Wedding Planning Software

I stumbled upon a fantastic program today for wedding planning, ElmSoftware's iDo Wedding. They have a version for couples planning their own wedding that has a 30 day free trial. I downloaded it at home during my lunch hour today and it is FANTASTIC. I am very happy with it. It has options that you wouldn't imagine and a very easy to follow online tutorial to show you how to use it and all the added features you might not find without the tutorial. For $30 you can buy the product key for the downloaded program, or for $40 they will send you a CD copy. I am really considering buying this program at the end of my trial. It does almost everything. When you first go to use it, it asks for the name of the bride and groom, the wedding date, and a time. These all can be changed later if need be. It then asks if you would like to see the tutorial. It is long, and I'm going to go through it in parts as I need them, but it is very helpful.
Main Screen

You can then start entering contacts. Contacts are entered as individuals, so man, wife, children, are all entered separately. This seems tedious, but it helps out greatly and saves the address when you say "Save and Add New Contact" so you just enter names until you need to change the address. This helps greatly for later on when one is trying to arrange a seating plan and everyone is listed as an individual. It also gives you the statistics on your list, such as total numbers, numbers on groom's/bride's/both's lists, A / B lists, the number which do not have an entered address, etc. This is compatible to upload a list from Excel or Outlook.
Contact List

After that, you can start into the invitations. It asks you to select the people out of your list for all your invitations, then in the end gives you the total of invitations, how many (and which) people haven't been assigned an invitation, and even creates the wording for addressing your invitations and envelopes. It will print your labels from your invitation list right from this program. It then prepares your RSVP list, where as they start arriving, you can enter in the information for those coming and not, and even enter and keep track of meal choices (if needed). With the RSVPs you can enter names of escorts that were previously unknown. You can make changes to the RSVP list at anytime if needed.
Label / Report Printing

Once your RSVPs are in, then you can check out your attendees page. From here you can coordinate hotel rooms, flights, table seatings, etc.
Table Seating Arrangements

If has other features including a checklist, budget organizer, gift recordings - which also keeps track of your thank you notes sent out, time lines, events calendar, vendor organizer, etc.
Checklist and Timelines

I highly recommend this. I'm almost done putting my tenative guest list in here and it's fantastic because it does all the counting and thinking for you. I now know that most of the guests are my fiances, that he doesn't know many of the family members on his mother's list either, and that I have a lot of addresses to find. But I love the calendar feature and how everything is mapped out perfectly.

My Mood: Impressed