Smart Wedding Reviewer's Comments

When planning a wedding, a great reputation is the number one quality everyone looks for in a service. So why should you settle for anything less in wedding planning software? Smart Wedding, “TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award,” has a reputation for consistently proving to help organize and alleviate the stress of brides to be.

Although Smart Wedding doesn't have many fancy features everything is easy to use, effective and self explanatory. A unique feature to Smart Wedding is the ability for your guest to RSVP online. You can invite various guests to different events including the ceremony, reception, bachelor party or bridal shower. They have one of the best budgeting sections we reviewed and it’s easy to import and export all your guests with a CSV or TXT file.

Smart Wedding includes a large list of tasks common to wedding preparations; however, it is missing a calendar feature. Obviously, Smart Wedding was designed a few years ago. Compared to our other top products it’s interface seems old and dated; however, everything works great and it’s look shouldn’t necessarily be a deterrence.

Smart Wedding Screenshots. Click for more
       


Features Set:  

After entering guest information, the program automatically prompts you to invite them to specific events, such as the ceremony, bachelor party and so on. The way this is established is excellently organized allowing you to invite individual people to various events without inviting their spouse or guest. For example, your single best friend is invited to all the events, but her date for the wedding isn’t necessarily invited to everything. Guest information tracks all possible invite situations including spouse, children, guest and accommodations. Additionally, you can import and export all guests from a CSV or TXT file.

The online RSVP feature is unique to Smart Wedding. When you register the software, Smart Wedding will send you a user name and password. With these you can track your RSVPs, simply include your pin number and wedding date in the traditional invitation.

Of the software we reviewed, Smart Wedding included one of the better budget sections. The program includes several common budget sections like fashion, ceremony and flowers, but you cannot add additional sections. You can track cost by individual items. The main page displays estimated cost, actual cost, variance, deposit, amount paid and balance due. The payment screen includes the dates in which each payment was made.

The budget section works closely with the vendor section. You can specify, view and add a vendor from the budget screen. Vendor information includes name, address and phone, but you can also include the supplier’s email and website address. We were disappointed they did not include a field for a contact person’s name.

Smart Wedding’s tasklists and timelines section is sparse. Although they include a large list of tasks with more than 50 preloaded entries, they do not provide any kind of daily or monthly calendar feature. Additionally, you can assign tasks to different people, but your only choices are bride, groom or both.

Smart Wedding includes a simple, but effective seating section. You can assign guests to particular tables, label tables and change the number of seats at each table. Although you cannot design your table layout, Smart Wedding allows you to add guests to your list without going all the way back to the guest and invitation screen. We were disappointed that you could create and track a menu, but could not print it.

This software does not provide any tips or information regarding etiquette or invitations. Therefore, you have the ability to print invitation labels, but not invitations or any kind of fancy stationary. However, you can print table cards for your reception.

Ease of Use:  

We found Smart Wedding to be very easy to use. All sections are conveniently located on the left hand side of the screen.

The interface is a little dated, but functional. All the events on the overview page can be clicked and updated; however, you are not aware of this unless you mouse over the area. Making this feature more obvious would be beneficial.

Ease of Installation/Setup:  

We didn’t encounter any problems installing this software. Additionally, it can run on Windows Vista.

Help/Support:  

Smart Wedding offers telephone and email support. There is an integrated help manual and FAQs on the manufacturer’s website. All our emails were answered quickly. However, unlike many of the products we reviewed Smart Wedding did not include a trial download or demo of the software.

Summary:  

Smart Wedding achieves it’s mission in it’s goal to be one of the best and easiest to use wedding planning programs on the market. Although the interface seems a little old, it is still effective. Additionally, Smart Wedding has one of the best budget sections we reviewed.