Today we’re thrilled to announce the launch of some great new wedding planning tools.  We’ve made the new tools, including a wedding checklist, wedding budget, and personal wedding vendor list, just as easy to use as our great wedding websites.  The new tools are extremely powerful, and we’re confident that they’re the best out there.

A wedding checklist is at the center of the new wedding planning tools.  We’ll get you started with common tasks, but you can easily add, edit, and remove tasks to fit your own planning.  You can also assign tasks to categories, occasions, and owners and then filter those tasks so that you can focus on what needs to be done.  Tasks can also have dates and times associated with them, meaning your task list doubles as an appointment calendar.  Your  checklist tasks can also be linked to vendors or budget items so it’s easy to see how everything is related.

Our wedding budget tool is just as innovative.  It makes categorizing budget items easy.  The wedding budget tool allows you to track estimated and actual costs, and when you provide us with a target budget we can give you some estimates on how much certain things might cost based on industry averages.  Having experienced this with our own weddings, we also realized that tracking payments is just as important as tracking your budget.  A budget allows you to see how much you are spending on different parts of your wedding, but payments allow you to keep track of what money is due when, and how it is getting paid.  For example, many vendors will require a deposit up front, and then the remainder at some point in the future.  With the payments integrated into our wedding budget, managing these is a breeze.

We’ve also made big updates to our wedding vendor area.  With tens of thousands of wedding vendors to choose from, you’re sure to find the right vendors for your special event.  To make it easier, we now let you search and sort vendors by various criteria, such as number of reviews, average rating, alphabetically, etc.   This means you will spend less time searching, and more time comparing the ones you are interested in.  We also let you save vendors, and give them personal notes and ratings.  For example, if you like a vendor you can save them to your personal list and write a note explaining why you liked them.  If they aren’t available then you can make a note of that and not worry about forgetting that.  You can also write down any quotes or pricing they gave you so at a quick glance you can easily see and compare all of the vendors you are considering.

You’ll notice we’ve also made some changes to our site navigation and the ‘My Account’ page in this launch. To start planning for any event go to the ‘My Account’ page and click on the ‘Start Planning’ link in the top right corner of the event.

As always, we’d love to hear how we can improve these tools - so let us know what you want to see!

Happy planning!

The MomentVille Team

You are about to start on one of the most exciting journeys of your life. If you have just started planning your wedding, it can be difficult to know where to start planning. Before you get overwhelmed, here are some steps to take:

1. Pick Your Date - Start by picking the season you would like to be married. Then narrow it down to a few select dates.
2. Set Your Budget – Look at how much you have and can save by your estimated date. Avoid going into debt for your wedding.
3. Estimate Your Guest Count – Before talking to vendors, it is good to know your approximate guest count.
4. Pick Your Venue – Narrow down your venue list to those that can handle your guest count, is in your budget and is available on your date.
5. Book a Photographer – Most of the good photographers book very quickly. It is advised that you start talking to photographers as soon as you know the date.

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Events by Elaine is a hands on wedding coordinator for budget minded and DIY brides.   Elaine is based near Nashville, Tennessee.  However, she travels around the country helping brides on their special day.

Events by Elaine offers lower rates that all brides can afford. www.eventsbyelaine.homestead.com

Why would I need someone else on wedding day?

These questions come up frequently when speaking with Brides and Grooms who are starting their planning process. Having an on site coordinator at your venue is a huge asset. They have a ton of knowledge of the facility and what works best there. They have seen tons of weddings done many different ways in the same space, some probably more successful then others. They may know tricks and have ideas of how to make the space work, that someone new coming in may not have. There is some overlap to what a wedding coordinator and on site coordinator do. This is wonderful, and how it should be! You want as many professionals working with you on your wedding day as possible.

Wedding Coordinators generally love working with on site coordinators. They have the knowledge of what works best for their space, staff, and with their restrictions. Great on site coordinators are a pleasure to work with.

An onsite coordinator sounds wonderful, and you are still wondering what does a Wedding Coordinator do above and beyond this? Well, the on site coordinator is just one small piece of the wedding. What a wedding coordinator does is work with ALL your vendors to execute your wedding day flawlessly and exactly as you would like. They are there from the start of the planning process or several months prior until the sweet end of your wedding day! They work with every aspect of your wedding day not just the location. They set the timeline for all the day’s events as well as work out logistics for what you want on your wedding day. They ask key questions to figure out how it is all going to come together to make your wedding day a success. They know what time hair and make up is happening, and what room you are staying in and share this with the photographer and makeup artist. They help determine how you and the bridal party and family are getting to the ceremony and then to reception. They help establish the time your photographs start and who is supposed to be where at what time. They know how many tables are supposed to be for cocktail hour, dinner, and dancing. They know your first dance, father/daughter dance, and any other important dance song. They help facilitate who is taking your present home for you, and so much more!

Wedding coordinators also make sure ALL your vendors are on the same page. They ALL understand how the day’s events are to go and what your vision for the day is. Coordinators help each vendor be successful in their role, because they have been shown the big picture, and are only required to do their specific job and not coordinate other aspects. Meaning, your caterer can perfect the food without having to leave the kitchen to check in to see if the event is still on time. Your photographer can capture all the intimate moments going on with you, your groom and guests, instead of searching for the a missing family member who is supposed to be in the next shot. This list could go on and on.

A coordinator makes sure that ALL your vendors are going by the same timeline and have any updates they may need about the flow of the day. Often with out a coordinator as the point of contact all your vendors have separate timelines that may not match up; your DJ has his, your on site has theirs, and the photographer has their own, the cake baker doesn’t know when to set up, the florist doesn’t know what time to deliver the flowers, etc. With a coordinator they all go by the same one that includes any details they could need. The making of this timeline can be somewhat of collaboration of all your vendors. The coordinator can ask for the vendors input ahead of time to make sure they’re successful with the timeline provided. If the wedding gets behind, which can happen, the coordinator makes changes and updates all you vendors and get everyone back on track!

The coordinator is the ONLY go to person for ALL your vendors on and leading your wedding day. They have answered all the emails and fielded all the questions from vendors and family for the last several weeks. They know every detail maybe more than you, the bride. They generally have had the most contact with you and all the vendors leading up to the wedding. They know the role each vendor is playing on wedding day; the on site coordinator at both the ceremony and reception site, your photographer, videographer, officiant, band leader, DJ, ceremony musicians, florist, cake baker, shuttle and limo driver, hotel where your guest are staying, rental companies, and any other vendor you are working with.

Lastly, if something was to go wrong, a coordinator is there with a solution. They have probably seen it before throughout their experience. It’s their job to make sure that all your vendors stay on target with what you want to create the day of your dreams. A coordinator plays a huge role in the success of a wedding. They always protect your best interests and make sure that family, friends and of course the bride and groom truly enjoy themselves. With the right coordinator you can relax, be the bride, and cherish the best day of your life!

Happy planning

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Authored by  Wendi Hroncich - Owner of Ethereal Events

Ethereal Events is an Event Planning company located in Seattle Washington, focusing on weddings and special events

We’ve had a big influx of really top notch wedding vendors coming into our recently launched wedding vendor directory.  So we thought to ourselves - how can we use this wealth of really great wedding vendor experience to help our wedding website users plan their own weddings?

One of the ideas that came up was to run a guest blogger series, where our wedding vendors would share their wedding planning tips.  So that’s what’s we’re announcing today on our blog.  

Stayed tuned in the coming months for some really great wedding planning ideas and advice from an experienced and knowledgeable collection of wedding vendors.  You should see the first post in the next few days.