BridalTrack's User Manual
While the layout of a BridalTrack database is very straightforward and it is designed to walk you through the entire process itself, if you do need assistance, this is the place to look. It details the steps you need to take to successfully manage your wedding's correspondence.
This manual is very similar to the BridalTrack Chronological Guide by the way it comprehensively details the entire process of managing your wedding's correspondence. The BridalTrack User's Manual, however, specifically details using a BridalTrack Database, while the other guide doesn't reference any specific data management system. If you do not have a BridalTrack database set up for your wedding, you can Sign up for an account and see how simple it is to use.
Each step of this manual begins from the Control Center Page which is the first page you will see when you log on to your BridalTrack Database. While logged on, a link labeled "Control Center" will appear at the top and bottom of every page of BridalTrack so that you are always one click away from it.
The six steps of managing your wedding correspondence by using your BridalTrack Database are:
| 1. Add Contacts | 4. Track RSVP's |
On the Control Center Page and in this manual, those six steps are ordered chronologically by when each should be accomplished and given a section that helps you accomplish them. Each step section on the Control Center Page are formatted similarly:
General layout of a step section on the Control Center Page
- Above each box is the name and number of the step. It also acts as a link to the page of this manual that details how to accomplish that step.
- In the dark blue section just underneath the step number and name is the timeframe for when the step should be completed. The dates listed are completely dependent on the date you entered for the wedding. So if the wedding date is incorrect, then all those dates will reflect that error as well.
- In the blue section below the timeframe, is a summary of what needs to be accomplished in that step and a quick explanation of how to do it.
- Within that main blue section, below the summary, is a dark blue box that contains a button or link that is integral to completing the step.
- Off to the right of the box are any totals of your database that are relevant to that step. This allows you to know exactly how many contacts you will be working with in that section.
- The number of the total also acts as a link to the View List Page showing just those contacts. For example, when you click on the number to the right of "Invited Guests:" in Step 3: Send Invitations, you will be taken to everyone who you designated to send an invitation
Again, the above example demonstrates the general layout of the step sections of the My Account Page. The specific layout of each step section will be shown and explained on the following pages of this manual. The specific actions you need to take to accomplishing each step using your BridalTrack Database will be comprehensively covered as well.
Hopefully the interface on your Control Center Page is so simple that this manual is only needed as an occasional reference. If you have any suggestions for making your BridalTrack database more user-friendly please email them to ideas@bridaltrack.com.
Step 1: Add Contacts
This is the most important of all the steps and the one that requires the most work on your part. However, when this step is completed properly, BridalTrack will reward your hard work by making all the other steps extremely simple. Properly entering all your contacts' information and designating which items they should receive will make all of the other steps as simple as clicking a link.
Control Center Page, Step 1
First and foremost you need to gather, reconcile and sort your contacts' information. That means making sure you have all the data available in one place and that data is correct (remove duplicates, verify name spelling and validate addresses). For further instructions on preparing your data for entry, see the BridalTrack Chronological Guide.
The last task to complete before actually typing your data into your database is to sort it. Go through your contacts and place them in piles based on what they will receive (announcement or invitation) and with whom they are affiliated (bride or groom). This generates four possible piles of contacts: groom's announcements, groom's invitations, bride's announcements, and bride's invitations. Once you have all your contacts assigned to a pile, you are ready to input them.
Example of The BridalTrack Add Contacts
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From the Control Center, click on the "Contact Entry Page" link in the Step 1 section to open the Add Contacts Page. To streamline data entry, it is set up to handle those piles of data you created by allowing you to enter up to 8 similar contacts at once. It does this by breaking down the input process into 3 sections:
Once you have entered information in Section 3 and Section 2 correctly states how the contacts should be entered, click the "Add Contacts" button at the bottom of the form. The page will submit the data, reload itself and list all the contacts that were successfully entered into your database. Contacts you submit with invalid data (i.e. no name on person 1, invalid zip code, etc.) will be loaded back into the form for you to fix and resubmit. The invalid row will appear in orange with the specific invalid data in a blue input area.
