I decided to make a new page about weddings! I thought I would try and help those bride-to-be’s out there with some of those bumps in the road they will most likely come across when planning their weddings. I will try and update and often as I can with examples from my 15 months of planning and some helpful templates 
My first post is my wedding weekend packet! I hope this {or something similar} will come in handy on your wedding day too! xx<3oo
“Wedding Fun”
When my hubby popped the question I was 22-years-old and in the process of moving to Chicago with him. Due to my love for New England, specifically Cape Cod, it was only natural that “we” { I } planned to have our wedding there! Now…that means planning a wedding, at age 22, 1,055 miles away from our venue site and most importantly, my mom. {I literally could not have done ANY of this without her. We were on the phone at least 10 times a day, sometimes more, planning this thing.} UM at this point in my life the only weddings I had ever attended were family weddings all under the age of 16. I didn’t know the first thing about planning a wedding!! All I gotta say is, thank-fucking-god for Pinterest!! Twenty-four hours a day seven days a week I was glued to my computer screen, and if it weren’t my computer I was pinning through my phone. In the first six or so months I think I had over 800 pins on my wedding board, not including the hundreds more on additional wedding-related boards. I was OBSESSED! But then again who wasn’t when they first discovered this genius site?
In addition to Pinterest, I was constantly googling different templates and self-helps for making sure I kept organized! That brings us to STEP ONE of the wedding planning process:
Get fucking organized!
After hours and hours of searching for the perfect wedding weekend organizational packet template I FINALLY came across “Mrs. Daffodil’s” wedding weekend organizational packet template. It became a bit of a running joke among all involved in helping out on our wedding day. I completely acknowledge that this was a little excessive, but it was as much for my own sanity as it was for helping everyone know exactly where to be and when. So…I took this amazing template and turned it into my very own 15-page “Wedding Weekend Packet” for all involved! It probably took me a straight 36 hours to complete, but I had all the time in the world as I was in the process of looking for a job at the time! In the end though I was constantly updating it up until our wedding weekend to really get everything right, but I survived it and sent it out about a week before the wedding! As I was making it “my own” I couldn’t believe how many necessary details were in it that I didn’t even think of!
Now prepare yourself for this lifesaver. What could possibly take up 15 pages? ENJOY!
We began with a cover letter introducing the packet to our friends and family. The contents were as follows:
- Logistics overview
- Overview of weekend events
- Detailed wedding day schedule
- Maps, directions, and travel
- Ceremony order
- Contact list
- Description of roles
The Logistics Overview consisted of a list of key wedding day contacts (aka the ones to call who actually know what the F is going on), key locations and their addresses, and a list of they key events taking place over the course of the week.
Overview of Weekend Events consisted of a three pages of all the key events taking place over the next couple of days, including our rehearsal, our rehearsal dinner, a pre-wedding celebratory BBQ dinner for all the guests, and more, all the way through to our afterparty.
Detailed Wedding Day Schedule was probably the most overwhelming for some at first, but it’s actually so necessary and I swear is the reason the day went so smoothly! We chose to take our photos before the ceremony and a half hour before the ceremony, mid-way through our photos it started to rain! I was LIVID! But that wasn’t anything a little glass of champagne couldn’t fix 
This is a two-page schedule listing the main activities with sub-activities in 10-15 minute increments. They list each activity
Map, Directions, and Travel is pretty self-explanatory. This was just a one page section with driving directions just from Boston to the venue because our wedding party were all staying together. We also made little mini-packets for each one of our guests, mainly for our out-of-town guests, with more detailed directions for them
Contact List is a full contact list of about 50 people, including their names, phone numbers, emails, and role of each person involved in helping out with the wedding. I also included pictures of each member of our wedding party in order of who’s walking with who because everyone was scattered all over the country so they didn’t know each other! I felt it was a nice little touch so they see who each other are before the weekend
Description of Roles. This section was five pages long, the longest section by far. It was for a good reason though, as we detailed out the specific responsibilities of different people involved, preventing any last minute wedding day confusion. We included what activities they needed to be present for, what times to arrive, and what they were on point for. This may sound super intense, but really, each person only had about a paragraph to read, maybe two. All they needed to do was go straight to their section (i.e. bridesmaids, ceremony readers, junior ushers, etc.). Again, another key reason why our wedding day ran so smoothly { despite the rain } ! Even with the help of this template, it still took me for-fucking-ever. But I would definitely be lost without it.
That about sums up “The Packet”! After starting this blog I figured since I was all by myself with my planning {with the help of my mother of course} I felt I should help other bride-to-be’s out there with their planning! Sooo yeah! This is what we sent out to our friends and families {vendors and guests got something different, which I will be sharing soon!}. You won’t believe how much shit I got from some people! Whenever I would bring it up all I saw were eyes rolling and mouths smirking. But they all will be thanking me when their day comes!!
In the end though I hope everyone appreciated it! But even if they didn’t, the process of putting all this together was SO MUCH FUN for me! It was like my own little freakishly over-organized wedding experience that I would not have changed for the world. It really gave me peach of mind, allowing me to relax and enjoy my own wedding day
A Word file of our wedding weekend packet template is available if you go to the page!
xx<3oo
The Pyne's 