How to Plan a Wedding While Working Full Time

Hello everyone! In my last post, I shared how I was going to be prioritizing my health now that our wedding is over. This week, I’m sharing how I managed to juggle wedding planning while working full time. Having a full-time job and planning a wedding took a lot of work, but it all came together in the end!

I work in a huge company’s legal department, and my husband is a litigator at a mid-sized law firm. Needless to say, we’re both VERY familiar with the long hours that come with being lawyers. We also have two dogs, an apartment to clean, and all of life’s other responsibilities. Adding in planning a wedding was no small feat. We had been engaged since early 2020, but we were hesitant to plan much since there was so much uncertainty about the pandemic. We didn’t start really getting into wedding planning until right around this time last year, which was about 8 months before the wedding. Not my best idea, but we managed to pull off a beautiful wedding anyway! Here’s how we did it…

Planning Timelines and Checklists

I’m a sucker for a good check list. There are a ton out there that list out all the things a couple should do and when to do them. I personally used the list included with Wedding Wire‘s app to stay on top of things with our wedding (more on that in a minute). We felt confident we didn’t forget anything since all the major tasks were on the list. It also helped to break the gargantuan task of “plan the wedding” into smaller things like “order invitations.” Focusing on one thing at a time made things much less stressful.

Putting those tasks into a timeline also helped to make sure we didn’t wait to do something until it was too late. At the beginning of each month, I’d look at what I needed to do that month and divvy up the tasks by week. That allowed me to focus on just one or two things per week and still feel like I was on top of everything. If there was something major coming up, such as booking a major vendor, I’d break it into smaller tasks throughout the week, such as researching vendors, filling out inquiries, meeting with people, and making a final decision. If we got behind on anything, our weekend date night couldn’t happen until we checked the item off the list. Having a checklist and timeline helped make sure we got everything planned and didn’t fall behind.

Planning Apps and Digital Storage Drives

Apps and digital storage drives are both great tools to keep you organized. They help keep all your important info in one place and can even help you with other tasks like budgeting or making seating charts. Some people swear by having a physical planner or binder system, but I preferred using a digital medium. I could access it on the go, it wouldn’t be accidentally thrown out or eaten by the dog, and it allowed me to copy and paste information back and forth.

The Wedding Wire app allowed us to house our vendor information, guest list, guest contact info, seating chart, website link, and budget tool all in one place. I loved being able to easily copy and paste addresses when we ordered envelopes for our save-the dates and invitations. I was also able to download our vendor contact sheet and send that off to our coordinator in about 5 minutes. Since we also did our wedding website through Wedding Wire and had an online RSVP option, we were able to track guests’ meal choices through the app too. Using tools like Google Drive to house contracts, a guest list, and any other important information is another great way to keep things handy and easily shareable. Digital tools were a huge time saver for us!

Share The Responsibility

You and your partner are BOTH getting married! You’ll feel way less overwhelmed if you split the tasks with your partner. Think about what parts of the wedding you’re each most excited about and try to assign tasks based on each of your interests. If your partner is looking forward to getting down on the dance floor, let them be in charge of finding a DJ and putting together a list of songs you both want to hear. If floral and décor is your forte, take over on the hunt for a great florist. You’ll be way more engaged by doing something you’re excited about. Try to evenly assign tasks that neither of you are particularly stoked about. You have to get those tasks done one way or another (even if it’s not the most fun). You’ll be back to doing enjoyable things before you know it!

Planning Lunches

Designating my lunch time as wedding planning time was another helpful way to tackle wedding planning. A lot of vendors only had time during the day to meet or go over details. On the days I needed to speak with vendors, I’d plan on taking my lunch during that time so I wasn’t wedding planning on company time but was still able to go over things. Having “planning lunches” also helped me to compartmentalize wedding planning so I could focus on my work during the day. I knew I had a chunk of time where I could allow myself to think about wedding things, so time outside of that window had to be dedicated to getting work done. I was less stressed knowing I had some flexibility.

Worry & Idea List

As much as I’d love to say I was 100% able to focus on work, sometimes inspiration struck during the day, or I’d think of something I forgot. Rather than dropping what I was doing, I wrote the idea or concern on a list I kept at my desk. After work, I could go home and handle whatever it was that I had written down. This helped to make sure that I didn’t forget something, but it also kept me from being unproductive and having to work later as a result. This is a great strategy when you have wedding planning on your mind all the time, but it’s also a great tool for anyone who has trouble focusing.

All-Inclusive Venues and Combo Vendors

One of the best things we did when planning our wedding was to book an all-inclusive reception venue.

The space itself was gorgeous: on the 14th and 15th floors of a downtown high-rise with two-story floor-to-ceiling windows that gave a 270-degree view of the city. It also had a patio space with fire pits and a helicopter pad that we got to take pictures on. Catering, alcohol, bartending, tables, chairs, linens, plates, and silverware were all provided too! The venue also had an arrangement with a bakery, so our wedding cake was included as well. We essentially booked a caterer, bar services, rentals, and our cake all by booking our reception venue.

Not only did that save us the stress and time of having to book all of those services (during the post-COVID wedding boom nonetheless), but it saved us a ton of money as well. The price of everything included was a lot more than a venue where you just get the space (a.k.a. a “blank-slate” venue), but once you factor in travel costs for multiple vendors, taxes, fees, parking, and setup and tear down costs, our all-inclusive venue was the more cost-effective choice. We also didn’t have to worry about multiple vendors getting lost or arriving late either.

We did this with our vendors too. The company we contacted for month-of coordination also did floral and décor. We booked a company that did both photography and videography. Being able to check off multiple items from our list was a huge time-saver. Usually being able to bundle different services into a single package will save you money too

The Wedding Bag

Despite my best efforts to keep all our wedding planning digital, I still found myself with lots of papers, folders, and pamphlets. A tote bag my boss had given me for Christmas inadvertently became our designated “wedding bag.” At first, it was just the landing place for all the paperwork we received from our church. Then we started keeping all the affidavits, certificates, our marriage license, and other documents we needed to give back to the church in the bag too. It eventually just became a convenient place to keep any physical thing we had related to the wedding. We didn’t have to hunt things down in multiple places since everything was in one bag.

It became an actual life saver on our wedding day: we realized we had forgotten our marriage license and had to have someone run back to our apartment to get it. I’d imagine it was way easier to find the navy blue tote bag than having to rifle through drawers, folders, and files to find a piece of paper.

Wedding Planner

Finally, if you really find yourself unable to find the time to plan, you can hire a wedding planner to take over. These are professionals who know your vision, are familiar with the vendors in the area, and are able to put together your day on your behalf. Another option is a month-of or day-of coordinator. Booking a coordinator allows you to find your venue, pick your vendors, and come up with your own ideas, but the coordinator will take over either the month of your wedding or the day of the wedding to ensure everyone is on the same page and the day runs smoothly.

My initial plan was to book a day-of coordinator just so I wouldn’t be the one who had to field phone calls that morning, I wouldn’t have to organize everything and everyone when I was trying to focus on getting married, and so I’d be able to enjoy our reception. The company we found offered month-of coordination in the package we were interested in, so that was what we decided. I loved planning and organizing the wedding, but being able to hand off everything during the month of the wedding was a HUGE relief. They put together our timeline, handled all the finalizing calls with our vendors, and ran the show on the big day. It was a great way to cut down on my stress levels and save myself some time.

Planning a wedding while working a demanding job can be daunting, but it is definitely possible! What tips do you have for couples trying to plan their weddings?

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