Guest Post - Wedding Planning with the UPstudio Planner September 28, 2017 05:00 1 Comment

We love hearing how the UPstudio Planner works for you (and what doesn't work!) Occasionally we will highlight a user and how they have found the planner to be most useful for them with a guest blog post.  Today's post comes from Heidi in Virginia, who has been a user of the UPstudio Planner since it was originally developed.  She has had a busy year, to say the least!  Heidi works multiple jobs, and was recently married.  In her write up below, she talks about how using the UPstudio Planner helped to keep all her wedding planning organized.  Enjoy!

For the umpteenth time, I walk into my office at 7:30 am, toss my purse, keys, planner, lunch bag and cell phone on my desk (gently, of course).  I twist my sunglasses from my hair (those darn nosepieces get stuck with the slightest rush of wind), clock in and plop into my oh-so-comfy desk chair where I will remain for the better part of 9 hours. I’ve just returned from my honeymoon and there waits 17 messages on my phone, another 60 in my email and a stack of documents a foot high. At this point, no one else has arrived and the temptation to sneak back to my car, head home and pretend my flight got stuck in Atlanta is all too real.

Everything that travels with me to and from my office eventually makes it to the floor beside my desk, except my UPstudio planner. It’s open in front of my keyboard, between my arms giving me just enough room to work - booking yet another marketing lunch, a handful of patient appointments and a surgery. Or 20. I did mention that my stack was a foot high, didn’t I? It’s not a task that will be accomplished soon.

I should mention I manage an orthopedic practice. We opened in October 2015 and my job title is shorter than it should be. Besides scheduling our surgeries, I also oversee the patient schedule, handle human resources, my physician’s personal schedule (and he has 4 kids – that alone is a full-time job) and my own personal life. That’s the life I pretend to have when a minute or two opens up in my day.  I also work 2 part-time jobs, in case I wasn’t already having enough fun.

It sounds overwhelming now, but just 4 months ago I threw my own wedding into that crazy mix, so I’m settled into a more manageable flow at this point. When we set out to pick a wedding date, our only goal was to make sure that the date worked well with my husband’s grad school schedule and that I would have enough time to plan the big event. Thank goodness for UPstudio and my planner, or I would have been a true hot mess.

Wedding planning was more than just day-to-day coordination of events and meetings. It added the layer of managing budgets, payments and venue layouts. Lord knows if my DJ or caterer had not received their payment on time, I would have had some very bored or very hungry guests. Making sure that our guests had enough elbow room to get their Cupid Shuffle on was an important detail as well.

    

    

I loved how each weekly page in the planner left extra room for important lists to be jotted down. The extra pages in the back of the planner also allowed me to track the overall budget and payment details, and make sure we stayed under within over our budget. The grids were perfect for visualizing our venue layout and making sure our table was equidistant to the dance floor and cake table. Priorities, right?

I have used an UPstudio planner since they began production and can’t imagine trying to juggle my crazy life without it. It has been a godsend this past year with everything that happened. Who knows how useful it will be over the next year? We’ve got plans for purchasing a home in the next few weeks and, of course the question now (from everyone, including people we don’t know) is when we will add a 3rd family member. Why not add something else to my schedule?

 

Interested in writing a guest blog post?  Contact us at hello@upstudionc.com