mind the wedding

Mr. Pencils received his degrees, and used to work, in conflict resolution.  One day, over a year ago, he came home from work with a new tool- Mindmeister.  You know that I am a words person- I deal in letters rather than images.  Mindmeister is made for brains like mine.  It's an online website that allows you to build mind maps for your projects, plans, feelings, thoughts, issues, budget- whatever!  (Mr. Pencils tried explaining how they use the tool in conflict resolution, but it was like I was listening to Papa Pencils- a nuclear physicist- explain how nuclear reactors measure...something...there was a buzzing sound and I forgot it all.  Apologies!)

Mr. Pencils recommended that I use it to help me flesh out my ideas for the wedding, as we were in the very initial stages of planning and I had lots of ideas floating around.  I spent a night creating my initial wedding mind map, and this is what I had (you can click both photos for larger versions):

I was thinking about simple things like who to include in the bridal party, what date and location we should choose and the types of food in general we wanted.  This was VERY initial- we were still trying to figure out the types of venues to search for (garden, vineyard, etc) and how we would organize our bridal party.

In recent months, the mind map has transformed into something more like this, though I add more things each week:

I am in general an organized person, and I love finding new ways to plan and organize my thoughts for the wedding.  I can jot things down and add them to the mindmap later, and if I had an iPhone, I could download the app and use it on the go!  (Alas, no Blackberry app, but it's still an awesome planning tool!)

*screen shots by yours truly

How are you keeping your thoughts and ideas for the wedding organized and coherent?