Ten Wedding Planning Apps to Keep your Sanity
You've got the power job, loving fiancé and dream wedding on lockdown. You should be living in bliss, but let's be honest. Wedding planning is hard AF, especially when you're, you know, living your life.
Sometimes that #blessed life can be a little more like "don't be fooled by the rocks that I got." And while you totally appreciate that this is a once in a lifetime (yawn) experience, sometimes you just want to act like a toddler, kick your legs and scream, "Mama, you do it!"
Duuude, relax. You got this. You're a hard working, multitasking, group texting, Insta-storying, millennial woman. Without even realizing it, you're doing no less than five things at a time and doing them well. And while wedding planning can be a beautiful bitch, here's a little secret that will prevent you from developing stress wrinkles. There's an app for that. Like, allll of that. We've rounded up our favorite tech tools for doing the damn thing with ease.
A step by step/day by day virtual planner to keep your ass on track. Customized checklists, guest list management tools, vendor searches and reviews join together in one aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly package. Additional features include wedding website creation, editorial content and an "Inspiration" section with thousands of shoppable images.
Free for iPhone and Android.
The only way to confidently say "this round's on me" without thinking "you better pay me back, bitch." This genius expense manager is a must-have for a bachelorette party or girls' weekend. Here's the deal. Each girl covers a meal or activity and then enters the expense into the tracker. When there are no more bottles to pop and the skeevy male stripper is on his way back to wherever he came from, hit the "settle up" button and the app calculates who owes what. It also connects directly to Venmo to pay your tab with one quick click.
Free for web, iPhone, and Android.
Home-cooked, healthful meals sans the daily torture of "What should we do for dinner?" Choose your preferences. ("Vegan who eats burgers" is not an option so be honest with yourself.) Select your desired number of meals per week and voila! You get a care package with unique recipes and fresh ingredients delivered to your door. The contents are measured to fit each recipe so don't bother convincing yourself you'll bake mini quiches with the leftover veggies. Cute, but no. Your soon-to-be hubby will think you're a maven in the kitchen and you can focus your Pinterest efforts on floral crowns instead of daily recipes. Prioritization is key!
Free for iPhone and Android.
If you're a red-blooded human, sometimes being engaged can be a real mind f*ck. Your bride brain is jam-packed with seating charts, flower varieties and strategies for telling your coworkers they won't be doing the hora at your wedding. This sweet little mantra app from the spiritual guru, Gabrielle Bernstein, reminds the devil on your shoulder that "there's no such thing as a mistake" and "don't sweat the small stuff." Choose the affirmations that speak to you and set reminders for when you need them most. Namaste.
$1.99 on iPhone.
"What's your color scheme?" is surprisingly one of the most frequently asked questions for brides. If the color question evokes a serious case of the shakes, the Pantone Studio app is a godsend. Snap a pic of something pretty and it automatically generates a color palette for you to take to your wedding planner and beg "Can we please? Can we?" You can also search by color and browse through the "Inspiration" section for a smorgasbord of color combos.
Free for iPhone.
What do engagement parties, bridal showers, rehearsal dinners and photo shoots have in common? You need to look seriously chic. Who has the time to hit Zara every weekend for the umpteenth white dress? Enter Trunk Club - your closet upgrade in a box. Share your sizing details, style guidelines and go-to brands to get hooked up with a personal stylist (a real, live human, not an avatar). Hit her up for a trunk full of goodies within your budget. If the look ain't right, just ship it back and you'll be charged for what you keep.
Free for web, iPhone, and Android.
Your mom is on RSVP duty, your dad is buying the liquor and your fiancé is managing the budget. Oh wait, maybe it's the other way around? Keep your communication right and tight with this project management app. Assign tasks, set deadlines and tag responsible parties to avoid hearing your brother mumble "Oh, I thought Grandma was doing that." No, buddy. Your 95-year-old grandmother is not setting up the chairs. Just tag "@idiotbrother" to the "Chair Duty" project to tell him how this wedding biz is about to go down.
Free for web, iPhone, and Android.
A surprisingly simple tool that helps you customize floor plans (to scale) without the help of a CAD designer. (WTF is a CAD designer?) The all-in-one guest list management and floor plan system removes the busy work and pushes guest data directly to your seating chart. If you want to get fancy, you can view your floor plans in 3D. The future is here.
Free for iPhone.
You've subscribed to so many wedding blogs, your daily news intake is limited to a Trump tweet. Flipboard is the cure-all for internet overwhelm and aggregates the content you're most interested in reading. World news, fashion, business, the economy (and weddings) are just a few of the categories you can consume mid-pedicure.
Free for web, iPhone, and Android.