After a submission, when the form reloads itself, it is ready to accept another batch of contacts. Simply, repeat the above process until all the piles of your contacts are entered. Be sure to change the criteria in Section 1 when necessary and to verify it in Section 2 prior to clicking the "Add Contacts" button each time.
"Undecided" Contacts
Besides "Invitation" and "Announcement", there is a third option for the "Will Receive:" field in Section 1 of the Add Contacts Page: "Undecided". Sometimes the number of invited guests has to be restricted for whatever reason (capacity of venue, budget, relationship conflicts, etc.) and this creates a group of people that may or may not get invited. For these guests, select "Undecided" in the "Will Receive:" field of Section 1 and you can still capture their name and contact information in your database but delay the decision on what to send them. See the Step 3: Send Invitations page of this manual about accessing those contacts when you are ready to make decisions about what to send them.
Add Contacts Page, Section 1
When you have finished enter all your piles of contacts you have completed Step 1. To verify that you have succesfully added your contacts properly, return to the Control Center page. After entering contacts all of the totals to the right of each step section will now reflect the data you added.
Step 2: Save The Date Notices
This is where your hard work of proper data entry starts to pay off. As long as you designated which contacts were to receive a Save The Date Notices, then all you have to do is select a method to export all those contacts and click a button.
Control Center Page, Step 2
Save The Date Notices are sent to people who will be invited to the wedding and who will need to make travel arrangements to attend it. They should be sent 4 to 6 months prior to the wedding, or 2 months prior to sending the actual wedding invitations. Since proper wedding etiquette doesn't require that they be sent at all, they do not need to be formal. For more information about the pieces themselves, please see the Overview Of Pieces Guide.
Because they are not formal pieces, you can use just about anything you want for your Save The Date Notices. Postcards, magnetic calendars, letter are all acceptable. Therefore the proper way to extract your data from your BridalTrack database to address these pieces is up to you. Luckily, BridalTrack has a variety of ways to extract your data from your database.
Listed below are the options your BridalTrack account provides for exporting data. For more information about how the entire data extraction process works, please see the BridalTrack Data Extraction Guide. For information about a specific extraction method listed below, click on its title below.
Step 3: Send Invitations
The first thing to do when using your BridalTrack database to send out invitations is to make sure that everyone who should receive an invitation is designated as such. If, during Step 1: Add Contacts you selected some contacts to be "Undecided", you must now decide what to send them.
Control Center Page, Step 3
To the right of the Step 3 section on the Control Center, check the "Undecided List Size". If the total is greater than 0, then click on the number to open the View List Page to show those contacts you designated as "Undecided". If it is 0, then you can jump to the data extraction portion of this guide.
Example of View List Page, Undecided Contacts
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On that page, at the left of every row that lists an "Undecided" contact, there is a link titled "View" that will open up their Contact Data Page. Here you will be able to change what they are to receive from "Undecided" to either an invitation or an announcement. So, click on the "View" link of the first contact.
Example of Contact Data Page
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Find the section labeled "Designations" (second section on the right) on the Contact Data Page. The top field in that section is labeled "Will Receive:" and their drop down box will say "Undecided". Change it to either "Announcement" or "Invitation" depending on what you have chosen to for them to receive. Finally, click the "Update Data" button located below all the contact's data to save the changes you made.
Contact Data Page, Designations Section
After saving the changes, the page will reload and an orange link labeled "View Undecided List" will appear at the top center of the page. Clicking it will take you back to the View List Page with just your "Undecided" contacts shown. Continue clearing contacts off the list in the fashion described in the previous two paragraphs until the list is empty.
