You can spend ages preparing for a wedding. You can be indefatigable. You may be inventive, thorough and ridiculously pessimistic. You think of absolutely every eventuality.
Except for one thing. Or even two.
You see, it’s actually impossible to plan for everything.
I’m a celebrant. I know.
- In my experience, I could hardly have expected a venue to suffer a fire just before the ceremony was due to start, could I?!
2. Why should I have anticipated that the venue’s satnav address wasn’t actually right?
3. Stupidly, it never occurred to me that the couple would replace their Best Man at the last minute (without telling me)!
4. And then I had never expected to lose a bride!
Solutions
These are all dodgy things that have happened in the course of conducting over 150 smooth and successful ceremonies. They were all solved (by good luck as well as judgement!).
If you’re interested, here’s what happened.
- The fire was put out by the fire brigade without much damage. The kitchens had been over-enthusiastic with the barbecue. We were able to proceed, if rather belatedly.
- When I turned up at the wrong address, the residents were charming (and used to the occurrence!). They politely directed me about a mile down the road, and, as I was, as usual, in good time, this proved not to be an issue.
- The couple didn’t inform me of the change of Best Man even when I called him up by name. Nobody moved, but they didn’t say a word! Based on a conversation I had had just before the ceremony, I went out on a limb and hazarded a different person. Fortunately, I was right!!
- The bride was driving to the Brixton venue. It turns out her driver got very lost. There was no phone reception inside the venue, so we couldn’t communicate. We just waited with increasing anxiety for about half an hour – until the bride magically materialised!
Reacting to Mistakes or Misadventure
As you can judge, unpredictable things happen.
For those planning a wedding themselves, the worst thing can be imagining what might go wrong. This can spoil the run-up to the wedding – and even the day itself. Possibly, for nothing.
If you’ve planned sensibly and not taken too many short cuts, probably the most important thing is to have reconfirmed your suppliers in timely fashion. In that case, there’s no point dreaming up calamities that might just happen. Trust the suppliers you have engaged and enjoy your big day!
However, there is an alternative to planning the event yourselves.
Use Wedding Planners
Wedding planners are professionals. They are normally experienced and know what works and what doesn’t. They take the worry off your hands.
Honest ones would admit that the unexpected does still happen. But they can usually react suitably and save the day.
So should you use one?
The short answer is that you have to balance the price they will cost you with the peace of mind they will give you.
“You pays your money, and you gets your choice!”
If you want to discuss this article further, or you just fancy a chat with a celebrant, please do contact me.