The phrase “it takes a village” has proven true many times over in my life: my work, parenting, and family. Thus, it comes as no surprise that this bit of wisdom also holds true for weddings.

I got married the year after my first year of teaching. It was nice because the last day of school was exactly one month before my wedding, so I saved most wedding related tasks for that month before. From the start, I really valued being present and living in the moment as much as possible on my wedding day. I knew that it was pretty much inevitable that it would be a blur, but I wanted to soak up as much as possible! And after acknowledging that, I quickly realized also how much would need to happen on the wedding day that I couldn’t help with or be in charge of.

Enter: your village. I strongly believe that every bride needs a wedding day-of “person” or small village so that it’s not YOU making the call but someone else you’ve deemed worthy of making the call when something needs to get done or a decision needs to be made. In my case, I appointed my Aunt Dee to be my “person” and also had other aunts to help with tasks. I spent the weeks leading up to my wedding prepping them on everything so that way when the day came, I literally didn’t worry about anything! And in case you don’t have an amazing team of aunts willing to do these jobs for you, don’t forget you can honor a friend by deeming them your “personal attendant” who can help with some things, or you can hire a wedding planner whose job would be to would take care of #allthethings.

Above: Me with my “person,” Aunt Dee; along with some other aunts (her sisters!) that helped out!

So if you’re curious how I prepped my people, read on!

I spent a few days writing down every little task I could possibly think of. From bringing programs to the church to taking my dress bag from the bridal suite to the reception hall- I wrote down EVERYTHING. I walked through the entire day in my head, step by step, thinking of everything I needed at every location. Then I delegated every.single.task. I am lucky to have many aunts that were all itching for a job or two, so once I had everything set, I sent out a mass email telling them exactly what I’d need each person to do and when to do it. In case you’re wondering, I am Type A 😂

If you want to see juuusssttttt how Type A I am, I’m linking the exact email I sent them with their jobs for your comic relief this Wednesday. Yes, it is three typed pages… what can I say, I’m thorough 😂!

Me heading to Chicago from my Milwaukee apartment, complete with a PACKED car of wedding stuff!

Main Takeaways

1. Delegate, delegate, delegate! Give people jobs, or hire someone who’s job is to get it all done
2. Walk through your wedding day in your head. Write down everything you need as you go, and that will help you create a list of jobs associated with each thing.
3. Your wedding day will be beautiful whether or not the centerpieces are arranged how you envisioned. The show will go on if the programs are accidentally forgotten in a hotel room. All you truly need is your fiance at the end of the day, so let that be the lens everything else is done through. ❤