Let’s be honest, organizing a wedding is not a piece of cake. There are so many things to be taken care of, and there’s the possibility of so many things going wrong as well. It’s hard to keep track of all of them, more so when you are running a wedding business where you are managing several weddings simultaneously.
This is where wedding planning software comes as a saving grace. Wedding planner software makes the process of wedding planning & management smooth and easy. You don’t necessarily have to hire a dedicated software development team to build a custom solution for you. There exist many decent software products in the market.
Below we will explain to you in detail how exactly such software can help you and how to find the right solution for your specific situation. But first, let’s start with the main elements of successful wedding planning.
Key Elements of Wedding Plan
Every wedding planning process includes the following major elements:
- Creating a guest list
- Sending invitations
- Arranging seats
- Meal planning and catering
- Entertainment
- Finance
Of course, there are a million other elements, and every wedding may be different. These are the just the main elements which every wedding follows. Let’s understand why each of them is important.
Creating a Guest List
Of course, every wedding has guests. Therefore, forming and managing a guest list is the basic element of the planning process. You need to create a list and add fields such as invitations sent, confirmed/not confirmed, commentaries, etc. As you send invitations and receive confirmations, you need to update the list.
Sending Invitations
Beautiful wedding invitations are a big part of the overall wedding experience. It’s important to ensure that every guest receives an invitation. Mail is not the only way to send them. Nowadays, email and social media have become new popular ways of sending wedding invitations.
Arranging Seats
Arranging seats is like building a puzzle. Knowing how to arrange guests is not always easy. Smart planning of seats is one of the keys for a great wedding.
Meal Planning and Catering
Creating menus tailored to all guests’ tastes and preferences is another big task. First, you have to create a detailed menu and do calculations to know how much food to purchase. Secondly, you have to do the actual buying and work with multiple vendors. You have to ensure that they deliver exactly what you ordered, in the right amounts, and at the right time.
Entertainment
No wedding can take place without entertainment. Singers, dancers, and other entertainers play an important role in every wedding. Creating an entertainment program and booking entertainers is something you’d better take care of in advance.
Finance
Every wedding has a budget. It’s your goal to fit everything you’ve planned into that budget. Smart financial management is key to a successful wedding organization. This requires setting priorities and doing thorough calculations. It’s also a good idea to have a reserve fund for unforeseen costs which you will most likely incur.
Alright, now let’s talk about why you need wedding planner software and what benefits you will obtain from using it.
How ChoosingA Professional Wedding Planner Software Can Help Your Wedding Business?
There are many benefits to using wedding planner software. Here are the most noteworthy ones:
- Less stress
- More effective management and planning
- Risk management
- Automation
- Better marketing and sales
- Better teamwork
In the end, wedding planner software can save you tons of time, money, and nerves if you use the right solution. Let’s analyze the benefits listed above in detail.
Less Stress
As we all know, preparations for a wedding are usually really stressful. When you have a million things to keep track of, you may often get lost and confused. The entire preparation process can turn into a real mess. But when you use the right tool which organizes all your tasks into a simple timeline, with reminders and breaks down, the work to be executed in specific areas things become much easier.
You don’t have to remember all the little details - the application will do it for you and remind you at the right time. Let’s be honest; we humans have a limited memory and thinking capacity. Our focus and time are limited as well. A computer’s memory and capabilities are much bigger though.
More Effective Management and Planning
The planning process will involve many calculations and decisions to be made. Wedding software can do all those for you and help you make better decisions, which will ultimately result in a better wedding experience. It can help you with smart seating arrangements, better management of the available budget, and many other things. Doing all the calculations and analysis on your own is way more complicated.
Risk Management
All weddings involve a certain degree of risk. Some guests may not come, there may be delays, guests may get lost and so forth. A million things may go wrong. Wedding software tools can help you with risk management by analyzing and preparing for those risks.
Automation
One of the key benefits of any software is automation. Wedding planning tools are no exception. They can automate many of the manual tasks such as sending emails, finances, sending invitations, invoices, payments, and many other tasks.
Better Marketing and Sales
With the right tools, you can prepare better proposals and plans for your clients. If you use VR visualization, you can present 3D models of venues and floorplans. Your clients will definitely be impressed by such level of detailing in the planning process and give you an edge over your competitors. Besides, this will help your clients make better purchase decisions.
Better Teamwork
This best wedding software product offers an array of functionality for collaboration. This helps you improve teamwork and make it more efficient and more straightforward. For example, you can share floorplans with your team members so that they can manually assign guests to their respective tables as and when they receive new confirmations. Collaboration features make the work process much faster and smoother.
Also, there are many free and open-source event registration software available in the market, which could help you take a proper count of guests attending the event.
That said, let’s analyze the key features your professional wedding planner and event software should have.