Extracting Data
When the "Undecided List" has no contacts on it, you are ready to extract data from your database for your invitations. In the Step 3 section on the Control Center Page is a link that says "Invitation Guide". Clicking it will open a new browser window and show information for every person you designated to receive an invitation along with recommendations for addressing each guests inner and outer invitation envelopes. Because invitations are formal and traditionally hand written, it is advised you print your Invitation Guide and use it as a reference while addressing your invitations.
Example of The BridalTrack Invitation Guide
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Also on the Invitation Guide is each contact's reference number. This number means absolutely nothing by itself and is just a way to identify each contact within your database. Be sure to include it lightly, in pencil, on the back of the RSVP response card that the guest is to return. This number will let you quickly and easily find and note their response in your BridalTrack database.
The reference number makes finding specific contacts in your database extremely simple. It also prevents potential errors you may encounter. For example, if a response card is returned with a blank or illegible name, you can use that reference number to identify them in your BridalTrack database. Step 4: Track RSVP's of this guide details this process more in-depth.
Step 4: Track RSVP's
For about a month after sending your wedding invitations you will receive responses that allow you to know which guest will be attending. BridalTrack makes retrieving, storing, tracking and totaling these responses extremely simple.
Control Center Page, Step 4
On the Control Center Page, in the Step 4 section, is an input field with a button labeled "Find". When you receive a response to an invitation, you can use that area to look up the contact. It accepts either a name or a reference number (written on their response card in Step 3: Send Invitations). It works by searching your database and either taking you directly to the Contact Data Page or to a list of all the contacts that matched your criteria.
This is where each guest's BridalTrack reference number comes in quite handy. As discussed earlier in this guide, your BridalTrack Database assigns a unique number to each contact to help identify them within your database. By putting that number lightly in pencil on the back of each RSVP response card you send, you simplify the lookup process upon its return.
For one, if the name section is blank or illegible, the reference number you wrote will still be discernible. Secondly, if the respondents last name is the same as other contacts on your list (i.e. Smith, Jones) you will have to search through all those similar names to find the exact contact you want. Lastly, using a reference number avoids misspelling and typographical errors when searching by name.
Updating Your Database
On the Contact Data Page you can update their data to reflect how they responded to your invitation. The top right column on that page is titled "Elements to Track" and the first input box of that area should be labeled "RSVP Status". As long as it does, you may skip the next paragraph.
Example of Contact Data Page
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If "RSVP Status" is not showing in the "Elements to Track" section, then the contact is not designated to receive an invitation. To correct this, change the data in the "Will Receive" drop down located in the "Designations" section to read "Invitation". Then click the "Update Data" button at the bottom center of the form. The page will update, reload and display the "RSVP Status" box.
Change the "RSVP Status:" input box to the appropriate response for that contact. If they are not going to attend, select "Declined". If they are, select "Accepted". If they accepted the invitation be sure to update the field labeled "Party Size" to reflect the total number of people who will be attending with this contact. Most likely it will be correct, but in some instances (i.e. if they are single and noted that they are bringing a guest, or they are bringing children) you will have to change it.
Contact Data Page, Elements To Track Section
Entering the correct size for each contact's record allows your database to track the number of people attending your wedding. Knowing this will help when dealing with caterers, seating charts and any other part of the wedding that requires an accurate count of wedding attendees. When you need to find the total count of those attending your wedding, it can be found to the right of the Step 4 section of the Control Center Page and is labeled "Confirmed Attendees".
Along with the size of your wedding there are 2 other totals. The first is titled "Unconfirmed RSVP" and reflects all the contacts on your list that have been designated to receive an invitation but have yet to respond. The second, "Accepted RSVP", is the number of RSVP responses that accepted your invitation. Everytime you make a change to your data, your BridalTrack Database recalculates all the totals on your Control Center Page, letting you know exactly where you are with managing your wedding correspondence.
