wedding website vs. excel

[mimzy]

ringster's post got me thinking.

also, if you do use a wedding website, which ones would you recommend (and for what)?

 

[espressa]

I voted that I use Excel, but we actually use Google Docs spreadsheets. The documents are shared so that me, FI, his parents and my mother can access the lists and we can all edit them, and I can get to them from any computer.

Works pretty well for us.

 

[mimzy]

that''s a great idea. i use google docs for school w/ classmates, but i hadn''t thought to use it for my family too. Thanks!

 

[Stephanie]

We are building a google page, but everything else is written out, in excel, and on the knot... I want to be sure that I don''t forget something somewhere.

 

[misysu2]

To track our information, we use Excel. But we do use ewedding.com to get information out to guests, and that works well.

 

[mjso]

I too use Google Docs. With members of the immediate families in 3 different states it is nice for everyone to be able to log in and edit what they need to. Pretty much everything ends up here at some point.

I do have a knot account that I might use for budget help, but my budget is kind of out of whack at the moment.

And I export stuff into Excel for myself to sort and play around with while I''m at work.

 

[enbcfsobe]

Maybe I''m the only one who has had a problem, but I would not, under any circumstances, use the knot''s budgeting tool. you give it your budget, then it gives you a breakdown with subcategories. Great, right? Only the subcategories add up to an entirely different number than the total for the category. Not so great. This caused a MAJOR miscalculation in our initial budgeting. I wish I''d stuck to excel (I didn''t know about google docs at the time). I tried fixing it, to no avail. I would not trust this application again. Ever.
Google docs is a great option. The budget tool that comes with our weddingwindow site is also very helpful though, as with many things in their system, inputting info is more tedious and less intuitive than a regular spreadsheet. The good thing is that it has drop-downs for categories, etc. and is very easy to sort that way. For now we have our budget there and our guest lists for reception/rehearsal/etc. in a google spreadsheet.

 

[tberube]

I did both!! For the guest list, I used the wedding webside (knot.com) to tally everyone, then I used a Word document to write out all the addresses.

For the budget, though - I used excel because theknot.com has a really weird budget tool that I can't work with.

 

[ringster]

thanks for starting this mimzy - i hope it helps others as i know i would have liked having this info available when i started out

Weddingwindow says they are working on improving the adding guests to events part and supposedly will have something this week - i don't know if it is a demo or what. but they have been asking for my suggestions. so i may end up giving them a thumbs up! i hope so cause i really want to be able to.

here's my post:

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/weddingwindow-com-this-site-is-sooo-ticking-me-off.76880/

 

[xapora]

I used weddingchannel.com for keeping track of budget, RSVPs, seating, addresses, gifts, etc. I was actually really happy with it. It''s not as pretty as The Knot''s website but I thought it was a easier to use.

 

[musey]

I voted "excel," but I actually use an Apple program called Numbers. it''s phenomenal.

I''m not quite as familiar with Excel, it wasn''t as fluid and intuitive as other programs I''ve self-taught myself (like photoshop, amadeus, protools, etc.) so I just gave up with the first try

But Numbers works so well. There''s even an "event planner" template. I''m gonna attach a screen shot excerpt so you can see what I''m talking about.

There''s a guest list section where you can fill in all guest info (including number of guests for that invitation), with a check-box next to each line. When you check off the box, it ups your guest count for however many guests are listed under "John Smith." That updates any "per person costs" you''ve listed in each section of the budgeter (you can also list "fixed costs"), which adjusts your total cost and the accompanying pie chart (which is automatically color-coded, though you can adjust the colors if you want).

It pretty much kicks Excel''s heiney.

 

[musey]

Oh, and for a website we built our own (www.museyandmuseysfi.com kinda thing)... it''s not really interactive for rsvp''ing, it just lists available hotels and area maps, etc. FI wants to also put links to our registries on there, which I''m so uncomfortable with, but we''re still in debates

 

[ringster]

musey - i''m more of a windows person but that Numbers program does kick some serious a**.

i like the google docs suggestions too. i''ll have to look into that.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

musey that program does look amazing. I used excel.