The question was popped, the answer was ‘Yes’. Congratulations! Now comes the wedding planning, a key component of which is working with your partner to make sure your big day is unique and complements you both as a couple. To make the day itself and the celebrations leading up to it feel just right, you can whip up personalised wedding invitations, custom T-shirts for any lead-up parties such as the hens’ night or bucks’ do, personalised wedding favours and more with the help of Officeworks Print & Copy services. To get you started, this wedding planning checklist will ensure you and your significant other don’t forget a thing.

Wedding Planning Starters: Save the Date Cards and Wedding Invitations 

The first step when wedding planning is sending out Save the Date cards and preparing wedding invitations.‍

First up on your wedding checklist: sending save the date cards. If you have time, at least six months before the wedding is ideal so the people you want to witness your celebration can get organised to fit in with your plans. At this point, you don’t need to include much information, just your names, the date of the wedding and the city or town where the ceremony and reception will take place, particularly if you’re thinking of a destination wedding or have a lot of guests coming from out of town.

It’s also useful to settle on a theme or at least some colours for your wedding at this early stage. That way you can ensure there are common elements that run from your save the date cards to your wedding invitations and right through to thank you cards. There are loads of different options on the Print & Copy website, including stylish designs you can personalise yourself, such as the minimalist Ink Blot, joyful Flicks & Flecks and elegant Fresh Foliage (ideally suited to a garden wedding). 

To choose a template, click the ‘Create’ button, then select ‘Use one of our templates’ to scroll through the range. For even more options, you can use Officeworks x Canva templates or upload your own design. Then there is the option of creating truly DIY wedding invitations, starting from scratch with blank cards and adding your choice of embellishments.

Plan for your guests to receive the invitations, as well as the RSVP and registry cards, around four months before the big day. If you have good handwriting, you could save yourself the cost of a professional wedding calligrapher and add the names to the invitations and address the envelopes yourself. You’ll need a good calligraphy set and a little practice, so have spare invitations and envelopes set aside.

Hot Tip: Tick your essential wedding stationery off the to-do list quickly with Officeworks’ Same Day Printing (available at selected stores on most event card options), giving you more time for the important job of addressing and stuffing the envelopes. 

What to Try

SEE ALSO: How to Use Canva: The Best Graphic Design Tips and Tricks

Custom Bucks’ Night and Hens’ Party Ideas 

The wedding’s getting close and you and your other half might like to enjoy a pre-wedding celebration with your respective loved ones. Family members, close friends or members of your bridal party – such as bridesmaids and groomsmen – may want to organise bucks’ and hens’ party send-offs for the soon-to-be marrieds or now some are choosing to have a joint prenuptial event for the happy couple. 

Whether planning a night out or one in, whoever's in charge of organising should aim for events that suit your personalities: perhaps suggest some guidelines so they know if you’d prefer dinner in a swanky restaurant or a raucous games night at home. It’s also good to consider the budgets of the guests. 

Once the venue is sorted, the invites can go out. For more informal events such as these, they might like to save the cost of posted invitations and email or create social media event pages to get the word out. 

If you’re looking for bucks or hens party ideas, consider custom printed T-shirts from Officeworks Print & Copy.

It’s the little touches that make the event special. A compilation video or trivia quiz to play at the party can often be a huge success, or craft unique hen party decorations using ideas from Pinterest. Depending on how many guests are involved, custom-printed T-shirts are a fun way to generate some group spirit. White T-shirts with the word “Bride” or “Groom” are all that’s needed for you and/or your partner; the rest of the guests might like to go for a grey marle tee printed with “Bride Squad” or “Groom Crew”. 

But, there are plenty of variations depending on the vibe of the group: a cartoon hen with a brood of chicks, a picture of the partner printed onto the shirts, “Getting Hitched” and “Hitch Helpers”. T-shirts take up to 12 business days to be ready for delivery or pick-up instore (longer for WA), so be sure to order them with plenty of time to spare.

A fun and cheeky bucks’ or hens’ party idea is to have life-size cut-outs of your other half printed up to take out on your adventures. These are great for photos and as a keepsake from the evening… if it survives.

Good hen party gifts include hand cream, treats and personalised items.  

If you’re the bride, show your bridesmaids how much you appreciate the wedding planning they’re doing by presenting them with a small hen party gift. Have a photograph of the group of you printed onto a personalised mug, then pop it into a bag with a packet or two of jelly beans. 

What to Try

Wedding Planning Checklist: The Final Countdown

Create unique wedding decorations, such as banners, and handmade personalised wedding favours to take home.  

In the weeks leading up to the wedding, it’s time for those last tasks. Use the same template you used for your save the date cards and wedding invitations for table numbers, place cards and menus for the reception. Order these final touches at least a few weeks ahead, as you’ll need to get out a good pen and use those calligraphy skills again for the place cards.

Hot Tip: If you’re keeping track of the wedding budget or trying to avoid waste, wait to order reception-themed items until you have a clear idea of your RSVP numbers, so there aren’t too many extras.

Now it’s time to think about wedding decorations for the reception venue. Add a personalised touch by turning your invitation into a large banner to hang above you and your partner over the top table. Or create a social media frame: it looks like an oversized Polaroid frame you can personalise with your names, the date and a hashtag unique to your wedding. On the day, ask your guests to take a picture of themselves with it as they enter the venue, so people can share their images on social media and you’ll have a cute record of everyone who attended your event.

If you are looking to create DIY or low cost wedding table decorations, you could use A-frames decorated with paint markers or mini chalkboards for table numbers. Or, for centrepieces, try filling crates with wood wool and muslin bags, one for each guest, labelled with personalised swing tags and cord and containing a small gift. 

Alternatively, use individual message bottles, each with a guest’s name, or put together personalised wedding favours that double as place cards, by filling mini jars with treats and adding guest names to labels. A Cricut machine can help take the hard work out of all these DIY wedding decorations projects.

A beautiful keepsake for the couple, their attendants, parents and grandparents are personalised wedding glasses engraved with details of the day. Set them at the table before guests arrive and arrange with the caterers to have the glasses washed, dried and packed into gift bags so people can take them home.

What to Try

SEE ALSO: Easy Hand Lettering Techniques to Try at Home

‍Wedding Planning: After the Big Day, Thank You Cards and More

Perfect keepsakes for after the big day are personalised wedding “Mr” and “Mrs” hoodies. 

Post-ceremony parties, including next-day breakfasts and barbecues, are becoming more common, particularly if the wedding has been held away from where the happy couple lives. Head off to your honeymoon in style in custom hoodies printed up with “Mr”, “Mrs” or “We Did!”

The final tasks on your wedding checklist are sending thank you cards and organising keepsakes.   ‍

When the celebrations have simmered down, there are still a few details to finalise. Once all the presents have been opened, it’s good wedding etiquette to send thank you cards. You can have these printed in the same theme as the wedding invitations and then elevate the accompanying envelopes by closing them with a wax seal. Or for weddings on a budget, a nice touch is to email or print out a photo of the guests at the event with a personalised thank you. 

Another way to use photographs of the big day is to create keepsakes for your parents and other close family, such as snow globes, keyrings or a photo book, as wedding thank you presents or even gifts for next Christmas. The hardest part is culling all those gorgeous pics to just feature your favourites. 

As a final memento, print your favourite photo from the day in a poster size and display it in a frame to hang on the wall. And that's your wedding checklist ticked off and sorted. Now all that’s left to do is kick back and enjoy the memories.

What to Try

‍SEE ALSO: How to Make a Scrapbook: The Best-Ever Guide

This article was originally published in February 2023 and has been updated.