A wedding day in the life of a wedding planner (part 1 of 4)

Well, this wedding planner at least. I thought it would be fun to walk through what the 24 hours before a wedding looks like from my perspective. Because I went to a blogging workshop last week (Liene Stevens of Splendid Communications ROCKS!) and found out that my blog posts are way too long, I’m going to break it down into a series of blog posts.

It starts with the rehearsal. The rehearsal is, surprisingly, my LEAST favorite wedding activity. I have more butterflies in my stomach about the rehearsal than I do on the wedding day. It's the first time everyone in the bridal party meets me and if I lose authority for one second, forget to place the flower girl, or call someone the wrong name I feel like I've blown it. I arrive with the ceremony format written down and a "script" to help keep me on track. Before everyone arrives, I meet with the bride and groom and gather all of the personal items (escort cards, Kiddush cups, etc) and tie up any loose ends we might have. Rehearsal usually goes smoothly and I send everyone to the rehearsal dinner and head home.

I go home, update all of the paperwork with the changes that the bride and groom made, make notes for set up, print out paperwork for myself and my assistants, pull out my emergency kit, pack my wedding day bag, lay out my clothes, and try to be in bed by 11:00 PM. I sleep until 8:00 or 9:00 AM. I keep my cell phone in another room on silent because I have to get 8 or 9 hours of sleep to be able to handle what's going to come at me the next day. If anyone calls before I’m awake, they just have to wait for me to call them back, but once I’m up I keep my phone glued to me.
I have a pre-game ritual of the same breakfast with my husband at Hugos in Studio City. He teases me for eating the SAME thing every time, but it’s the perfect mix of carbs, protein, and calories to keep me going until I get to eat next (usually at a vendor meal that night). In the restaurant I have the binder for the inevitable vendor phone calls with miscellaneous questions.