Planning Your Big Day
Creating The Most Memorable Wedding
The happy couple have finally set a date. When the excitement and well-wishes have settled down, the arduous task of planning their big day begins. There is a lot to plan before they get there though: how many can they afford to invite? If they are from different parts of the country, will it be closest to, the bride’s home, the groom’s home or somewhere in the middle? What about abroad? Do they have a church wedding or have the entire day as a hotel package? Whose job is it to do what? Who will send out the invitations? More importantly, who will pay for it?
These are the questions a couple must ask themselves before tying the knot and friends and family will no doubt always be on hand to offer their advice, to recount anecdotes of things gone well and horror stories that come with a “don’t do it the way I did it”. Some advice will be meaningful, some unhelpful and no doubt the couple will feel pressured by family members who suggest they do things a certain way. It’s no wonder the couple feel stressed and in some cases threaten to call the whole thing off.
Make Sure Mother Cries for the Right Reasons
Certainly those issues will need handling but for a smooth transition on the big day itself will take a lot of co-ordination. The couple are supposed to be experiencing the best day of their life so they shouldn’t have to worry about anything. The sort of issues they would need to think about beforehand is whether there will be a theme, what time the ceremony will be, the order of the day, the table layout (not just in terms of who will sit where but also where the tables will go and where the head table will be in relation to everybody else).
These seemingly small issues are so numerous that they could not always be expected to cope with it on their own. They could delegate to a family member but what if that other person has specific ideas about what should be? That could cause conflict. This is where you might consider the services of a dedicated Wedding Planner. They do not have a specific role as this could be tailored to the individual couple’s needs; but their job is to bring in some professional organisation that will relieve some of the pressure of organising the day.
Which Fork Do I Use?
There are usually issues that the couple do not think of and if left unattended could create unnecessary stress on the big day. With experience, a Wedding Planner can help to deal with those issues. If you have a church wedding – and most people still do – it is usually the Priest or Vicar (with the assistance of his own staff, the Best Man and his ushers) to organize the proceedings of the ceremony. What about afterward? It isn’t his role to organize the photographs outside the church and without somebody to take charge it could end up a bit of a shambles especially if you don’t have a professional photographer.
A Wedding Planner could be on hand to make sure the couple’s desires for what photographs are taken and when are adhered to. At the drinks reception, they are the person who ushers people through to the right area at the right time so they can begin setting the scene for the reception. If the caterers have not turned up on time, it is they who will handle it. As well as organising everything beforehand, it is their role to ensure that everything goes as planned on the day dealing with any crisis that crops up. He/she might also play the Bride’s personal assistant!
Some people decide to become professional Wedding Planners are realising that they should have hired one for their own wedding. There are courses available where you could learn to organize somebody else’s wedding and help to make it perfect.
Gem Wilson got married in 2009 on a budget and largely organising the events between the wedding parties. Though she is now divorced, Ecta Creative Solutions may give some ideas about organisation should she ever decide to take the plunge again.
