I see a lot of wedding planning websites talking about timelines and the order of events at a wedding. While having a solid idea of the order of events is really important, I think the value of a wedding planner is that we're not just a facilitator of a pre-written plan. A good wedding coordinator is an artful orchestrator of multiple concurrent timelines, some going on in the guest's and client's view (the "front of the house"), and many others in the background ("back of the house" or "backstory") stuff.
The trick is to juggle all of these concurrent timelines and requests while making sure the overall vibe of the wedding stays true to the wishes of our client. For example, one client told us, "Music is the #1 most important thing, please make sure there is absolutely NO dead time and that the music is pumping all night long". We then made it a priority to engineer the sequence of events to allow a seamless transition from cocktail hour trio, to dinner background music, to live band for the rest of the night, and a DJ during their breaks. All while other, just as important sequences and timelines were occurring, related to the food service, additional photos, announcements, and little surprises. Perhaps we would have organized the sequence differently, had that client emphasized food service, or decor instead.
Sometimes though, that "overall vision" may not perfectly match up with that written plan that says that dinner is served right at 6:00 or that the cake will be cut at 8:30. Perhaps the bride and groom got swept up in dinner conversation, or the photographer found a perfect sunset spot and snuck away with them for a few minutes. What do you do then? Something always happens and you have to be ready for it. Tomorrow, in Part 2, we'll talk about "the nudge" and how we use it to get everything to mesh together smoothly.
Photo courtesy Holland Studios.