Must-have Features of a Wedding Planner Software features
The most popular solutions on the market offer a number of useful features. Here are the most common ones you should expect:
- Guestlist management
- Seating arrangements
- Catering management
- Timeline
- VR-venue visualization and planning
- Vendor management
- Tracking and reporting
- Email management
- Invoicing and payments
- Reminders and notifications
- Calendars and appointments
Let’s analyze each of these features in detail below :
Guest List Management
What is a wedding without guests? Guestlist management is perhaps the most important part of wedding planning software. It is somewhat similar to CRM (customer relationship management) systems. You can check who has already received an invitation, confirmed/disconfirmed, seated/not seated, add comments, and more. You should be able to upload guest lists from Google Sheets, Dropbox, Salesforce, etc. You should also be able to arrange guests into groups.
Seating Arrangement
Deciding how to arrange seats is a really a big deal. The most advanced wedding software solutions offer easy seating arrangement with visualization and interactive maps. Ideally, this feature should integrate with guest lists. It should also allow sharing and collaboration of layouts and seating arrangement plans as well as check-in for guests as they arrive.
Catering Management
Catering is another vital element of wedding management. Meal planning, assigning specific meals to tables and guests, ordering, invoices - all of these things become easier with the catering management feature. However, it should integrate with the previous two features: guest list management and seating arrangement.
Timeline
Without timelines, everything can become a mess. For this reason, creating clear and detailed timelines is important for getting things done. The wedding software you use should make creating timelines easy and simple without having to use Google Sheets or Docs.
VR-Venue Visualization and Planning
The most advanced solutions offer users a unique VR experience. They allow building and viewing VR models of floorplans. This means you can build detailed 3D models with tables, seats, and all the other details. Viewing VR models requires special goggles though.
Vendor Management
Undoubtedly, you will have to deal with multiple vendors which may create a real headache. It’s important to have detailed vendor information accessible every time. Budgeting and assigning purchases are also helpful. This feature should integrate with invoice management which we will discuss below.
Tracking and Reporting
Detailed analytics is also a part of any decent wedding software solution. This includes tracking and reporting of finances, number of guests, seats, and so forth. Analytics allows you to make better decisions and improve the management process.
Email Management
Undoubtedly, you will have a ton of emails. Without effective email management tools, it’s easy to get lost in them. The best solutions include email management, which makes it easy to sort and search emails and respond to them in time.
Invoicing and Payments
Finally, you will definitely have a lot of invoices so smooth payment management is vital. That’s why it’s perfect if the solution you’re going to use provides invoice and payment management. This feature should integrate with vendor management and tracking & reporting.
Reminders and Notifications
When you have a million tasks on your to-do list, it’s easy to forget about some of them. Notifications and reminders help you ensure you never forget a thing. Therefore, you want to be sure that the chosen solution has reminders and notifications (especially push notifications for its mobile app).
Calendars and Appointments
The preparation process involves meetings and appointments. Using a customized calendar helps to manage and plan them more easily. Appointment reminders also help not to miss a single meeting.
Having discussed the must-have features for wedding planner software, let’s talk about other important things you should look for in wedding software.
Additional Features of a Wedding Planner Software
Besides the features described above, you should also look for the following:
- Simplicity in use
- Fair pricing
- Mobile app
- Fast speed
- 24/7 support
Let’s break them down in detail as well.
Simplicity in Use
Obviously, the software you use must have an easy-to-use interface. You don’t want to waste time learning how to use it. You must be in a rush already anyway as the wedding date comes close.
Fair Pricing
You want to be sure that the value you’re getting from using the software equals or exceeds the price you pay for it. Some applications cost you way more than they are worth, while others charge very little in comparison to the value they provide. When you’re paying a couple of thousands of dollars a year for wedding software, finding cost-effective options is definitely a smart idea.
Mobile App
You want to have access to the application wherever you are even if you don’t have a desktop at hand. Therefore, every decent wedding software must have iOS and Android versions of its application. Mobile versions should provide the same functionality as the desktop one.
Fast Speed
Our analysis showed that some users complain about reduced speed. That’s something you definitely want to avoid. As with simplicity in use, the fast pace is crucial as every second count in wedding management.
24/7 Support
Another thing that many users complain about is poor customer support. You want to be sure that the software developer provides excellent 24/7 live support which is available on multiple platforms.
Some of the best wedding planning software has been listed on Goodfirms and they include Aisle Planner, WedPlanner Pro, AllSeated, iDo Software, Seating Arrangement and so on.
Conclusion
Planning weddings and running a wedding business is not easy. It’s a very stressful and challenging process. A wedding is usually a large event with several complicated tasks involved. For this reason, planning them is not easy.
There exist many professional wedding planning software solutions which simplify this task. They take care of and automate many essential tasks such as guest list management, catering, sending invitations, payments & invoices, seating arrangements, floorplans, and many other things. Whether you are planning your own wedding or running a wedding planning agency, using the right wedding software solution is sure to act as a saving grace.
Over to you now
Have you experimented with any of the wedding planning software? Go on and share your reviews here. Get $20 Amazon gift card on the approval of video review.
