Aisle Planner: How a Wedding Planner Stays Organized
Today I want to share all about my favorite tool that I use in my wedding planning business: a wedding planning software called Aisle Planner! This all-in-one resource helps keep myself and my clients organized all while streamlining the behind the scenes of my business. PLUS they have their own wedding blog! Let’s deep dive into the three main components of this wedding planning software that I use in my business.
The Aisle Guide
wedding planning software turned blog
The Aisle Guide is really the only larger, mainstream wedding blog that I send my clients to. This isn’t technically part of the wedding planning software, but it’s an amazing resource. Their tips are logical, amazing, and are truly focused on helping couples navigate the wedding planning process. Other wedding blogs mainly care about clickable titles. I also love and recommend signing up for the the newsletter for The Aisle magazine. The blog is broken up into four sections: inspiration, gallery, tips, and find a pro
Inspiration & Gallery
The inspiration section allows couples to browse through real weddings and styled shoots to find ideas for their weddings. You can look through full galleries, read about the event, and see all of the vendors who were involved in making a beautiful day.
The gallery tool is amazing! You can search for images created by vendors in your specific area. You can even filter by specific types of images, wedding decor, colors, and more. This is great for when you’re looking for inspiration that matches your general color palette and vibe. The Aisle is still growing, so it might not have the most robust gallery of images in certain areas, such as Kansas City.
Tips
The tips section is truly a gold mine! This is where all of their blog posts/articles live, and the quality of the information is top notch. Browse by topic to find articles from their editorial team and wedding industry experts and vendors. There is so. much. information. I highly recommend taking a look around and bookmarking any articles you think may be helpful! (PS: the entire blog is searchable, so you can also search for keywords to find exactly what you need!)
Find a Pro
This is The Aisle Guide’s directory tool, where you can find wedding vendors in your area. However, their directory is still growing in areas like Kansas City, but it can still be useful to find wedding planners. Check out my listing!
The Backend and Business Tools
Next up is the side of the wedding planning software that couples don’t have direct access to, but it helps organize and streamline so much of my business. I’m able to keep track of all of my leads, send brochures and questionnaires easily, send and manage contracts, and handle all of my invoicing. All of your information is held and processed in one system, making it super easy for you! My couples also use their invoice functionality to make payments directly to Philosofi Celebrations via credit card or bank account. No need to fuss with signing CC authorizations in person or paying by check if you don’t want to!
The Wedding Planning Software (aka How I Plan Your Wedding)
Aisle Planner’s Project tab is really the meat and potatoes of this amazing wedding planning software. This is what my couples engage with throughout their planning process. It has everything I need to plan and execute beautiful weddings alongside my couples and their vendor teams.
Checklist
This holds alllll of the to-do list items surrounding your wedding. I’ve developed my planning checklists to be super comprehensive, but it’s also super easy to get rid of to-dos that don’t apply to your wedding or to add in any that may not be included. In addition, they’re automatically sorted by the months tasks should be completed (and can also be sorted by category). I can even assign due dates as needed! Tasks can be assigned to specific people, which will send notifications as due dates approach. PLUS we can comment on specific checklist items to stay organized.
Calendar
The calendar automatically includes any checklist items that have a due date and payment reminders for your vendors. On top of that, you can add in any wedding-related events, from vendor meetings to showers and bach parties. You can also synch it with other calendar apps (I use Google Calendar). I love how customizable this wedding planning software is!
Timeline
This is where your wedding weekend timeline will live! It is one area of the wedding planning software that I actually don’t give my clients access to. Because my timelines are very long and very comprehensive, it can be super overwhelming to see as a couple. Instead of giving you direct access, I use questionnaires and planning meetings, along with communication from your vendor team, to create your full timeline. What you, as the client, see is a much more condensed, simplified version of the end product. In addition, this document gets edited several times and the final version will be sent to your vendor team so that everyone knows when they need to be where throughout the day.
Design Studio
Here you’ll be able to create style guides and color palettes for every aspect of your wedding. You can upload photos for individual categories like cake, hair and makeup, or florals, or you can simply create a general mood board. Lastly, I will include design proposals and final design selections within the design studio for my clients who add premium design to their planning package. Shoutout to a wedding planning software that actually cares about aesthetics!
Guests + Layouts & Seating
These are two tools within Aisle Planner that are constantly communicating with each other. The guest functionality allows you to keep track of your wedding guests and their addresses, plus you can track RSVPs, meal selections, and more. We love a smart, well-integrated wedding planning software!! You can even have different guest lists for engagement parties, showers, brunches, etc. With the layouts & seating tool, you can create layouts and floor plans for your event and assign seats and/or tables for all of your guests. This tool is absolutely critical for your event, and I love how seamlessly it all integrates.
Contacts
The contacts tool allows you to keep all of your vendor information in one place, including payment schedules (this integrates with the budget tool), contact information, vendor meals, and more. You can upload files directly to their contact, and I always make sure that contracts get loaded into this section.
Budget
This is pretty self explanatory! The budget template I have created is based on rough percentages, but category percentage and amounts can shift as much or as little as you would like. So you have a clear idea of what you’re spending, how much you’ve already spent, and how much you still owe, the budget is broken down into estimate, actual, difference, paid, and due. Invoices can be added directly into the budget, and due dates for the week and for the month will appear on the budget every time you check it.
Notes
The notes section is super flexible (and self explanatory) and can really be used however you like. I use it on my end to keep track of our meeting notes and will occasionally upload fillable worksheets for you to complete within the wedding planning software.
Other fun wedding planning tools
In addition to all of that goodness, Aisle Planner has a wedding website functionality, but most of my couples opt to use an external website. If you just want a simple wedding website without the distraction of bells and whistles, just let me know and I can turn the functionality on for you!
Another amazing function of Aisle Planner is being able to sort by category. If we’re sitting down for a meeting with your florist, I can easily pull up everything related to the florals within the wedding planning software, including checklist items, style guides, and notes. I use this function all of the time, and it’s super convenient!
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