The Wedding Planner

My daughter got married last week.  There was a beautiful ceremony, followed by a feast and dancing.  A good time was had by all.

Now that I'm a veteran of helping put together a successful wedding and reception, I would recommend the following to all those who may one day do the same:

1)  Make sure you have a spouse who takes care of most of the details in the months leading up to the wedding.  I cannot stress enough how critical this is.

2)  Buy local.  That out-of-town caterer or photographer may be your favorite, but when the time comes, you'll want to communicate with them face-to-face, and not worry about the travel/time.

3)  Have a personal helper(s) at both the wedding and reception venues - someone whose sole responsibility is to help you with whatever needs to be done.  There is so much going on, you aren't going to remember the details of what needs to be done, much less have time to do them.  Also, there is going to be a lot of stuff that needs to be transported from the wedding to the reception, and from the reception to home.

4)  Try to spend time with family the day before the wedding.  They're going to want to talk to you on the wedding day, of course, but so will everyone else.  Get some of the conversations shared beforehand, and you won't feel as bad about not being able to talk to them afterward.

5)  Make sure you have a long pre-reception day meeting with person(s) responsible for the dance music, and make sure they play what you want and don't play what you don't want.  We did this, and it was a rock solid idea. You don't want a lame night of dancing to end an otherwise great day.

6)  Starting the week of the wedding, if any out-of-towners ask you for suggestions on where to go or what to do, ask them why they didn't ask sooner, and then suggest they use their smartphones and figure it out themselves. Shame on them, you have too much to do at that point to be bothered with their unrelated entertainment.

7)  Re-read Item 1.