News 4-27-09 "Enlist Help!"

Wedding News

Organizing your Wedding: Delegate! by: ourweddingplus.com

Wouldn't it be nice if you had some help to unload some of the wedding week tasks and stress? After all you've been strapped down with all that wedding planning for the past year! Deciding on every detail to make sure your special day is great. Now it's time to start enjoying yourself so you can have some pleasant memories of your wedding. If you hired a wedding planner, hopefully you have nothing to worry about but if you didn't here's some advice.

Use your bridesmaids! Those close friends and family that you asked to buy a special dress and stand by your side at the altar aren't just well dressed bookends to complete the look at the front of the church. And, since they are special people in your life they shouldn't be offended when you ask them to help you out! Now this also goes for the groomsmen too! So get your fiancé on board to enlist their help. But in order to make their help worthwhile here's what you need to do.

1. Plan out your wedding - your wedding is the coming together of a bunch of smaller pieces to make one almost flawless event, you hope. This requires planning, you are basically a project manager organizing a bunch of "sub-contractors" (i.e. the florist, the bakery, the caterer, the officiate, the photographer, the limos, etc.) to work together in sync to make your day flow smoothly. So, sit down and organize the flow on paper. Who shows up when, what will they need to perform their job, and what will be expected of them?

2. Break your plan down into manageable pieces - If you have four bridesmaids group the duties down into four divisions based on work load (division 1: florist, bakery; division 2: caterer, officiate; etc). You can assign 1 groomsman and 1 bridesmaid per division to oversee them in the days leading up to your wedding.

3. Let your bridesmaids know what is expected of them upfront - Don't wait until a couple days before the wedding to tell your bridesmaids you need their help. Let them know the day you ask them to be your bridesmaid. Assign them their division at that time so they can become adjusted to the idea.

4. Get them involved up front - In order for them to carry out your plan, they need to know your vision. Bring them with you when you meet with your florist or caterer, etc. This way they know what is expected, plus you also get some more bonding time with your friends! This will also give you piece of mind that they know what you want and that they will be able to handle issues without you.

5. Enjoy your day! Hopefully, with all the pre-planning, all your wedding party will have to do is make sure the wedding professionals that you hired show up and do their job and maybe only answer a few questions for you.

Okay, delegating may be very hard for some people, remember you are not giving up control just giving up some of the stress. And, if you do your homework upfront hopefully you will be able to relax a little while your friends and family manage a small piece of your wedding for you!