August 15, 2008, Razonado - Coca Wedding
(Leah Jacobe, left side the groom)
This is a very memorable wedding for me. This marked the greatest lesson I have ever learned as a Wedding Planner.
Delegation.
In this wedding, I helped my cousin, the bride in all the wedding details. I went with her in the many arrangements to make the wedding very memorable and organized. I also agreed to be one of the Bride's maids, Church commentator, Emcee during the reception and church coordinator. So basically, I allowed myself to be everything in one.
Before the wedding day, everything was so smooth, the preparations were all set. Until that fateful day, the wedding day.
As the wedding planner, I know very well how the event should roll along. But being the wedding planner, bride's maid, commentator and emcee altogether, is very very chaotic.
It turned out, that I was a one-man army at this time, there were major lapses in the ceremony like there was no one to guide the entourage on the distance as they walked down the aisle, bride's maids and groom's men didn't really know what they were there for and worse at the reception there was no one to cue the couple as they enter the hall because I was on stage as the master of ceremony.
So all in all evaluating my performance, I really flopped in this event. I looked at it as my guiding experience as I move on and improve other weddings as well. I learned 3 crucial things in this experience:
1. Assert my stand in the planning process.
I failed my expectations to myself because I didn't really know when to assert myself and ideas to make the whole wedding plan grand. I just let the bride do all the decision-making and I just rolled over even though I had great ideas of my own that would have been acceptable to the couple. I knew something but I kept quiet.
2. Accept only ONE key role in the entire event.
Another thing that I contributed to my failure as a wedding planner in this event is that I accepted too many key roles in the event. I lost focus and I got easily burned. I didn't delegate the roles and never bothered to call on help.
3. DELEGATE the tasks.
Lastly, I failed to give tasks to others who might have been helpful in making this event more organized.
But alas! This is the very same wedding that taught me to draft better weddings and learn from the experience. This has become the cornerstone of all my wedding coordinations as I want to become better and better in making great weddings happen. I never forgot the experience until now. I learned a lot from it and the lessons were so valuable to lose.
I know that for the next weddings that I'll be handling, I am more focused, more in control and more organized. Thanks to this fateful wedding day!
-Leah Judith R. Jacobe-
The Wedding Planner
Davao City, Philippines
leahjacobe@gmail.com
