Wait, I'm Just a Guest?

Being asked to plan someone’s wedding is one of the most rewarding feelings. The fact that someone wants US to be apart of their wedding day and trust us to guide them and help them during this special time is incredible.

Being invited to someone’s wedding is also a wonderful feeling. We all know brides work on a budget and they feel that you are important enough to spend this day with them. Out of all the people in their lives…you made the top 150. The whole family cherishes the wedding day and to be able to witness two people declare their love for each other is a huge deal. You will be in the pictures, the memories and the witnesses for this couple.

So…as wedding planner, when we are invited to weddings as guests…the role changes drastically. We are not calling vendors early in the morning, reviewing contracts, putting on the most comfortable shoes we can find, gathering paperwork, and headed for a night full of timelines and management. When we are guests…we wake up the morning of the wedding…with nothing to do! It is a very weird feeling, almost like we are definitely forgetting something.

I was a guest at a wedding a few weeks ago and we arrived 30 minutes before the ceremony started…and of course my first question was, “Where are the bride & groom?” My fiancé had to politely remind me that someone else was taking care of that. I laughed at myself realizing that he was in fact…right (won’t even admit that to him!) I caught myself checking the time, as the minutes got closer, and was relived when I heard the venue coordinator tell guests to start taking their seats.

As much as I wanted to be a carefree guest, I am always a planner and always thinking and evaluating the situation. The little details that no one else would ever notice were the big things I noticed. Watching the bridesmaids hold their bouquets at the proper place made me so happy, seeing the spacing at the altar look perfect was wonderful and of course when the ceremony music and the microphones for the outside ceremony work perfectly and sound amazing…I couldn’t help but smile.

The reception was a blast! Although I did keep my internal timeline on guard waiting for the buffet lines to open, cake cutting, toasts & the send off I tried to enjoy every bit of the reception as a normal guest. I would say I did pretty well…but there is always room for improvement.

So my advice to all wedding planners out there is to learn how to be JUST a guest. I am not quite there yet but I am getting close!