Whether you've just started the process or are nearly ready to tie the knot, planning a wedding can feel like a huge, daunting task. With the right tools for planning and organising, you can start the process feeling like you have everything under control.
We’ve researched the top 5 wedding planning apps for brides and grooms, no matter how big or small their wedding day will be.
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Chances are, you have already heard of Pinterest and are likely to have used it yourself. Pinterest is our number 1 recommendation to all of our Brides and Grooms. It helps to build a complete picture of what you want from your wedding and enables you to create your own mini-mood board. It is also especially helpful if you're working with a wedding planner, as it really helps to communicate your vision for the day.
Pinterest can spark inspiration for your wedding that you never would have thought of, as it suggests search terms and shows images of new and unique ideas. Often, Pinterest can give you ideas that you would never have thought of before - but be careful, it's easy to get carried away!
Pinterest is also a great app if you’re considering multiple different themes or colour schemes. The app allows you to create multiple boards that are entirely different so that you can explore multiple themes before you make your final decisions.
Another way to use Pinterest is to create a different board for different aspects of your wedding such as wedding dress, wedding catering and wedding flowers (you can even create boards within boards, to narrow this down further!). By using the app in this way, you’ll have a mini-mood board for each aspect which should help you shortlist your favourite ideas.
Generating ideas on Pinterest is perfect for when you’re looking to book suppliers and you want to show examples of what you’re looking for. As wedding planners, we find this super-useful to understand a Bride and Groom's dream wedding and helping to refine their theme.
Top Table Planner
Planning your table layout can be super stressful. There’s a high chance you’ll find yourself crossing out names, shuffling people around and inevitably screwing up your paper and starting again.
Top Table Planner is a simple and straightforward piece of software that enables you to draft a table plan and easily edit and update it as things change. Whether you’re considering round, long or square tables, this app has it all, and will come in handy when you get to your table planning stage.
Once you’ve finalised your table plan, you’ll be able to export it as a PDF which you can then print or send to your wedding planner or venue.
The app has a free trial, but for 6 months access, it’s a one-off fee of £10 which is definitely worth all the stress it will save you (Trust us!)
Pantone Studio
Each year Pantone releases their colour of the year, which always had an impact on wedding colour trends. Pantone's app, Pantone Studio allows you to take a picture of anything, anywhere and the app will identify the exact colours.
Brides and Grooms often struggle with picking an exact colour palette- after all, it is one of the biggest decisions they’ll have to make and will have an impact on every other aspect of the wedding planning process. Pantone studio will help to identify the colours you love and simplify the process for you. The app will store up to 5 colours and allow you to see how they look together as a complete palette.
Once you’ve chosen your colours, it’s often easy to forget the exact shade of a colour when you’re out and it’s not right there in front of you. Pantone studio will be waiting on your phone for you to open the app and see the exact name and shade of each colour, so you won’t have multiple mismatching shades!
Trello
Trello is the perfect app for keeping on track of your planning. If you like a list, then this is the number 1 app for you - as wedding planners, we've used this for years!
Trello lets you create a board, to which you can add multiple lists. Create different cards within your lists and easily drag and drop them to keep on top of your wedding planning.
The app is great for keeping on top of your finances, as you can create a whole board centred around your budget, detailing deadlines for payments due and add labels for prioritising each aspect.
It’s also great for keeping everything in one place. You could create a supplier’s board and add in your photographer, caterer, dresses in separate lists and keep all of your communication and documents in one place. Being organised is key to keeping on top of your wedding planning, and not letting it overwhelm you.
Trello offers a free version of their app which is easy to use more than sufficient for your planning. You can even customise it with photo backgrounds to keep you inspired during those long planning sessions!
Zola
Zola is an amazing modern wedding planning app that takes all the stress away from organising your guests. The app has several functions, but its top 3 strengths are organising your registry (including honeymoon fund), building your wedding website and creating beautiful invites and paper.
Have you ever tried to put all of your wedding guests in an excel sheet and track each detail… we’ve seen it and it always causes huge stress and confusion! Our favourite thing about Zola is the ability to track and manage your guests. The app gives you somewhere to collect all your address, track your RSVPs, add plus ones and even record meal choices.
Zola will even address all your envelopes for free with their seamless guest list builder. Zola offers hundreds of beautiful and elegant designs to choose from. Each design comes as a suite so that you can be sure that your save the dates, invites, websites, ceremony programs, menus, places cards and even thank you match with your perfect theme.
We can’t get enough of Zola, and we’re pretty sure that once get started you won’t be able to either!
Wedding planning apps can relieve huge amounts of pressure when planning an event as important as your wedding day. As professional wedding planners, we can’t recommend the use of the right apps enough.
They can help to organise multiple aspects of a wedding and assist in you feeling on track and in control.
The best wedding planning apps are often free, or at least offer a free version/trial which is the great thing about it! If you find you don’t like that app you haven’t wasted any budget trying it out!
If the whole process seems a little overwhelming or you would simply like professional pair of hands feel free to get in touch! We would love to help.