Wedding Day Life Savers

Now, we’ve all know a bride or two with a diva attitude and a full entourage to fulfill her every wedding day whim (or to bear the brunt of her wrath). While we would never advocate manipulating your nearest and dearest into acting as your lowly handmaidens, there is a lot to be said for delegating certain responsibilities. You will have everything possible planned ahead of time, of course, but there are certain situations that require some on-the-fly choreography.

Designating a friend or family member to herd people, as necessary, and to make last-minute executive decisions will leave you free to enjoy your day and rest assured that things are in good hands. (Just make sure that you do, in fact, appoint good hands. High-strung control freaks need not apply!)

Suggested roles to fill:

Photo Coordinator -- Especially if you’re planning on a lot of group shots, you’re going to have a considerable amount of corralling to do. If you think your posse of college friends will be waiting patiently by for you to get through the dozens of family shots, you’re sorely mistaken. But if you have a friend appointed to round people up when they’re needed, you won’t be running around doing the dirty work yourself. Plus, the job will take much less time and you’ll get to the reception that much sooner. 

Speech Director -- As we’ve all experienced, wedding speeches can set the tone for a wonderfully touching and spirited evening of laughter, dancing and nostalgia, or they can make you cringe and want to crawl under the table. Screeching microphones, awkward pauses between speeches and confusion over who’s speaking next can take what should be rousing toasts into please-kill-me-now territory.

But if you have someone standing by who knows what order in which people are speaking, they can keep the proceedings moving. They can also oversee microphone setup, troubleshoot any technical problems with the sound technician, and make sure that everything’s good to go before the knives start clinking against glasses. In the end, it should all look seamless and not all choreographed, but it often takes some good choreography to pull off that kind of spontaneous appearance.

Seamstress / Medic / Makeup Artist -- Sounds like a tough job description for one person, but you’re going to want a Jack- (or more likely Jill) of-all-trades standing by to help in the event of an emergency. And by emergency, we don’t mean flood or fire, but a real emergency, like a blister, torn hem or mascara meltdown. Many people will advise you to put together an emergency kit of Band-Aids, sewing supplies, scissors, tissues, pain killers, breath mints, make-up fixer-uppers and other supplies you might need in case of any snags. But having someone in charge of your emergency kit prevents it from being misplaced and ensures you’ll always have someone there to help tape, sew or clean you up, as necessary. Better yet, if she can find and check in with you every hour or so, you’ll never have to worry about the condition of your lipstick.

Here’s the thing: you might feel bad about asking people to perform these tasks for you, but the truth is that they’ll be honored to be asked. Throughout your engagement friends and family will be asking what they can do for you, and most often your answer will be “nothing.” Giving loved ones your trust and a little bit of dependency makes them feel needed and part of the whole proceeding. Just be sure to send them home with some of the flowers or a small gift and to offer to return the favor, if there’s opportunity.