1. Making sure the DJ gets there, and on time.

How do you make this happen?

Now, I’m not picking on DJs here as you could enter the name of any  supplier here – florist, cake maker, make-up artist, caterer,  magician… the list is endless! The point is, most suppliers will have been booked by you when you were at the peak of  your planning  frenzy, weeks, if not months, before your wedding day and you may not  have had the time to reconfirm all the details with them in the week  before the day itself. Worse still, their computer may have had a  down and lost your details!

Ask someone you trust, someone who is good with details (perhaps your Dad or your best friend, the lawyer!) and who won’t give up at the first unreturned phone call, to contact all of your suppliers in the last 2 weeks before the wedding.

They’ll need to get the name of the person coming on the day, their mobile number, details of what they’re bringing and when and and any other useful info (do they need paying on or before the day and if so, how much and by what method?). It’s also a good idea to have a set of directions that can be emailed to every supplier so that they’ll be properly prepared.

2. Getting the tables set up as you expect them to be.

You’ve put a lot of thought and time, not to mention money and effort, into how you want the reception venue to look when you walk in for the first time. Hours spent pouring over websites, magazines, books to get things just perfect for your wedding.

So you’re bound to be a little disappointed, even if you know you shouldn’t be, when the centre pieces are facing the wrong way, the bows aren’t straight on your favour boxes or the place name cards aren’t exactly where you wanted them to be. But did you take the time to tell anyone exactly what the picture in your head looked like?

How do you make this happen?

Ask someone you trust to take responsibility for making sure that the room and tables are laid out exactly as you want them to be. This could be one of your bridesmaids who is renowned for her organisational skills and her friendly nature (a smile always helps to get things done, after all!).

You’ll need to sit down with her and tell her exactly how you want things to look – sketch table layouts on pieces of paper, tell her what you’re looking to achieve, and why, and then let her be the gatekeeper of that vision. She’ll need to liaise with the venue before the wedding day and work with them on it to make sure that the only thing that overshadows the set-up is your beaming smile when you see it for the first time.

3. Making sure the food is perfect.

This is not a slight against caterers in any way – it’s more of a warning to you. It is a delicate operation catering for a large amount of people and timings are absolutely crucial. Without a strict timeline for your wedding day things will over-run or, occasionally under-run, and this can cause even the calmest caterer or chef to throw a wobbly!

They are only as good as the food they serve and so, if they’re forced to serve over or under cooked food due to timing issues, they won’t be happy, and neither will you and your guests.

How do you make this happen?

Ask someone you trust to take charge of time-keeping for the day. An usher is usually a good person to entrust with this task (the Best Man will probably be worrying too much about his speech!), but make sure they understand the importance of it. It’s no good asking someone to do this if they’re going to be more interested in propping up the bar or chasing the bridesmaids all day!

They’ll need to know the timings for the day that you have agreed with the venue and/or the caterer and liaise with them both on the day. They will need to take charge of getting people sat down in time for the meal to be served, or in the right area at the right time for a buffet, or bowl-food, service to commence.

You can also entrust them with making sure the speeches start on time, especially if you’re planning on doing them before a meal, ensuring that any evening guests are welcomed and not just left to wander about feeling a little lost, and to help with winding things down at the end of the night.

4. Keep the atmosphere going all evening.

It wouldn’t be a wedding without a few people drinking a little bit  too much and, if it stays good humoured, there usually isn’t any cause for complaint. But, if a few guests spoil the evening for 
everybody else with behaviour that gets out of hand after too much alcohol, who’s going to sort it out? Not only that but you’ll have the added worry that any damage they do to the venue will end up 
having to be paid for by you and it’s not hard to see why this could mar an otherwise perfect day.

How do you do this?

Ask someone you trust, someone who doesn’t drink or who you know will be sensible, to keep an eye out for trouble and nip it in the bud. Ask them to speak to the venue co-ordinator before the wedding and agree that they will not serve alcohol to people who have already had too much and ensure that this person knows at least a couple of other  guests they can count on to help them calm down, or if absolutely necessary, move trouble-makers on without you even knowing about it.

5. Enjoy, and savour, every single moment of a day that flies by.

There are no prizes for brides or grooms who insist on doing everything themselves and refuse all offers of help. Well, there are, but they’re not the sort of prizes you’d want to win… dark circles under your eyes, stressed out skin, dull hair, no energy to get excited and a fear that even with your best efforts things are bound to go wrong on the day.

Do you really want to spend the last couple of weeks before your wedding fielding calls from suppliers who seem to have forgotten everything you told them when you could be relaxing with your partner 
and catching up with friends and family who want to wish you well for your big day?

Do you want to spend the morning of your wedding racing around the reception venue, having to explain to staff for the fiftieth time that you want the place name cards on the left of the wine glass not the right, when you could be sat with your feet up, sipping a glass of champagne and being thoroughly pampered?

Do you really want to spend your entire wedding day worrying about whether you’re going to run out of wine and being asked questions by people that don’t need to be answered by you when you could be relaxed, happy and taking time to step back and take the mental snapshots of a wonderful day that will last you both a lifetime?

Thought not.

How do you make this happen?

You’ve got it – find people you can trust and delegate tasks to them. Make sure you pick the right people for each task, brief them in depth and let them ask you lots of questions, and then let them get on with things – don’t interfere or you might as well do it all yourself and we know that’s the way nightmares lie!

People love to feel trusted with important tasks so this is the perfect way to ask friends and family who might not be your bridesmaids or ushers or readers, to play a special role on your wedding day.

But, if you don’t want to impose on your friends and family and would rather they were free to enjoy every minute of this special day with you, a good wedding planner can solve all of the above problems before they even happen, and many more besides. magicdust’s ‘On The Day’ wedding coordinator service is one of our most popular services and that’s no surprise to me.

I’m leaving the final word to Claire & David who used magicdust’s ‘On The Day’ wedding coordinator service for their wedding in March 2008:

“Everyone says that there will always be something that goes wrong on the day, but Tammy ensured that even if there were any problems, we knew nothing about them. The best thing was all the contact she had with the suppliers, meaning that I didn’t have to worry about any of them not turning up, or not knowing what to do.

For more wedding planning tips vist http://www.magic-dust.co.uk

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