVP, and GPS software, couples will know when their guests and hired wedding staff arrive at the venue, 

Most check-in tools include a chat function that you can use in real-time. Or, you can pre-load directions into the system if you can’t call them or walk out of the venue to meet them.

RSVP and Ticketing Software

Sometimes RSVPs get lost in the mail, or a member of your wedding party will change their minds. While these scenarios can be frustrating for the couple, RSVP and ticketing software can remove barriers for your wedding party, who may cancel their invite without prior warning.

RSVP and ticketing software also directly benefits the couples, as they’ll know exactly how many people will attend the wedding instantly. In addition, this gives them more time to plan their budget, add or remove seats, and adjust how much-catered food they’ll need for the race they’ll

Communication/Messaging Tools

As stated, most wedding software will come with a messaging or communication tool that gives you access to your entire wedding party in real-time. But on the off-chance that this feature is lacking, you can use other communication or messaging apps to help plan the wedding.

Some of the best tools are typically used for business. For example, Slack is a collaboration tool often utilized by project teams because it’s easy to use and can connect to many other devices.

Wedding Website Builders

It may seem bizarre to create a website for your wedding, but a wedding website can serve as a hub for all the essential information you need to communicate before your big day. You can also take this opportunity to write bios about your wedding party or post your engagement photos.

Creating a website from scratch isn’t as hard as it looks. Plenty of website builders come with templates, drag-and-drop features, and tutorials that simplify the process. You could also hire a website designer for a few hours if you don’t have time to set up a site.

Bulk Hotel Booking Software

If your wedding is out of town or your family travels to see your big day, you’ll need bulk hotel bo-you’ll use software that can block entire floors. This makes it easier for guests to visit each other’s rooms and collaboother’s events. Plus, you’ll earn your guests you’ll points.

Bulk hotel booking software will take your wedding date, location, and desired price point into account when finding the best hotel for your needs, saving you a lot of time and money.

FAQ – Wedding Software and Tools

What is the easiest way to plan a wedding from start to finish?

You can easily plan a wedding from start to finish if you hire a wedding planner or use wedding tools and software. While wedding planners will do most of the work for you, wedding tools and software can give you complete control over the planning process. Or, you can use both options.

How much do wedding planners cost in comparison to wedding software and tools?

Wedding planners can cost 10% to 15% of your total wedding budget, with the average wedding planner costing $1,700. An all-in-one planning software can cost $50 a month, up to $600 a year. These costs don’t include time spent donating to your wedding.

How long does it take to plan your wedding using software and tools?

Couples who aren’t working with a wedding planner could plan the average wedding in 6 to 8 months. It could take 10 to 18 months without tools or a wedding planner. On the other hand, if couples are 100% cooperative with their wedding planner, they could plan a wedding in as little as 2 to 4 months.

How do you choose the right wedding software and tools?

When looking at wedding software and tools, examine their features and how often you need to use them. For example, if you can use Facebook Messaging to speak to your wedding party, you won’t need a separate communication tool to collaborate or plan.