Review of Erin Condren's Gold Edition Life Planner

    I hate to admit this, but I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of these planners since the night I ordered them! I have been so excited to get them, that I have checked the tracking several times in the past week! :)  So I am going to show off one of the planners I bought from Erin Condren.  First let me say that I did order two planners, The Gold Edition Life Planner (reviewed here) and a Teacher Planner also.  If anyone is interested in seeing the teacher planner, let me know and I can do a separate post on that!

So here it is....

     If you are like me and love anything sparkly, then this planner is for you!  Erin has went a step further from the Life Planner and is offering a very high quality, luxury design. Now, I will admit, this planner is a bit more expensive than I was looking to spend ($75 to be exact). However, once I saw it, I wanted it.  And now that I have it, it was definitely WORTH it!!

     I absolutely love the front cover! I chose turquoise because it is one of my most favorite colors in the whole world! There are four colors to choose from including white, turquoise, pink, and purple for the Gold Edition.  Each of the selections do come with the gold foil stamping in the design shown on the front cover.  My cover is personalized with just my name.  You can have the year put on or any personalization you'd like.  The cover is a heavy duty laminate (10 mL) and is actually very durable.  I was skeptical about the lamination before I received my planner just because I have worked with a lot of different laminate before and was expected it to be at best, what I had experienced in the past.  This is some AWESOME laminate!!

     Let's journey inside the planner now! The back of the front cover is once again, decorated with the beautiful gold foil stamping.  This is a very tedious task, which is why it is a little more expensive and production time is about a week longer than the regular planners (I still think it was worth the wait and the extra moolah!). It says "This is my Life" on the inside cover.  It gives you room to put your name and personal information.  The very first page of the planner is a beuatiful vellum overlay with gold foil stamping dots on it.  Behind that is another page with the "On the go - life planner" saying.  I really think it was a nice touch to have the overlay.  It just seems to add that touch of elegance that you do not find in most planners.

     I definitely wanted to show y'all the beautiful gold coil that holds the planner together.  It is very heavy duty and is an aluminum plated coil that ensures that there will not be any bending of your planner! That is an important feature for me simply because I have had too many "cute" planners come undone because they were made cheaply.  Plastic coils that come undone and my pages flying everywhere is NOT what I wanted to deal with in the middle of the hallway.  This coil will take care of that! :)

     Another great feature that they tweaked this year was slimming the planner. Past Life Planners have been a little bit more bulky.  This planner fits nicely in my purse and I am able to pull it out at my convenience.

      I have a very outgoing personality and I truly appreciate all the beauty that color adds to my world.  I LOVE the paisley design and I love how colorful all of the inspirational pages are in this planner!  There are lots of great quotes throughout the entire planner!

     This is probably one of my favorite features in the Life Planner.  The "Birthdays & Anniversaries" page spreads are so nice to have in a planner! I like having them all in one spot so I can just glance at this section without having to search throughout all of the months.  I can always go in to the individual months and add the birthdays there as well.  It's just nice having them here all together!  The days of each month are even labeled for you under each month.  So all you have to do is add your names to them!

     After the birthdays and annversaries pages, you will find a 16-month spread of individual months.  This is a great feature just to be able to look ahead at a coming month and highlight any important dates.

      This is the beginning of the actual planner.  I chose to do a 12-month planner from August to August.  The reason I chose that option is because every summer, Erin Condren's team updates the Life Planners and I know I will want to get a new one each summer before the school year starts.  As you can see, more beautiful and colorful quotes.  Love it!

     At the beginning of each month there is a 2-page spread of the entire month.  I love this feature because it gives you more room to write in the individual squares.  This was an update from last year's planner. Each month has a different color scheme, which keeps it both colorful and differentiated!

     This is your individual week pages.  I love that there is a "goal & notes" area on each week! It is located on the left side.  The planner does not follow a traditional calendar in that it begins with Monday first.  Erin did this specifically so that each week was together instead of having to flip a page to see Sunday.  She also explains on her website that she did this because she likes to be able to see her weekend-days side by side.  Each day is separated by morning, afternoon, and evening.  I find this as a pro and a con.  It can be great if you already plan your days by morning, afternoon, evening style, but it can also be difficult for those of us who would just like a complete column.  I see the idea behind it, but I'd prefer to just have it one big column instead of broken up.

     Another added feature to this year's planner is the planning section at the bottom of each page throughout the weekly sections.  You can plan your meals, your exercise regiments, grocery lists, bills to pay, and so much more in this section! I really love this feature!

  

     I just love these note pages that are included in the planner! There are several different designs included. I am definitely a "list" kind of person. I find it helps me to stay on track to get everything done that I have to without being too OCD about my daily responsibilties.  These are just two of the designs included in the planner (there are several notes pages included!).

     I really like these two pages.  The page on the left is an area where you can put all of your important numbers (police non-emergency, fire department, grocery stores, hair stylist, accountant, lawyer - these are just some of the examples included).  The page on the right is an area for you to put important contacts that you need to have on hand (Work, parents, siblings, church, etc).  You can add whatever contacts on the right side that you'd like, but it is only one page.  I like the fact they didn't add several pages for contacts because it would bulk up the planner.

     I apologize for the blurry picture on this, but these are one of my favorite features! There are sheets of stickers already customized with important sayings on them for you to use throughout your planner! This sheet is all "birthday!" stickers (60 count).  They also have doctor appointment, hair appointment, mani/pedi, dentist appointment, party, vacation, concert, game, day off, and sale stickers.  You get a total of 240 stickers with your planner!

     In addition to the stickers with the sayings, you also get two sheets of plain stickers.  These are great because you can add whatever you need to, to your planner without having to buy the customizable stickers!

     After the stickers, you get a double sided pocket to store any important notes, papers, documents, etc.  Love the colors! It is called the "Keep it together" pocket... obviously! :)

     Printed inside the back cover is the following two years' calendars.  If you order a planner for this year, it will have 2015 and 2016 printed in the back of it.

     Here is the back cover! I just love it! I absolutely love the gold foil stamping.  It reminds me of a Moroccan influence! So beautiful and makes a statement.

     There are lots of extras that you can add on to your planner.  These do have an additional fee, but some of them are great to have.  I ordered two note pads to go along with both of my planners.  I am a really big note taker during meetings so it will be nice to have everything in one place.  Makes it easier for me to find! :)  These match the design of my Life Planner and they have sticky tabs on the back that you just simply peel off and stick to the inside of the back cover! :)

     As I mentioned before, you can get some extras added to your planner.  I added on 2 more sticker sheets (you can customize these on the website for $5.00).  I decided on just getting them plain.  You also get a laminated bookmark with gold chevron on one side and an inspirational quote on the other.  The other great sparkly you get with your planner is the gold stretchy band to go around your planner to keep it closed.  You do NOT have to pay extra for those two items, unless you just want extras of them in which case, you can add more to your order.

    You also get gift labels included in your planner in a pouch that is included inside.  It is nice to have those as well! They match your planner and then there are a few random ones with your name on them.  Still pretty and easily used!

   Overall, I am very happy with my planner! I cannot wait to start using it in August! I will definitely update with a blog explaining how I organize and use my planner!  I hope you found this review helpful! 

Please follow me and leave a comment if you have any questions or an opinion on your own Life Planner! I will try to help you as much as I can!

If you'd like to check out the additional items you can add on to your planner, visit Erin's website!

Go here to watch a video of the updates made to the planner for this year!!

Have a Tidy Day!

Amanda