To continue entering respondents' data, you can return to the Database Control Center and use the form in the Step 4 section or you can also use the one atop each page of BridalTrack. When you are signed onto your database a search form appears at the top center of the page (just below the "Control Center" and "View List" links). It works exactly the same as the other one, handling both names and reference numbers. So, from any page of BridalTrack you can search your database.
Step 5: Send Announcements
Wedding Announcements allow you to inform those not attending your wedding, for whatever reason, about it. They are sent very near the wedding date so that they arrive after the wedding has occurred. This means that the optimal time for addressing and sending them is within a day of your wedding.
Control Center Page, Step 5
Accomplishing this step is very simple and similar to Step 2: Save The Date Notices. All you have to do is select an extraction method and click a button to generate the list of contacts in your database that you have designated to receive an announcement.
Listed below are the options your BridalTrack account provides for exporting data. For more information about how the entire data extraction process works, please see the BridalTrack Data Extraction Guide. For information about a specific extraction method listed below, click on its title below.
Like Save The Date Notices, announcements do not have to be hand written, so using mailing labels to send them is perfectly acceptable. However, if you do prefer to hand write them, that too is fine. Therefore, the best extraction method to use to get the data out of your database is up to you. Whichever method best suits your announcements is the one you should use.
Step 6: Gifts/Thank You Notes
The final step of managing your wedding's correspondence is tracking the gifts you receive and properly thanking those that gave them. Using BridalTrack to accomplish this is very similar to how it handles Step 4: Track RSVP's. You first find the appropriate contact in your database and then notate the new data you have.
Control Center Page, Step 6
Upon receiving a gift, use the BridalTrack Search Tool (at the top of every BridalTrack page) to find that contact's information in your database. Unlike an invitation responses that comes back with a reference number on it, when you receive a gift you will most likely have to search by the contact's last name. If there is more than one match, you will see a list of matches from which to choose.
When there is only one match you will be taken to their Contact Data Page. If there are no matches, BridalTrack will prompt you to a perform a broader search. To do this, simply click on the link(s) BridalTrack provides. If the contact does not exist in your database, you can go to the Add Contacts Page and enter them. The details of how to add guests to your database are explained in Step 1: Add Contacts of this manual.
Example of Contact Data Page
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On the Contact Data Page, the top right section is titled "Elements to Track" and the last two items in it are labeled "Gift Given" and "Sent Thank You". In the "Gift Given" box, type in what gift you received from them. If you thanking them immediately after noting their gift, then you should place a check mark in the "Sent Thank You" box. To save the changes you make click the "Update Data" button in the bottom center of the page.
Contact Data Page, Elements To Track Section
With your BridalTrack Database, though, you do not have to immediately thank your contacts. While Thank You Notes should be sent as soon as possible, you can enter all your gifts at once, and then work on all your Thank You Notes later. When you leave the "Sent Thank You" box unchecked after you enter gift information on the Contact Data Page, BridalTrack adds that contact to your list of "Thank You Notes To Send". In this way, BridalTrack helps you effeciently and conveniently send your Thank You Notes.
Just to the right of the Step 6 Section on the Control Center is a total labeled "Thank You Notes To Send:". That is where you will be able to retrieve a list of people who have given gifts but have not been sent Thank You Notes. To get to the list, when the total is greater than 0, click on the number. You will be taken to the View List Page and be shown just the contacts who have given gifts but you have not thanked.
Example of View List Page
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From there, you can click on the link titled "View" to the right of each contact to pull up their Contact Data Page. Here you will be able to retrieve the contact's address and what they gave so that you can properly complete a Thank You Note to them. Once you have, be sure to place a check in the "Sent Thank You:" box and update the page's information. When the page reloads the information will be saved and there will be a link at the top of the page that says "View Unthanked List" which will return to your updated list of people to thank.
While Thank You Notes should be sent immediately after a gift is received, common etiquette gives you a maximum of 6 weeks. Using BridalTrack to track your gifts and and your "Unthanked List" to stay on top of your Thank You Notes will make the entire process more convenient and efficient.
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