About a Boy

For a while, the Fiance has been saying that I am taking over the web with my blog, but apparently he wants to get in on this world domination too, because he’s taken me as inspiration to go and start his own blog – on programming.

It may sound a little way removed from the wedding world, but actually it is closer than you think.

Why?

Because what he is writing about programming is going to be a wedding planning phone app tool.

Ah, I hear you prick up your ears!

Well, I’ll let his blog do most of the talking for itself. Here is some of his planning post:

[T]he number of lists and pieces of paper to keep track of everything is insane! Everything has a different timescale; different participants; costs to budget for; and so on. Basically it is one of the largest events that people are likely to find themselves organising in a non-professional context…

Ideal Version:

Keep track of budget – how much things cost and what proportion is paid for.

Keep track of RSVPs – to the main event/reception (if separate), hen and stag.

Replace all the little bitty notes – to-do lists, records, contact details, ideas.

Count-down – knowing what day is W-Day, and being able to categorise tasks by 12 months before, 6 months before, the day before, day of the wedding, whatever.

Tracking primary responsibility for tasks – is the groom handling the music? Is the bride mostly dealing with the caterers?

Be able to synchronise between multiple devices – the bride and groom, and possibly also the best man, maid of honour, ushers, even parents.

With the above, ideally be able to output something (be it a spreadsheet, Google Doc, whatever) to a computer for handling on a larger screen.

BACK UP AUTOMATICALLY – this is a big deal. The more of the critical pieces of paper that are moving onto an Android, the more careful we need to be that one inopportune crash, or getting your phone nicked, won’t mess everything up; and relying on busy people to manually backup is going to lead to some failures. I have no idea how easy this is – have to look into it later.

Remaining Sane

Remaining sane is a tricky problem when planning some large event on a timescale, especially when money does not flow through the fingers. I’ve been finding various ways to keep everything organised, keep track of the budget, find out if there’s anywhere to cut corners, et cetera (artificial flowers to decorate the reception room? Hmmm… not necessary!). So here are some of the things I have been doing.

Lists! Lists! Lists!

I now have a month by month plan of what needs to be done, up to two months before the wedding (when I will remake lists, depending on what there is now to do, what hasn’t been done, et cetera).

To do this, I had first to make a list of things to do, divide them into important and less important things (e.g. expensive vs homemade things) and decide when everything had to be done for, how long it would take, and whether anything was dependent on other things! Yeah, I think I used up about 3 pieces of paper just on planning my list!

I’ve put our guest list provisional and budget planner up on www.weddingface.com as well, which appears to be Irish, and through which I’ve come into contact with a very nice man running a small jewellery business local to where I live now and where I’m getting married! The convenience! Anyway… I’ll allow you to hunt him down yourselves!