We need to be realistic in our planning process, and use tools to keep it simple and in perspective.
The supplies you will need:

• 1 - 2 inch Three-Ring Binder
• Decorative Tab Dividers5-10
• Wedding Magazines, Library Books
• Flyers form Craft Stores, Fabric Stores, etc.
  

Instruction:

1. Put the dividers in your binder and Label your tabs: Venues, Officiates, Wedding Dress, Bridesmaids Dress, Tux's, Photographer, Florist, Music, The Cake, Reception, Decorations, Rehearsal Dinner, Wedding Invitations, etc.
   Can you think of other categories that are important to you?
2. Our binder had a plastic slip cover where we put a picture of our couple with the date and time of the wedding on it.
   What would make the cover special to you?
3. Go through those magazines and flyers and cut out any and everything you are interested in.
   Put them behind the tab that best represents the picture.
   Copy your pictures from your books and get them in your binder also.
   This is the time to dream!
4. Now you should sit down with parents or as a couple and make those hard decisions.
   What is the budget, do we have a date, where would we like to have the ceremony, how many and who will we invite?
5. Have you made a few of those hard decisions? It's time to take a good look at what's most important to what is least important.
   Make a list and start visiting perspective venue websites and making phone calls.
   Set up dates and times to visit places and make those important purchases first.
   
6. Set up your core group of helpers and start getting the wedding plans in place.
   This really can be a fun part of the wedding if you choose your helpers carefully.
   Trust me, things will happen evenwith the best of planning.
   However, if you have a good attitude everything will work out just fine.
   

I would like to close with a few tips: When you are setting up the tabs in your binder, you might want to group some together, that way you won't need as many tab categories.
Do what makes things simple for you.
We need to keep our wedding planning simple and as stress free as possible so that it remains fun.
I hear all the time from mothers that it was just too much work and they would never plan a wedding again.
It doesn't have to be that way! Get help, you want this to be a celebration for the family too, not just the guests.
I have found this system to be the easiest and most practical.
The planners that you purchase from the store are usually too big to carry around with you and have lots of things in them that you don't need.
You create the three-ring binder so it fits your needs and not everyone else's.
Most brides will do a scrapbook or photo album later.
The three-ring binder is more of a workbook than a keep-sake,a collection of needs, wants, and to-do's.
And while you'll want to keep it as a memento, understand that it will get used and abused.
It will be your "go to list" for many months.
Are you ready for a wedding? Of course not...
but you will be.