Are you struggling to organize your wedding with stacks of folders and notebooks stuffed with pricing sheets and handwritten guest lists? Step out of the dark ages and into modern wedding planning. This easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet tutorial will teach you how to make your wedding planning efficient, organized, and most importantly, stress free.

The first step in organizing your wedding plan with Excel is to create a document. Open a blank workbook in Excel and name it “My Wedding Plan.” Open the Windows icon in the top left of your screen, drop down to the “Save As” option and click on “Excel Workbook.” Choose the location you’d like to save your spreadsheets to on your computer, like My Documents or Desktop. Then, type in the workbook’s name and click “Save” on the screen shown in the following graphic.

Now that you’ve got a fancy new document set up just for your wedding, it’s time to start inputting data. A great first place to start is by labeling the tabs in your new workbook. Label the first tab “Budget,” the second one “Guest List,” the third one “Appointments, ” and the fourth one “To Do List.” Right click on the spot that says Sheet 1 at the bottom left and choose the “Rename” option to change the names of the worksheets so they match the following picture.

In your Budget spreadsheet, label your columns Expense, Target and Actual. Add all the projected expenses and leaving a spare row or two for unforeseen expenses with a corresponding dollar amount. This will serve as a cushion in your budget. Program the rows of your spreadsheet to keep a running total of your expenses by going under the Formulas tab and selecting the AutoSum feature while you have the total box highlighted. A sparkling frame will appear around the box of your choice. Hold down shift and click on the boxes you want to add together, and Excel will do the math for you. When you’re done, your spreadsheet will look something like this:

Following the same technique, label your guest list spreadsheet with the appropriate information. Use it as a guide for to track save the date cards, invitations, dinner meal selection, gifts and thank you cards. This list will be invaluable for supplying your caterer and decorator with a final head count and seating assignment.

The third page of your wedding planning workbook will keep all of your tasks organized. Write all the important things that need to be accomplished here and be sure to add pertinent information like phone numbers and contact names. Also record the day on which the task was accomplished.

If you wish to add additional pages to your wedding planning workbook, by all means do it. Being overly organized is much better and far less expensive than being unprepared for your big day. There are many details to keep track of when it comes to planning your wedding. Using Excel spreadsheets will make your life as a bride-to-be much easier.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 8:03 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.