In the past, wedding planning organization involved big binders and notebooks such as this large spiral-bound notebook and this planning binder. While I know that there is still a role for binders, notebooks, and expandable files in wedding planning (think of all the materials you take home from bridal fairs or vendor consultations), I think a significant portion of wedding planning now occurs online via wedding planning blogs and sites, spreadsheets, and Google Docs.

So short of printing everything out or amassing bookmarked favorites in your browser, how do you organize all the information you’ve obtained and sifted through electronically? Enter Evernote: your virtual accordion file, or your tabbed notebook, or your filing cabinet, or whichever other filing system you prefer.

Evernote basically allows you to collect pictures and text from anywhere on your computer and assign tags to the information so you can easily find it again later. The process is very straightforward and the applications are limitless!

1) Create a free account.

Start by creating your free Evernote account.

2) Download Evernote.

Download and install the appropriate Evernote client for your computer or handheld device of choice. Note that you don’t have to download or install anything if you want to do all your work online via the Evernote site.

3) Install the Evernote Webclipper.

Don’t forget to download the Evernote Web Clipper so you can easily “clip” anything you see in your web browser and “paste” it into your Evernote notebook.

4) Capture ideas and inspiration.

Start capturing everything you’d like to add it via the “+ New Note” button in Evernote. You can copy and paste text you’re reading, highlight and “clip” text and images from websites via the Web Clipper, grab a screenshot, attach pdf’s or other files, or upload photos from your camera. (Note that the free version of Evernote allows 40mb of uploads per month, which is extremely generous if you’re clipping mostly text and web-sized images. If you’re scanning and attaching large pdf files, you may want to consider an upgrade to a premium Evernote account.)

5) Organize ideas and inspiration.

Organize your information by assigning tags to everything you’ve uploaded. For wedding planning purposes, I’d recommend starting with something like the following list of tags:

• ceremony
• reception
• budgeting
• photography
• florist
• catering
• wedding gown
• bridesmaids dresses
• accessories
• gifts
• traditions
• scheduling

You can make your list of tags as exhaustive or as minimalist as you like. The important thing is that you have enough tags that you’re able to instantly make sense of, and find, any information you’ve clipped into your notebook. If you were using a binder, the tags would be the names assigned to each of your binder dividers.

6) Plan Your Wedding.

And that’s pretty much it. Now you can refer to anything you’re looking for by searching for keywords in your text, titles, or tags. Evernote automatically syncs your desktop or handheld device client with your account whenever you’re online so everything is also backed up online in your Evernote account. Check out the Evernote video library to learn more about how to use Evernote to organize your wedding planning – and all your other personal projects.

Image credit: the image in this post is from the Evernote site.

Originally posted on the Jocelyn Chi Photography blog:

Style Me Pretty has teamed up with Google to offer planning tips within a set of 20 wedding planning templates so now while you’re setting up a form to automate collection of addresses for your guest list, you can read about guest list planning tips from Style Me Pretty! You can read more about it as well as their giveaway on their blog over here. See the wedding planning templates from Google Docs here.

Recently, I ran across this article form the New York Times about how members of Washington have been using these new, gorgeous online invitations for several parties.

The company that makes these invitations is the Paperless Post, and their online invites distinguish themselves from Evite and other social invitation tools by recreating the look of beautiful, custom stationary online. So not only do you still get to design and experience the perfect invitation for your event, you’re also able to do so in a very environmentally conscious and economical way!

Okay, so maybe you’re thinking that you’d still rather have traditional invitations that you can mail off, hold in your hands, and save for posterity. Well, you can still incorporate online invitations into your wedding planning! For example, you could use them for engagement parties, bridal showers, and even the rehearsal dinner!