Wedding From The Groom's Perspective, Part 1

My good friend and buddy Nomad suggested I start up a weekly feature about weddings from the grooms perspective.

I am getting married on April 8th, and I was just the best man at another friends wedding on February 4th, so I bring the male perspective from two positions to this undertaking.

So... here goes:)

Plan, Plan, Plan! Nothing is worse than coming to week of your wedding and having sudden problems that could have been avoided by a little planning. Whether it is printing programs earlier than the day of the rehearsal, or checking to make sure you have the PA system figured out at your reception site, it all means PLANNING.

At the wedding I was recently involved in I, with the help of my intrepid Brotherhood of Groomsmen, helped to forstall certain burnout by the parents, the bride and the groom.

You see, the day before the wedding of my good friend, the intrepid Groomsmen were folding invitations (and printing them) my friend was getting the songs for the reception picked out and transfered to an MP3 player (which was a BIG hassle... go iPod, forget Creative), he was packing, we ended up finding out that the sound system at the reception site was non existent, and it also turned out that somewhere in the whole wedding planning someone forgot to plan the reception. And the rest of that week had been no picnic either.

Now, this is not to say it wasn't a wonderful wedding. It was. And some of those things I listed were unavoidable (we shall see how many I can avoid!). But some were things that should be done beforehand.

The real problem was that no one had planned out a schedule to follow, so it was unclear who was doing what or when.

And of course, the biggest thing was not getting the reception planned out. I arrived at the reception, after the ceremony, to find that there was no schedule for events or anything! I had a quick chat with the only guy I knew (who I had heard was the MC) and we figured out what to do when, and executed the plan. But somewhere along the line, someone forgot that the reception needs to be planned just like the wedding.

Most of these problems can be forstalled by delegating. Especially when planning a reception, someone needs to be in charge, to be the MC, the one who tells the guests what is going on when, and keeps everyone entertained. You should tell him the events, and he should figure out timing, and get you to sign off on the schedule.

The same goes for other things. Delegate a sibling or friend to print the programs, delegate someone to put together a playlist for the reception, and then sign off on the finished product.

Anyway, one thing the wedding I was involved in, and the planning for my own have taught me is, always plan more time than you think for things, delegate responsibility, and ALWAYS have a schedule so everyone knows what to do.